By ILSE SCHWARZ
VERDEN, Germany, Aug. 9, 2026–The Danish stallion Faustino G. (Blue Hors Farrell x Sezuan 2) piloted sympathetically and masterfully by Betina Jaeger became World Champion Six year old today. He received a total score of 91.000% with the highest scores of any horse today for trot, 9.7, and perspective, 9.5. We saw today, the polished version of the extraordinary creature we had already seen in the preliminary final. His trot was elastic and light footed showing engagement, swing through his entire body and extreme adjustibility. You can literally see him lift himself in the extensions, looking like the moment a plane takes off. It is effortless and powerful. How Betina isn’t grinning with delight the entire time I have no idea! Maybe she is internally. His half passes also had lovely bend and good crossing. Everything simply looked easy.
His walk was relaxed with good ground cover, good overtrack and an unshakeable rhythmn. He showed the ability to collect going into the walk pirouettes and was then able to go straight into an active uphill canter that showed the very clear ability to carry weight behind. Again it was always uphill, three lovely changes and one with a kick out. That was the only negative the judges could find for his submission score (8.8).
Faustino G.’s breeder and owner, Helene Geervliet was at the press conference. She was trying very hard not to be emotional, this was not her first world Champion. She also bred Quinn, previous winner of the six and seven year old championships. She also bred Daan G. the record winner of the Danish stallion performance test in 2025. Faustino G.is special though, as he is 4th generation breeding from her first mare and first stallion. She breeds a maximum of 5-6 mares a year. So a very small European breeder with incredible success.
Faustino also had a rather unusual lead up into these chmpionships with 9 days off as Betina’s daughter was competing as a Junior at the European Championships. Betina rode Faustino on Monday after her assistant kept him moving around. It certainly seems to be a successful program!!
Vice Champion Six year old was the Danish bred mare Dizzy (Hesselhøj Donkey Boy,xBlue Hors Zack) ridden by Merita Hagren with a total score of 88.200%. The gait that absolutely captures me is this mare’s walk. It moves through every pore of her body. It is active but relaxed. There is so much freedom in the shoulder, so much ground cover but so, so stable in the rhythm. And it is no surprise she received a 9.5. The work was so harmonious through the test with so few negatives, the perspective was 9.0
The judges commented that her trot was presented in such a natural way (8.5). She maintains activity in all the different tempi’s. Shows great adjustibilty through the extension and then the collection. She is beautifully uphll in the canter. Maybe loses a touch of that carriage in the extended and medium canters but it is so minor. Merita said at the press conference that she is the best version of a chestnut mare. She is a “yes girl”, who wants to hold your hand and ask “What are we doing now?” Merita also commented that she has “the amazing huge Donkey Boy walk and trots so expressively from nature”
Keeping the podium finish the same as the preliminary class, Beatrice Arturi and the Hannoverian stallion Sir Gribaldi (Secret x All Inclusive) finished third. He showed a relaxed, well presented, consistently steady test. The frame was beautiful throughout, his trot expressive and uphill with good ground cover in the extensions. The judges wanted to see a little more cadence in his collected trot…so here is that fine line between showing the natural gaits but developing them in a way that improves them. Regardless, he received a 8.2 for trot. His canter was nicely closed from behind, showing so much ability to sit and extend. Really good separation in the hind legs and four glorious uphill, expressive, soft and straight changes were a large part of an 8.7 score for submission and perspective.
Beatrice moved from Italy four years ago to start working at Gestut Sprehe. She was very very complimentary on how they have taken a chance with her and just provided so much education and training. She is 24yo.
The head of the ground Jury, Knut Danzberg, said that judging a finals class at World Championships is like being a kid in a candy store, you just love them all. He also pointed out the increased difficulty of the finals class compared to the preliminary class. You now have four flying changes, so if there is a problem in one direction is it becomes obvious. Also, they need to see some strides of collected walk before the walk pirouettes. They is no collected walk in the preliminary test. He concluded that it is highly unusual to see the exact same podium lineup.
