Belgian Olympian Jorinde Verwimp has two new irons in the fire to secure the succession of her only Grand Prix horse, the 16-year old Dutch warmblood Tiamo. Verwimp bought both Cape Town and Cardento around one month ago.
Cape Town is a massive, 1.87 m standing 9-year old Rhinelander gelding by Conteur out of Cellest (by Calambo x Mytens xx x Ahorn Z). He is bred by German Grand Prix rider Alexandra Simons-de Ridder and owned by her daughter Jill de Ridder. The horse only competed once in his career in an A-level dressage test under Christina Pantzar at a local show in Heinsberg in June 2013.
"Ton de Ridder called up staying that he had a very tall horse in his barn which could be something for me," Verwimp told Eurodressage. "We went to try him out and I was sold immediately. He reminded me a lot of a young Timmie, even though Cape is easier. Initially we hadn't really planned on buying a new horse, but due to the sudden passing of Dayano, which I also owned, I had to look for something new."
Cape Town is small tour ready and Jorinde competed him in his first Prix St Georges at the practise show in Uden, The Netherlands, on Friday 18 November and scored over 70%.
"If that goes well, I'll ride him a few times at national Prix St Georges level and then hopefully next summer small tour. The plan is to ride him Grand Prix or Under 25 by the end of 2017," she eplained.
Verwimp has also acquired the ride on the 9-year old Dutch warmblood gelding Cardento (by Painted Black x Zebulon x Oran) who has been trained at M-level. He was previously owned and ridden by Dutch Maaike Opheij. Jorinde discovered him on an online sales site.
"I tried him out and felt the click straight away," she said. "Cardento didn't really know much, but is a quick learner and shows incredible talent for piaffe-passage. He's now junior level ready. I'll take it easy with him because he has to come from far and picks up everything so easily that we don't want to push him. I hope to ride him at small tour level next summer."
Last weekend Verwimp won the silver medal at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix Championships with her Olympic ride Tiamo. Cape Town and Cardento should secure a smooth succession.
"I hope that one of them at least will be a successor for Timmie, but I'm giving both of them time, because I still have two years (on Tiamo) so there is no haste," said Verwimp.
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