Christa Larmoyeur's Aston Martin NL Sustains Career Ending Injury

Dressage

Dutch Dressage News

Dutch Grand Prix rider Christa Larmoyeur today announced that her number one Grand Prix horse has sustained a severe tendon injury in his stall, which after close veterinary inspection has ended his career as a sport horse.

Aston Martin NL is a 12-year old Dutch warmblood horse by Uphill out of Uronia (by Cabochon x Saros xx).

Larmoyeur trained and competed the tall chestnut gelding from young horse level to Grand Prix. At the beginning of Aston Martin's career he finished 7th at the 2009 Pavo Cup Finals and 11th at the 2010 Pavo Cup Finals. The pair represented the KWPN breed at the World Young Horse Championships in Verden in 2010 and 2011. They finished 5th in the consolation final both in 2010 as well as in 2011.

At the 2014 Dutch Indoor Championships they were 8th at small tour level. The horse moved up to Grand Prix level in 2015 but his show career abruptly came to a halt when the horse had to be operated on in October 2015. Aston Martin got a sharp object in its eye and lost it in the surgery. The horses needed several months to recover. They made their international come back at the 2016 CDI Le Mans last October. Their come back show was also their nternational Grand Prix debut and they placed second in the GP (69.640%) and fifth in the Kur (71.250%).

A tendon injury has now ended the horse's sport career. According to the FEI database Larmoyeur owns Aston Martin NL in partnership with stallion owner Gert Willem van Norel and her former husband Sjak Laarakkers, from whom she divorced in 2012.

"Today they will let me know if he can still have a pain free life in the field for the rest of his life," said a saddened Larmoyeur. "It would mean the world to me, so let's cross fingers. We've overcome so much already, the two of us, but we won't be able to overcome this."