Two Danish Warmblood Full Sisters by Embryo Transfer Make History Taking World 5YO Championship Gold & Silver

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

VERDEN, Germany, Aug. 8–Two Danish Warmblood mares that are full sisters out of embryo transfers made history when the pair won gold and silver at the World Young Horse Championships for five-year-olds Saturday.

Fiontini ridden by Spain’s Severo Jurado took gold while Fiontina ridden by Andreas Helgstrand was awarded silver.

The mares by Fassbinder out of a Blue Hors Romanov mare then the embryos transferred to separate recipient mares to take to term scored 9.18 and 9.02, respectively. Both are trained at Andreas Helgstrand’s Danish stables.

Rookie championship rider Vera Nass of Germany, who celebrated her 28th birthday at the start of this show three days ago, took the bronze on Hanoverian stallion Quartensprung (Quando-Quando x Donnerhall) with a score of 8.96 with scores of 9.1 or 9 for the three gaits.

She began riding the stallion a year ago and had no expectations of making it to the the medals podium of a world championship.

The story of the full sisters created so much buzz that to many spectators the result seemed pre-ordained especially as this was the end of a 16-year of world championships at these show grounds. Ermelo in the Netherlands will host them next year.

In the qualifying competition, Fiontini and Severo, who is a rider for Andreas in Denmark, won with a score of 9.48 including a 10 for trot. But Fiontina that Andreas owns along with the breeders, placed eighth on 8.86.

Fiontini had also been ridden by Charlotte Dujardin, Great Britain’s double Olympic gold medalist, at the Danish stallion selection trials in March and had declared she would award the horse “11… or 100” and wanted to take her home.

In Saturday’s final of the top 15 horses and riders that drew huge crowds to pack two large VIP tents and a hill beside the arena, Fiontini scored 9.8 for trot, 9.1 for canter, 9.6 for rideability and 9.4 for general impression but 8 for the walk.

The ride came after Fiontina’s test that was awarded 9.3 for the walk, 9.2 for trot and canter, 8.5 for submission and 8.9 for general impression.

And Severo had to overcome the reaction to Franklin, the KWPN stallion that he rode in the championship class. The judges sharply criticized what they described as “manufactured” gaits of the horse and placed the pair second last with a 9 for trot, 7.2 for walk, 8 for canter, 7.4 submission, 8 for general impression for a total of 7.92.

Scores had been so high in the qualifier for many combinations and with the highly placed KWPN stallions Five Star ridden by Dutch young horse star Kirsten Brouwer and Four Legends ridden by Marieke van der Putten still to come, a battle for the medals was anticipated.

However,  Five Star placed fifth in the final on 8.72 while Four Legends was sixth on 8.6.

For Severo, the championship was “the biggest event of my life.”

Although there was a lot of pressure having won the qualifier, by the middle of the test “I felt this is going to be good.”

Andreas joked that he and Severo had swapped rides on the two sisters from the first competitions, and that the team spirit at the stables created a lot of laughter about who was the best and motivated the riders.

Susanne Baarup, president of the ground jury admitted that being Danish she enjoyed the success of the Danish horses, but pointed out the other three members were from different nations.

The judges, she said, encountered “an extraordinary group of quality horses that produced amazing sport presented in really high and correct way.

“We gave a lot of high marks in first qualifier and today was not so high. We think this test is more difficult with more collection and a different atmosphere with more spectators. They were all quality horses. We are sure we got three right ones.”

The six-year-old final is scheduled for Sunday.

Correction: The event was the 5YO world championships, not the 6YO championships as headlined in a previous version.

Results:

World Young Horse Champions for five-year-olds