Kantella Van 't Merelsnest Z provides gold in Eindhoven

In Germany last weekend there was the Deutsches Spring- und Dressur-Derby in Hamburg, but also on Dutch soil they could get ready for an international competition on an iconic grass track. Indeed, a new edition of the beautiful CSI Eindhoven took place at the Karpendonkse Plas in Eindhoven. Many Z-horses also entered the ring and managed to achieve some nice and striking results.

The most eye-catching Z-name in Eindhoven was that of the mare Kantella Van 't Merelsnest Z, a 9-year-old daughter of Kannan and Plot Blue who was born in the Van Bunder van Stud Merelsnest family. Kantella Van 't Merelsnest Z has been a combination with Brazilian rider Stephanie Macieira since August last year, and after jumping some great results together over the past few months, their first major victory followed last weekend. They achieved that on Friday evening, where they were the overall winners in the 1.50m Grand Prix qualifier. In a jump-off for which ten combinations managed to qualify, they raced to the finish in 34.74 seconds, outclassing the competition by ten hundredths of a second.

Stephanie Macieira: "She is a young horse and only her third time ever jumping 1.50 metres. I am very proud of her and didn't expect this at all! She has never done all this before and she just does it for a while at the age of nine. It was actually not at all my intention to jump the 1.50m class today with Kantella. But Kantella did so well in the lower class yesterday that I spontaneously started her in this class. I thought, let's be adventurous. And look how it turned out, she just wins!"

On Saturday afternoon in Eindhoven, it was traditionally looking forward to the famous Derby and there was blue/yellow success in that too this year. For that, Dutch rider Pim Mulder and the also 9-year-old stallion Diamond Z, a son of Diamant de Semilly and Q.Breitling La Silla from the breeding farm of Freek Hoogenboom. Mulder and Diamond Z were one of five combinations to clear the round by course designer Rafael Suarez and his team, qualifying for a decisive jump-off. In that they managed to go clear again and with a finishing time of 45.95 seconds they secured ^3rd place.

Also on Saturday, there was also success for the blood of our stallion Akarad Hero Z thanks to American rider Mimi Gochman and the 10-year-old gelding Lumiere BH (Akarad Hero Z x Darco - breeder: R. Kappert). Gochman and Lumiere BH appeared at the start of the 1.40m class in the morning, where they also took ^3rd place after a clear^2nd phase.

Finally, Dutch rider Bart Lips had another successful weekend with the 11-year-old gelding Ding Dong van Overis Z (Diamant de Semilly x Chellano Z - breeder: Studfarm Overis). They immediately jumped into prizes during the opening day on Thursday with a ^6th place in the 1.50m class, while on Saturday they achieved another ^6th place in the 1.40m class.