Victorious Vancouver And A New Trophy For Young Horses

In this issue, you’ll learn about:

1. Vancouver de Lanlore’s latest resume addition.

2. The new and still rather ambiguous young horse initiative.

3. Your new weekend plans.

But first, here’s the trivia of the day:

Vancouver de Lanlore’s Latest Status Update

Pius Schwizer can breathe easy knowing that he didn’t disappoint Vancouver de Lanlore’s 4,764 Instagram followers.

In a spectacular performance in Montefalco, Italy, the pair emerged victoriously in the CSI4* Al Shira’aa Grand Prix to add to their impressive list of accomplishments.

You can watch his winning round here:

Video Source

Nevertheless, Vancouver de Lanlore seems to like his new Swiss partner as the pair recently finished sixth at the World Cup Finals in Omaha and achieved a third place finish in the FEI World Cup Grand Prix in Basel.

In fact, you can see him positively jumping for joy in this Instagram video of his victory lap in Omaha.

A Shiny New Trophy For The Best Young Horses

The five, six, seven, and eight year olds don’t have an excuse to stay home anymore while their more experienced friends travel to the Longines Tops International Arena in Valkenswaard.

The World Breeding Federation For Sport Horses (WBFSH) recently announced that it is launching the new WBFSH Global Champions Trophy which will bring together the best young horses to compete both individually and in teams at the Longines Tops International Arena at the end of September.

However, you’ll be wasting your postage stamps if you submit your entries today because they don’t really know how they’re going to select the best of the best.

Ralph van Venrooij, head of the KWPN breeding department says, “We are totally positive about this new concept. We will line up teams in each category… But don’t ask me how we are going to make the selection, it is still too early…”

He later commented that they’ll likely make the selection before mid-June as it needs to combine with the World Breeding Championship for Young Horses the week before.

Breeding Recommendations From VDL Stud

Wondering who to breed your mare to? We recently asked Wiebe Yde van de Lageweg of VDL stud who he would breed one of our subscriber’s mares to.

After looking at her videos and pedigree, he provided two stallion recommendations. Watch the video to learn what he had to say:

Coming Up This Week: What To Watch

If anyone asks if you’re free this weekend, you’re booked… unless they plan to bring popcorn and join you on the couch to watch one of these three major competitions.

Royal Windsor Horse Show

First up is the Royal Windsor Horse Show. The highlight of the event is the €500,000 Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday and the entry list features an array of decorated international champions including Scott Brash, Ben Maher, Daniel Bluman, Martin Fuchs, and Kent Farrington.

You can watch the show here.

Longines FEI Nations Cup

We saw the first leg of the North/Central and Caribbean League of the Longines FEI Nations Cup competition in Mexico City a few weeks ago, and now the second leg will begin in San Juan Capistrano this week.

The Americans currently hold the lead with 100 points followed by Mexico and then Canada.

McLain Ward, Lillie Keenan, and Laura Kraut are just a few of the big names competing for the United States. The competition starts today, and you can watch it live.

LGCT Madrid

The next phase of the Longines Global Champions Tour kicks off in Madrid this week with the Grand Prix on Sunday. Malin Baryard-Johnsson is currently at the top of the leaderboard for the LGCT and Risenbeck International hold the top spot on the GCL leaderboard.

Other News

Stars (Finally) Align For Explosion W and Ben Maher

Explosion W has been MIA since his last appearance in Aachen in July of 2022, and Ben Maher mentioned that he didn’t feel quite right at that final performance. After taking him home, Maher revealed that he had some bruising and decided to give him time off from competition to heal.

His plan was to bring Explosion W back in February of 2023… until Maher himself went MIA.

An untimely fall in February put him out of action and it was only a few weeks ago that Maher started riding again.

However, about two weeks ago Maher dropped a hint on Instagram that the dynamic duo was gearing up to make another appearance.

Fortunately, the stars finally aligned they burst back onto the showjumping scene last weekend with clear rounds in 1.40m and 1.50m classes at Sentower Park.

Did you guess his quirk?

Ben Maher was also the trivia winner of the week:

Dutch Celebrations In Mannheim

The first qualifier of the Longines EEF Series for the Central region took place this past weekend in Mannheim and it was the Dutch that captured the 100 point victory with three double clean rounds from their team of five.

Two pesky time faults cost the German team the win and they settled for second place while Spain added 80 points to their name by claiming the third position.

Farms We Love

If you decide to go to San Juan Capistrano this week to watch the next leg of the Nations Cup, you can add a stop to Rancho Santa Fe to check out this… farm? We might need to look up the definition of “farm” because it looks nothing like a rustic held-together-by-duct-tape image that comes to mind when we think of a farm.

In fact, the antique front entry windows are from a church in Belgium and custom designed stone work from Turkey.

That’s not to mention that it also comes with a Pickleball court and a greenhouse.

However, it does offer a magnificent eight stall barn, arena, and round pen/hot walker, so I guess it still qualifies as a farm.

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