Kassander van 't Roosakker Z makes his mark at the Belgian 8-year-olds Championships

At the Meynaerts family in Opglabbeek's Sentower Park last weekend, one could not only enjoy an international two-star competition, it was also once again the setting for the Belgian Championship for 8-year-old horses. It was a great triumph for the blood of our Zangersheide stallions, with an entire podium taken by their offspring!

There were fifty-seven of them starting on Thursday at this Belgian Championship for 8-year-old horses, and of these, twenty-one ensured a flawless round on both Thursday and Friday. They competed against each other on Sunday afternoon to decide who would win the new Belgian title. For this final, course designer Bart Hendrix and his team had mapped out a course consisting of twelve obstacles with fifteen jumps and a height of 1.45m. The level was once again high, as no fewer than nine of the twenty-one finalists managed to finish the first round successfully. In that decisive jump-off, it was finally the Belgian rider Alexander Housen who managed to claim victory with the chestnut stallion Reflex van 't Roosakker, a son of our chestnut stallion Kassander van 't Roosakker Z and Vigo d'Arsouilles who, as his name suggests, was bred by Marc Kluskens. Housen and Reflex van 't Roosakker reappeared in the ring as the second combination and with a masterful round in 31.50 seconds they crowned themselves the new Belgian Champions!

But the silver also went to an offspring of Kassander van 't Roosakker Z and again it was Alexander Housen in the saddle. Together with the stallion King Of Panama Hero Z (Kassander van 't Roosakker Z x Darco), owned by breeder Luc Henry, Housen made an ultimate attempt as the last starter, but with a time of 31.50 seconds he was more than half a second short of surpassing his other finishing time.

Finally, bronze went to rider Emilie Evrard and the mare Less Is More Chavannaise, a breeding product of Yves Evrard who combined the blood of our stallions Asca Z and Jenson van 't Meulenhof Z. Evrard and Less Is More Chavannaise clocked off in 32.58 seconds, also taking their place on the podium.