Why
go Dutch?
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 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.
Judgement
ISF's win in the Nexen Cup Derby was his third consecutive time winning
this prestigious event. Judgement ISF's rider, Beezie Madden, is
legendary in her performance in the Derby, being the only rider in the
history of the event to master the course without incurring a fault.
Beezie has won the Derby in four of the past six years including the three
consecutive wins on Judgement ISF (2006, 2007 and 2008). With
twice the number of jumps (24, including
the grueling Devil's Dyke and the world's highest grass bank with its 26
foot vertical drop) as a traditional Grand Prix and a length of
more than a kilometer, the
Derby
is considered by many to be the decathlon of the show jumping world,
testing the endurance, speed and skill of all horse-rider. Judgement
ISF is the sire of Heads Up Farm's 2008 colt Devonnis HUF and a 1/2
brother to Heads Up Farm's other 2008 colt, Dyami HUF.
