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Dutch Warmbloods dominate Show Jumping at the 2008 Olympics

At the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, all three individual Show Jumping medalists and four of the top five placings went to competitors mounted on Dutch Warmbloods.  The Gold medal when to Canadian Eric Lamaze riding Hickstead, the Silver medal went to Sweden's Rolf-Goren Bengtsson riding Ninja and the Bronze medal was awarded to American Beezie Madden riding Authentic.  In addition, Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa placed fifth riding Rufus.

In the Team competition, the United States won the Gold medal with two of their four riders on Dutch Warmbloods - Laura Kraut on Cedric and Beezie Madden on Authentic.  Likewise, the Silver medal team, Canada, also had two of their four competitors on Dutch Warmbloods - Hickstead ridden by Eric Lamaze and Ole ridden by Mac Cone. Four of the eight horse on these two teams were Dutch!!

Congratulations on an outstanding performance!!       

While Dutch Warmbloods weren't as successful in the Dressage arena, they still had a very respectable showing - Hans Peter Minderhoud of the Netherlands aboard Nadine was a member of the Dutch Silver medal team and earned an individual fifth place.

The United States Dressage team just missed a team medal, placing fourth with two of the three members riding Dutch Warmblood horses - Courtney King aboard Mythilus and Steffen Petters on Ravel.  Steffen and Ravel also placed fourth in individual Dressage.

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Over the past few years on average one-fifth of the horses starting in any European Championships (senior and young riders) or other international dressage and show jumping competitions at Grand Prix level have KWPN papers and for several years the KWPN has claimed a place in the top-3 of the WBFSH Breeding Rankings, both in dressage and jumping.

Examples of top KWPN dressage competitors include  Krack C with Anky van Grunsven, Lingh with Edward Gal, the approved stallion Idocus ridden by Marlies van Baalen who competed at the Olympic Games, Leslie Reid’s Mark, Ashley Holzer’s Imperioso, Per Sandgaards Zancor and Tinne Vilhelmson’s Just Mickey,  Olympic Ferro with Coby van Baalen, Broere Jazz with Tineke Bartels and Cocktail with Anky van Grunsven.

KWPN ambassadors in the show jumping ring are Tinka’s Boy with Markus Fuchs and Olympic Champion V&L de Sjiem with Jeroen Dubbeldam. American rider Beezie Madden does good business with Judgement and Authentic. And what about Gert Jan Bruggink’s Joel, Marius Claudius ridden by Robert Smith, Audi’s Jikke with Erik van der Vleuten.

At the 2004 Olympic games in Athens no less then 13 KWPN horses placed for the individual jumping finals including Royal Kaliber with Chris Kappler taking the gold and Marco Kutscher’s Montender finishing in fourth place.

A recent example of the success of Dutch Warmbloods from the June 2008 competition at Spruce Meadows reflects the following:

In the $100,000 CN Performance Grand Prix, the top the finishers and four of the top five were Dutch Warmbloods, including Judgement ISF winning his second competition.  Judgement ISF's first win at Spruce Meadows in 2008 was in the $175,000 Nexen Cup Derby (formerly the Shell Cup Derby).  In addition to Judgement ISF's win in the Nexen Cup Derby, two other Dutch Warmbloods finished in the top 4.  In five competitions at Spruce Meadows in June 2008 Judgement had two first places, one second and one third, earning nearly $128,000.