Hans Peter Minderhoud Makes Final Ride on Taminiau a Winning One

Dressage

The Netherlands

The 2025 CDIO Rotterdam turned out to be Hans Peter Minderhoud's final competition ride on a Glock owned horse.

Swan Song

Aboard the 10-year old Hanoverian Taminiau (by Toto Jr x Sandro Hit) the pair delivered their swan song in the Kur to Music in Rotterdam on Saturday 21 June 2025. They won the class with 81.905%.

"It wasn't easy emotionally, but I really wanted to end it well," Minderhoud stated at the press conference in Rotterdam. "Taminiau was a bit tense when he warmed up, but he did great in the ring. We didn't have any mistakes. He was a bit nervous in the first two piaffes. Furthermore, the trot and canter tour were really good. Taminiau is also just a great horse. It's his first victory in the freestyle and in front of such an enthusiastic audience. The farewell couldn't have been better. My emotions are still going in all directions now, but I'm especially very happy.”

14 Years of Glock

In february 2012 the late gun mogul Gaston Glock signed a 10-year old sponsorship contract with the Dutch dressage trio Hans Peter Minderhoud, Edward Gal and Nicole Werner.

Glock supplied the trio with an endless string of very expensively bought young horses, built a state of the art barn for them in Oosterbeek, and ended up extending the contract until 2025. Horses.nl carried out an investigation and reported that between 2014 and 2019 Glock invested over 380 million euro into horse sport (dressage as well as show jumping).

Gaston Glock passed away on 27 December 2023 and his widow Kathrin Glock (née Tschikof) announced in November 2024 that the sponsorship ended on 31 December 2024.

The trio had signed a non-disclosure agreement and were not allowed to talk about the ending of the contract but they reportedly filed an injunction and won in court which meant the horses could stay with them until the end of June 2025.

Edward Gal took a two-year sabbatical from sport in 2022 and briefly returned for the Olympic year but quit showing since the summer of 2024. Minderhoud continued this year with his three remaining Glock horses - Taminiau, Toto Jr and Massimo. These horses will now move to Austria as their sponsorship agreement has come to an end at the end of June 2025.

"It's difficult of course. We've been working so long with these horses," Minderhoud told NOS. "And of course I wanted to continue with them. They decided not to sell the horses but to bring them home, so that's where it ends. I still hoped something would change and that I would keep two horses but that's not the case."

Minderhoud's Fire Still Burning

While Gal's future as a competition rider is uncertain, Hans Peter Minderhoud has publicly expressed that his fire is still burning.

In Rotterdam he made his long awaited come back at small tour level with his 2023 World Young horse Champion My Toto, owned by the Both family. The horse has been sidelined due to an injury but now returned full form to win the national Prix St Georges with 71.323%.

"The moment they live will be hard, but you also have to carry on," said Hans Peter. "I think it'll take it easy this summer and then I'll try to get everything back on track."

"I have two very good 8-year old horses and I hope something new will come on my way," he added.