Charlotte Dujardin has invested in a new youngster for her ever-growing list of rising talent to continue her career post-Valegro. At a clinic at El Campeon Farms in California, Dujardin spotted the 5-year old KWPN gelding Toretto and convinced the owner to sell it to her.
On 22 - 23 October 2016, Dujardin held a two-day clinic at El Campeon Farms in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the participating riders was Amelie Kovac on the 5-year old Dutch warmblood Toretto (by Apache out of Zenzi, by Tango x Fair Play). Dujardin's eye fell on the horse and after test riding him in the clinic, she was sold on the horse.
The 25-year old French-Croatian Amelie Kovac initially trained in Europe, first a year and a half with Adelinde Cornelissen in 2010-2011 and afterwards she worked with Emmelie Scholtens and Jeroen Witte a year and a half in 2011-2012. After her father died, Kovac needed a big change in life and moved to California to become an assistant at Jan Ebeling's yard at the end of 2012. Kovac was forced to sell her Grand Prix horse Treffer (by Niagara x Haarlem) for financial reasons in 2014 and Canadian Grand Prix rider Wendy Christoff purchased the talented dark bay gelding.
In 2014 Amelie bought Toretto, who is actually named Gio with the KWPN society and who is bred by H.J. de Jong from Arkelen, The Netherlands, as an unbroken 3-year old from Ad Valk after getting tipped by Scholtens. She renamed him Toretto after a character from her favourite movie The Fast and The Furious. The horse will now continue its career at Carl Hester's yard in Great Britain, where Dujardin is based.
"I was very flattered and very proud that someone like Charlotte loved the horse so much,” Kovac told Dressagedaily. “Even if it was not my plan to sell him that quick, it was a very special opportunity. They have huge grass pastures, the stalls are big, the footing is incredible, and the care is amaz-ing. And he’s going to have the best rider."
With the acquisition of Toretto, Dujardin now has eight horses fully owned by herself, plus she rides a large amount of horses for different owners.
Read more at Dressagedaily
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