Dutch FEI rider Philip van Ommen has resigned as stable rider for Dutch horse dealer Judy de Winter. The ride on the KWPN stallion Four Legends has been allocated to Under 25 rider Stephanie Kooijman, who will also take over Van Ommen's job.
The 6-year old KWPN licensed stallion Four Legends (by Wynton x Ferro), who was initially named Fellini KS, sold for 605,000 euro at the KWPN/Excellent Dressage Sales auction held at the 2016 World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo, where the stallion finished fourth under Marieke van der Putten in the 6-year old division.
Four Legends was acquired by the Taiwanese businessman Vincent Chen and Van Ommen was supposed to train the horse up to Grand Prix level. He competed him in the first qualifier for the 2016-2017 KWPN Stallion Competition last week and won the Z-level division with 82 points.
"Last week I decided to end my collaboration with Judy," Van Ommen told Eurodressage. "It was a very hard decision after four successful years. We had a very good collaboration, but it was time to change a few things. The next few weeks I'll be training my Grand Prix gorse Zurvan in all quietness and spend time with my friends and family. Judy and I still own a few horses together and they will stay at her yard to be sold. So our co-operation is not totally at its end and we still have a good contact."
Stephanie Kooijman was an assistant trainer at Tinke Bartels' yard for four years and left in January 2015. She has been renting boxes at Schalekamp's De Randhoeve first and then at Nieuw Ketenburg next in an effort to establish an independent business. Major financial issues in her family recently forced her to sell her top horse Winston. Kooijman now gets a break by being hired as the new head rider at De Winter's yard.
"I'm really super happy," Kooijman told Eurodressage. "I keep running my own business at Nieuw Keijtenburg and besides that I will go to Judy a few hours per day to ride the horses."
Kooijman has four horses as part of her own business: Dibert (by Vivaldi x Balzflug) and the 2-year old Johnny Walker Red in full ownership and Ironette (by Everdale x Florestan) and Gordon (by Johnson x Florestan) in shared ownership with the Grandia family.
Photos © Focussed - Astrid Appels
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