Greeve has had its own trading stable in Veeningen for ten years now. There are now 19 competition horses in the stable. “From about four or five years old to the higher level. Some are owners, sometimes I am half owner and there are also horses in training purely for sale.”
And great ambitions in sport always go hand in hand with running a trading stable. The chimney has to smoke, and so horses that do well in the sport have to be sold again at some point.
“You can never maintain a trading stable with the prize money from jumping. So you have to sell horses again and again. And of course it is always the good horses that people want,” explains Heins. “It is always a challenge to keep a horse for a long time and to bring it to a higher level. But in the end they are used to selling and will therefore leave again,” adds Greeve.
The 40-year-old rider from Veeningen has also had Watermill Art SFN at his disposal since April. A horse that was made available to him by the Jumping Horses Fund Netherlands. The aim of the fund is to keep young talented show jumpers for the sport in the Netherlands. They are bought by a group of top traders and assigned to top riders.
“Watermill is a horse with a lot of potential for the future”, Greeve explains. “No, I don’t see it as a ‘burden’ that everyone is looking over my shoulder. I always try to do my best with all the horses I have in the stable. Whether it’s for owners or for m I’m going to get his own horses. It’s just a nice boost because the intention is that the horse will stay here longer and the goal is really to ride big championships.”
Despite the fact that he has already experienced many beautiful moments in his career, Greeve still has a few dreams in equestrian sport.
“The Olympic Games are a very high dream and so is the CSIO in Aachen. Aachen is the largest competition in the world. It is so beautiful with a large audience and ambiance and all the trimmings”, concludes the show jumping rider from Veeningen.