Page 191 - Puissance Euro 1

So what you are saying is that many five star events are growing to please their sponsors?Let us put it this way, the horse must not be the victim of these lucrative competitions. The welfare of the horse must always come first. Every rider in the whole world is looking for a top horse. If there is a large number of games at the highest level, that can be a trap. Riders want to ride and a horse isno machine. My biggest worry is that a rider wants to do too much and that way the horse cannot win anymore. So apart from team coach, at a technical level I am also manager and logistics planner. (laughs)Is there a need for more two or three star competitions?No, there are enough of those, and I want to point out their importance. The fact that top professionals can take their young horses to first division intercontinental games where they can participate in two and three star categories is very important for the training of those young horses.Tell us about your team?We came second in Rome in the intercontinental games. It’s true we had our world championship team at the start but Jeroen Dubbeldarm had a bad luck fault. Gerco Schröder did not ride Glock’s London N.O.P. but had to use another horse. Last year Jur Vrieling said goodbye to his champion horse VDL Bubalu – he earned his stripes and has retired back tothe stud farm – and managed to make a flying start with his new horse VDL Zirocco Blue N.O.P. But the week before Rome, we only came eighth in La Baule in France. You cannot usethe same riders in such a short timeframe, but luckily I havea broad base of riders and I enjoy seeing new combinationsat the start, and giving them a chance to grow. For La Baule I had planned to use five top combinations but Bart Bles’ horse was not fit, Frank Schuttert had a nasty fall with Winchester HS, Willem Greve’s Carambole N.O.P. grazed his knee, thefirst horse of Gert-Jan Bruggink had colic and Wout-Jan van der Schans broke his fingers when unloading the truck. In the face of so much adversity, winning was out of the question. But look, Rome made up for it. We will have to keep battling on in the next intercontinental games and that is what makes this sport such fun. Winning and losing, and our strength as Dutchmen is that we are very realistic in that.Can you explain the names of the horses to us?N.O.P. stands for Nederlands Olympisch Paard (Dutch Olympic Horse). Our federation, the KNHS, the NOC*NSF and our main sponsor Rabobank have put together a sponsorship of 1.2 m euro which we were able to use to contract horses for the 2016 Olympic Games. It is a great support to us because 2015 is the year in which countries with a big wallet start shopping. In the past we have lost quite a few horses like that. Thanks to our investors we have some peace now. We have concluded contracts with five NOP jumping horses and that is a nice feel- ing. It creates a bond with the owners because they receive some sort of recognition. They share the use of their horse with the country rather than for their own lucrative ends.There are also horses with the letters S.F.N.Like SFN Zenith N.O.P. The Springpaarden Fonds Nederland was established years ago by a group of people who ap- pointed selectors to buy young horses with the understand- ing that the owner would retain possession of one fifth of his horse. That gave us Eric van der Vleuten’s successful horse and Utascha SFN which with Jeroen Dubbeldam set the pace for years for the intercontinental games. Apart from selecting horses, we do a lot with Rabobank to scout and select talents whereby we give juniors all the support they need so that they have the backing to become big and strong later on. That is lots of work but very rewarding. Certainly if you can follow this as a coach from close by. I watched Maikel van der Vleuten and Gerco Schröder succeed in Caen last year, both of which were Rabo Talent of the Year, and to have seen them grow, and leave all the rest behind them, arriving at the top of excellence, that’s pure satisfaction!What is it that a good rider needs to have to get him to the very top?In a circle of 100% you need a number of percentages to be horse. You can be the best rider in the world but if you’re not189