Hesselhøj Donkey Boy is a kind of Danish "diamond", not just is he one of the very few Gold medal stallions for Danish Warmblood breeding, he is also showing himself together with Jan Møller Christensen as an outstanding horse for the sport, and his recent decription of his first foals does also just leaves words of praise for him as a breeding stallion.
Not without reason that everyone around Hesselhøj Donkey Boy are super happy and proud.
Looks like an easy stallion, focused on the task everytime Jan brings him into the arena, and still he looks like a sensitive boy, but he just looks so confident about the job he is doing together with Jan at the competitions. For the finals her was presented in a lovely frame, stabel steady contact in a closed frame, showing lots of suppleness for all 3 gaits. Only thing yet is that he can still be a bit wide behind for the extended trot. Super exciting future, and it really looks like top management from Jan Christensen, his wife and their team at Noagaard.
Therese Nilshagen just purchased her first horse ever at the recent Swedish elite foal auction, a colt by Hesselhøj Donkey Boy, and she was of course also excited about the great scoring for "daddy" at today´s Championships.
Placed no 2 Atterupgaard Botticelli and Severo Jurado Lopez. They made their 2nd start ever together today for the finals. And from yesterday till today already huge difference. This is gonna be very exciting. The way former rider Selina Solberg VIttinghus was riding the stallion, is clearly also the way Severo wants to continue his way with Botticelli. The balance and relaxation for the canter was much better today, eventhough he got a small error from the first counter canter. And watching the stallion together with the Spaniard at the price giving just say everything - both enjoying the spotlight in a relaxed way.
Andreas Helgstrand and the big stallion Ferrari showed great form today, but could have scored even higher with at bit more power for the walk in the program.
Today D´avie and Severo show a super test agan with a small error for the counter canter and some smaller tensions in the program. D´avie is a sensitive horse and still needs a lot of confidence in the arena. They ended up as no 4.
Other extra special horses from H2R point of view
- Højgaardens Santos - expression, balance and suppleness pure for the trot tour was for sure worth more than a 9,0 today. Smooth easy light riding from Kenneth Damgaard.
- Zippo M.I - again today with a lot of power - much more power than asked for, but Michala manage to keep things under control. Bit on the toes for the walk today, but a horse which really brings some extra.
Same judging teams for the finals is a MUST
Today´s worst marks was given to Marianne Helgstrand with Vamos Amigos. Yesterday for the qualifier they got 9,0 for the trot. Vamos Amigos is a very talented and powerful horse, and seen from the sideline it looks a bit like "less is more", and this part Marianne really tried and also succeeded for most part of their trot tour today, eventhough Vamos still shows a few ubalanced/hectic trot steps it was for sure not 1,8 lower than day 1 - it was actually much better than day 1!
Exactly this issue could have been eliminated, if the same judges have been in the seats for both the preliminary test and today´s final.
Exits
2 very unfortunate exits from today’s 5 yr old final - Chloe and Rikke Dupont retired as the mare never really settled in the arena today, and Francis and Eric Guardia Martinez steps outside the arena during their test and got eliminated.
See the entire results here.