Grandioso Comes Home for Retirement Ceremony at Global After 2 Olympics, World Games, 2 Europeans for Spain
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 22, 2017–Grandioso comes home this week for a retirement ceremony at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival’s Friday Night Stars after being ridden by Jose Daniel Martin Dockx in two Olympics, a World Games and two European Championships for Spain.
The Pura Raza Española stallion that American owner Kimberly Boyer had assigned the ride to Courtney King Dye in 2008 and was a step away from Grand Prix before the rider’s career-ending accident two years later will be retired to Hampton Green Farm in Fruitport, Michigan after a vacation in Florida. The horse was first competed at U.S. training level in 2004 then Patti Pierucci moved Grandioso through the levels to Small Tour in 2008.
Kim, a major supporter of American dressage and a partner in the group that owns the Global Dressage Festival that has revolutionized the sport in the Americas, waited a year after Courtney’s accident before giving the ride to “Dani” Dockx. He competed Grandioso in his first CDI Grand Prix in May 2011.
Over six years, Grandioso (Adelante x Sevillano IX) started 57 times at international Big Tour.
The Olympic Games in London in 2012 was their first championship.
The European Championships in Herning, Denmark came a year later.
The pair then were on Spain’s team at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy in 2014.
The 2015 Europeans in Aachen, Germany were vital to Spain earning a start at the Olympics.
Grandioso and Dani were on the team that succeeded in their mission and was also marked by two other memorable moments for Spain–the last competition for Painted Black ridden by Morgan Barbançon Mestre and a freestyle bronze medal for Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Delgado.
A tendon injury to Grandioso in early 2016 placed in doubt the stallion’s availability for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But Kim Boyer brought in some of the best medical help and by mid-year Grandioso was on the way to recovery and on Spain’s team at a second Olympics.
Now 18 years old, Grandioso will be celebrated during Global’s P.R.E. week with Dani riding a final freestyle before the traditional removal of the saddle to mark the end of a competition career by “this little horse,” that Kim says, “has changed my life forever in ways I can’t describe.”
