Danish Warmblood Breeding News

Van Grunsven and Helgstrand in "Pas de Deux" at 2008 Danish Stallion Licensing

February 6, 2008

This year at Herning, the best freestyle dressage rider in the world Anky van Grunsven and the world’s second best freestyle dressage rider Andreas Helgstrand will appear together in a ”Pas des Deux” with the two riders performing a synchronized free style dressage programme to music.

At the World Equestrian Games in dressage in 2006 Anky van Grunsven won gold in Grand Prix Freestyle and the Danish dressage rider Andreas Helgstrand took silver.

Danish Warmblood has invited the Dutch world star rider Anky van Grunsven to the Stallion Show in Herning on 13th-16th March to demonstrate to the public how a world champion in dressage works her horses in their daily training.

Clinic Friday night
During the evening performance on Friday 14 March, Anky and her stallion Painted Black will be reigning supreme in the big round hall in Herning. With Danish riders as her pupils she will demonstrate her systematic methods of training and in doing so will explain her personal training methods to the public. As a clinician she is renowned for the tremendous amount of applause and recognition she receives when in her charming and witty way, she reveals what this training involves.

As a grand finale Anky will be performing a specially developed ”Pas de Deux” with Danish top rider Andreas Helgstrand.

Danish Warmblood has created a tradition of inviting world famous riders and instructors to demonstrate a training clinic to the public at the stallion show in Herning. Last year Andreas Helgstrand played to full houses and thrilled the audience. Previously, rider celebrities like Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, Finland’s Kyra Kyrklund, Austria’s Arthur Kottas Heldernberg and Albert Voorn from the Netherlands have shared their methods of training with an enthralled audience.

Who is Anky van Grunsven?
The reigning queen of dressage is the 40 year old mother of two, Anky van Grunsven, who aged 23 won her first of 13 Dutch championships to date. At the age of 26 she won her first of two world championships so far and since then the highlights of her career include two individual Olympic gold medals in Sydney and Athens with the horses Bonfire and Salinero, eight World Cup victories and the three most recent Europeans.

Royal decorations, sports awards and further honours have followed in the wake of her international career. Since 1993 Anky has been Rider of the Year in Holland, in 1994 she achieved the title Sports Woman of the Year and in 2001 was nominated as Rider of the Century.

Anky’s riding equipment company ”ANKY ® Technical Casuals” has been successful world wide and her own involvement in the production range includes both design and PR. Anky is married to Sjef Janssen who is also her coach and trainer.

A multi event
Danish Warmblood’s 29th stallion show is now taking up every single exhibition hall of the trade centre in Herning making it the biggest equine event in Scandinavia, last year visited by 53,000 people. The programme also includes the world famous Gala Shows on both the Friday and Saturday evenings as well as three different world class special events which apart of Anky van Grunsven’s clinic are :

Thursday evening: The Devil’s Horsemen
In 2007 The Devil’s Horsemen played to fully packed houses in their first appearance at Herning. Their world class stunt show was so breathtaking that we just had to see them again. The Devil’s Horsemen are based in England where they train their 200 stunt horses to perform in films worldwide. In Herning they will show a selection of 20 horses performing in a variety of exciting roles.

Saturday evening: Jean-François Pignon
The incredible horseman Jean-François Pignon is now almost a regular at Herning where his magical performances are always received with the greatest applause. Pignon will show his own horses in freestyle dressage and he will also attempt to train an unschooled horse that is unknown to him. The busy Frenchman will also take part in both of the Gala Shows.

The Horse & Rider trade show and tack fair
The main event at Danish Warmblood’s stallion show is the selection of the 3 year old colts of which approximately one third will be granted permission to breed once they have passed a 10 days performance test immediately after the licensing.

Furthermore, Danish Warmblood will be holding an auction of 3 year old stallions and riding horses. During the course of the four days event 61 riding horses will compete at the young horse championship which is the finale for 5 year old Danish bred riding horses. Alongside these numerous sport and breeding activities there are, as always, the new products and special sale offers to be found in the 280 booths on the 20,000 square metres of trade stand space in the Horse & Rider trade show and tack fair.

Photos copyrighted: Ridehesten

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