FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses, Lanaken (BEL), 27-30 September

All combinations with double clears in the qualification rounds were selected for the final of the 5 year olds in the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championship for Young Horses. Contrary to the 6 and 7 year olds, there was no ranking of the 5 year olds in the second qualification. Time didn’t matter, just the two faultless rounds gave permission to compete in the final, tomorrow at the Zangersheide Stud in Lanaken, Belgium.

The fact that only 42 out of 195 5 year old horses managed to stay clear on Thursday and Friday shows that the courses were tough. Yesterday the youngest age group had to cope with a very long course, demanding carefulness and perseverance.

Once more, as in the 6 and 7 year old classes, the KWPN had the largest number of horses selected for the final. Not just the quality of the breeding strategy, but also other factors, such as the size of the studbook, number of foals born per year and export of horses play a part. Nevertheless, the numbers are impressive. With 17 KWPN horses in the final, Dutch breeding does a good job. At a distance, Oldenburg comes in second place (6 horse), followed by the small Studbook Zangersheide (5) and Holstein (4).