Endel Ots Dressage Welcomes 2021 with KWPN Imported Stallion, King’s Pleasure 

Endel Ots Dressage of Wellington, Florida, is starting 2021 announcing an enthusiastic new partnership with Heidi Humphries and welcoming to its program her purchase of KPWN-approved stallion, King’s Pleasure (Dark Pleasure x Johnson). 

Prior to the stallion’s arrival in the United States in mid-December, King’s Pleasure was among the delegation of horses selected by the Dutch Equestrian Federation and KWPN society to represent their breed at the postponed World Championships for Young Dressage Horses, having delivered a reserve finish, under Dinja van Liere at the Dutch team selection trial in October in Nunspeet, amid an entry list including the 2019 World Young Horse and 2020 Dutch Small Tour champions.

Photo: Endel Ots rings in 2021 aboard King’s Pleasure with owner Heidi Humphries (Joanna Jodko)

Van Liere has called King’s Pleasure a horse with “a lot of quality, a great mindset and really pleasant to work with,” and now, two-time U.S. Pan American Games dressage squad qualifier (2011, 2019) and two-time consecutive USEF Intermediaire I Dressage National Champion Endel Ots can call King’s Pleasure his next Grand Prix prospect.

Ots, who sold Heidi a “very sweet” Grand Prix horse a few years back, says she continued to enthusiastically follow his career, including the rocky rerouting of Pan American dreams in 2019 and the inspiring fresh chapter he was writing with Sonnenberg’s Everdance before the shutdowns.

Humphries purchased Kings Pleasure in Europe with high hopes for Ots and the horse in future international arenas. “Heidi decided she wanted to find a top talent for me to train. Covid-19 made looking at sales prospects difficult. We could only watch videos.”
“When we saw King’s Pleasure,” Ots said, “we loved him from the beginning.” From videos like this, https://youtu.be/JVpRt0VinOs, they could both see the horse’s charisma and athleticism.

“Heidi is exactly what our sport needs. Her enthusiasm, love of horses and tireless energy embody the support we need going into the New Year,” he continued. “It’s exciting to inspire someone like Heidi to step into the dressage pipeline at this level.”

They have a shared confidence in King’s Pleasure having the right stuff: In April 2019, he completed his Sport Test for approved stallions in Münster-Handorf, Germany, with scores of 8.3 (walk), 9.0 (trot) and 9.3 (canter) for an overall 8.8 in rideability and general impression. At four, his success under Femke de Laat (NL) in the Pavo Cup led to winning their final test, ranking third overall and earning 9.0 out of 10 for rideability from German judge and test rider, Philipp Hess. At the start of 2020, he stood at the German stables of Beatrice Buchwald-Hengsttstaion Hoffrange where, despite limited competition, he won (8.2) the FEI Five Year-Old Horse test and was selected for the final round of the Dutch World Cup team before Dinja van Liere (NL) took over for a pregnant Buchwald.

Now Ots gets keep King’s Pleasure riding forward. “I always look forward to Young Horse and World Breeding Championships as goals, but this is still a very new partnership. We are just getting to know each other. I am looking forward to sitting down with Heidi and mapping out our goals and a program for 2021.”

“During such times, I could not be more thankful to be riding and training all the talented horses that I have.”

Keep up with Endel as he and Kings Pleasure get acquainted EndelOtsDressage.com and learn more about sales, training and the development of international dressage prospects at Endel Ots Dressage in Wellington, FL.