The FEI World Championships for Young Horses, held from 24 to 27 September at Domain Zangersheide in Lanaken, offered more than 60,000 visitors a fairly complete picture of the present state of affairs in showjumping horse breeding.

In the finals for 5,6 and 7-yr-olds the KWPN was prominent, but the Sires of the World Championship was dominated by Zangersheide stallions and their rider Jos Lansink, who was first, second and third on Z-stallions.

The Open Benelux Foal Championship was a success for A. Dobber and J.W. Nijhuis, the respective owners of the Holstein champion filly and KWPN champion colt. At the Elite Auction a number of foals and 3-yr-olds changed hands at respectable prices. Held at the same time as the World Championships, the Studbook Zangersheide Stallion Selection produced nineteen newly licensed 3-yr-old and older stallions.

Although the Young Horses' World Championship were the stakes in the sportive battle between 35 studbooks all over the world, the event at Lanaken clearly demonstrated that top-class horses often have similar roots.

The major showjumping horse producing studbooks Holstein (Germany) and KWPN (the Netherlands) were represented at these world championships with 72 and 71 starters respectively, and the KWPN eventually claimed the best places. They were followed by the Selle Français with 62, BWP (Belgium) with 28 and SWS (Sweden) with 21 representatives. Complete starting lists, stating horse and studbook, are printed in the yellow pages of the program. In addition, the yellow pages also offered information about the ancestries of all the starters up to the fourth generation. A program that, by itself, already forms unique reference book!

With its slogan "Ready for the next Century" the KWPN launched a promotional offensive last year, to draw attention to its latest collection. At the time, not even its sharpest PR-man could have dreamt that this generation of youngsters would lay claim to two world titles and the largest number of prize-winners in the world championships finals.

Of the seventeen Dutch 5-yr-olds that went clear in the first round, eleven doubled their zero-scores before the jump-off, in which they would fill not only the best three but also four further placings in the top-10.

Traditional super-supplier for the KWPN, the Voltaire x Marco Polo son Concorde has this thing with Zangersheide. Going by the name of Olympic Concorde, he once won the Grand Prix there under Jos Lansink and has taken a liking to the place ever since. Already at the 1996 World Championships his offspring (and equally so the offspring of Double Espoir) were best represented in the finals (4). After a brief absence in 1997, Concorde was leading producer for the finals again with 3 of his offspring and this year he had 5 products going, all 5-yr-olds, including the champion Loncorde B. As a 2-yr-old Loncorde had been presented at the KWPN stallion selection by Arend Zoer, but his height of 1.61m put the officials off, and he was gelded afterwards. He has meanwhile grown to 1.67m and moved via Johan Lenssens yard to Belgium.

Quality is also the by-name of the Ferro x Zeus mare Lynn. The dark brown mare is owned by the Tops stables and she absolutely earned her bronze medal, ridden in style by Swedish national stables' rider Rolf Bengtsson. This breeding product of E. van der Gaast flowed in easy collection and relaxed manner through the course, displaying a balanced gallop and an excellent mentality over the fence, which makes her the promise of the future.

In the competition for the 6-yr-olds the Dutch studbook did not manage to claim all the places of the honorary platform, but with Kalypso (Calypso x Jasper) and Kapsones (Grannus x Joost) took the best two. Kalypso is almost the split image of his sire. Above the fence, however, he reveals the grabbing foreleg action of Jasper and his use of the back is rather uncommon. This is easily compensated by his groping harmonious gallop, powerful push-off and a super mentality, qualities that make a winner. Kalypso has been in Ireland for a while, where he covered some 40 mares and was trained for the sport. His breeder C.P.H. Moors and owner Gert Jan van Olst soon discovered his talents and gave him to Peter Bulthuis to ride him into third place at the Dutch championship for 5-yr-olds. After this, he moved to Zangersheide, where Henk van de Broek picked up the reins, with the present result. Even before he claimed his title, the stallion selection committee decided to license Kalypso for Studbook Zangersheide.

In order to jump the finals for the 7-yr-olds you really had to have something special under saddle, for course-builder Leopoldo Palacios had put a heavy course on the menu with a combination that was particularly hard to digest. This offered the other studbooks a chance to jump into the limelight with, for example, the champion Duc de St Martin SF (Mont Blanc x Pot d'Or xx) who had no problem at all tackling the lines or obstacles designed by Palacios. In addition, on the long straight tack to the upright, which caused downright disaster for many combinations, neither his cool nor that of his rider Olivier Gouillon was in any way affected. Gouillon, in fact, is a former Young Riders European Champion and the promise of the French national team.

Sires of the World
It was a truly deserved moment of joy for host Léon Melchior: Z-stallions claiming place one, two and three in the first competition of the new series Sires of the World for licensed 8-yr-old and older stallions. In the jump-off Jos Lansink smoothly guided 9-yr-old Nissan High Valley Z (KWPN, Ahorn x Conte), the horse on which he claimed the Dutch national title this summer, towards victory. Following in his own footsteps on the also 9-yr-old Nissan Zandor Z (Rheinl., Zeus x Polydor), he then could take the pressure off the 11-yr-old powerful jumper Nissan Calvaro Z (Holst., Caletto I x Capitol) to end up third. The only other combination in the jump-off, Philippe Rozier on 8-yr-old SF Barbarian (Quiniou x Fantastiste) had gone for the fastest time (which he did indeed put down) but had brought a fence down. The series will be jumped in Caen, Mechlin and Hanover during the winter season, with finals at Bordeaux (11-14 February 1999).

Open Benelux Foal Championships
On Thursday almost a hundred fillies were presented to the jury, followed on Friday by an equal number of colts. Fifteen fillies and fourteen colts qualified for the semi-finals. The colts were in general better developed than the fillies, but the leading group often contained high-blooded, great movers (particularly their canter) and model riding-horses from various bloodlines. Ruling supreme among the fillies was the Holstein registered Nadine (Corsico x Caretino), bred and owned by A. Dobber from Loene a/d Vecht, whereas her male counterpart, the KWPN registered Raphael (Espri x Voltaire) with breeder/owner J.W. Nijhuis from Dedemsvaart, received the champion's sash as well.

Studbook Zangersheide Stallion Selection

The annual stallion selection from Studbook Zangersheide produced seven 3-yr-olds, two 4-yr-olds, four 5-yr-olds and six 6-yr-olds or older newly licensed stallions. Walk and trot in hand and jumping under saddle were the selection criteria, besides the standard veterinary inspection. The 32-yr-olds had to show their potential jumping a simple line of fences under saddle, while their more experienced colleagues had to prove their skill in a basic course. The 5-, 6- and 7-yr-old prospective sires were entered in the world championships, in which the jury assessed them. One of these was Kalypso, who would become the 6-yr-old world champion.