2004 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses

Florencio's Discoverer is Frank van Dijck

July 12, 2004

Eugene Reesink discovered Florencio as a foal at Frank van Dijck's in Lier, Belgium. The late Frank Van Dijck, who tragically passed away in a car accident in 2000, has been dealing with Reesink for many years and was a good friend of Reesink. Van Dijck had a great eye for foals, discovering Florett, who finished third at the Bundeschampionate, World Champion Florencio, Imke Bartels' Lancet, who's now a Dutch A-team Grand Prix horse, and Whisper, who finished 2nd at the Bundeschampionate, became Dutch Fourth level champion under Minderhoud and recently has been sold to Australia.

"Frank had incredibly good horses ," Reesink said. Florencio's victory at the World Championships is a wonderful tribute to Van Dijck and his talent for finding great horses. "I bought Florencio from him. He was at the time an expensive foal, so I asked Henk Nijhoff to partner with me on this foal because I really liked him," Reesink explained.

Florencio has always looked very immature. When he was presented at the licensing and even when he finished second in his 30-day test after Belissimo, he continued to look immature. "It was only this last year that he grew a lot and matured," Reesink said.

A lot of effort has been put into Florencio's career. "We wanted to prepare him really well for the World Championships, so he had to be put in training with Minderhoud. That meant also that we had to take him away from the stallion station at the end of May. Everyday we collected his semen in The Netherlands at 4.30 AM so that it could be at Kathmann's by 8.30 AM. It's hard work to keep up this rhythm for two months," Reesink said. As we know, hard work pays off!

It was not difficult for Reesink to sell his new World Champion. Florencio was leased by Hengsthaltung Kathmann for a period of two years, which are over at the end of the 2004 breeding season. "When Robin Hood left, we had an empty stall in our barn, Florencio was always in Germany breeding, so I don't really had an emotional connection with this horse."

Florencio has five or six full brothers and sisters. "Number 2 is currently doing his 30-day test in Munster-Handorf, number 3 is with me in the field, number 4 is a mare, and Frank's father sold number five to a lady at his barn in Belgium. He still owns the dam," Reesink said.

Even though Florencio has partly been sold to Schockemohle, there won't be any drastic changes. "Hans Peter Minderhoud will continue riding him and Kathmann will still sell his semen," Reesink stated.

It'll be a flourishing year for Florencio...

Text and photo copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed!

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