Eighteen-year-old Hilde Veenstra from Drachtstercompagnie made her mark with two victories on the opening day of the international show jumping competitions during the IICH Groningen.
“I can’t complain, because I left my real star Gideon at home. He is now having some rest, I want to take him to Jumping Amsterdam and then to the Dutch championship at the end of April,” says Hilde Veenstra, who won the Dutch title among the juniors last year and is now switching to the Young Riders.
In the second competition of the day (1.20m), Veenstra triumphed with the now 19-year-old After Pleasure Toltien, while she finished fourth with L-Dora van de Zietfort. “I had a great time as a rider with After Pleasure and the mare is still in great shape, which is why I have decided that she can enjoy a well-deserved retirement after this competition. I don’t think I’ve ever driven home from a competition without winning bows. For example, I once finished second with her in the Children’s National Championships. I can now retire her because I currently have a dozen, mostly young, horses in my stable, on which I can fully express my energy as a rider.”
Not three in a row
Veenstra is referring, among other things, to the mare Daniella, with which she won the opening competition in the 1.30m class. Three in a row was not possible, because with Infinity she immediately knocked out a pole at the first obstacle in the 1.35m. “I have not had this horse in my stable for very long and it is occasionally restless with its head. As a result, the control is not yet as it should be, but together with my coach Nathalie van der Mei we are working hard on that,” says a proud Veenstra.
In Drachtstercompagnie ‘the little man’s racehorses’, namely racing pigeons, play an even greater role than horses. Yet Veenstra chose horses. “My mother was a fanatical rider and from the age of six I wanted nothing more than what my brother did and that was pony riding,” Veenstra explains. “I got my first horse when I was eleven and now I have a stable full, some of my own horses, some of them from owners.
Veenstra burns with ambition. Yet she is not only concerned with horses. “My parents thought it was good that I invested a lot of time and energy in the horses, but they also thought that a school education was important. I am now doing an MBO course in personal guidance in social care. If my equestrian career fails somewhere, I certainly have an alternative.”
Speed demon
In the 1.35m competition, which was held on time, the recognized speed devil Gerben Morsink from Beuningen was too fast for everyone with Colina Z. The duo put the British Sally Hopkinson with Fadograaf no less than one and a half seconds behind. Sytze van Dellen from Opende, who works half a day as a stable rider for Jur Vrieling, sent Kevin, bred by his grandfather, to third place.