Dinja van Liere Has Final Ride on Hermes in 2025 European Championship Kur to Music

Dressage

The Netherlands

Dutch Olympian Dinja van Liere has announced that the Kur to Music at the 2025 European Dressage Championships was her final competition ride on her career making horse, Hermes. She announced this in the FEI TV interview after her freestyle in Crozet.

Hermes is a 13-year old KWPN stallion Hermes by Easy Game out of Bukkie (by Flemmingh x Jazz). He is bred by G. Gijsbers in Loosbroek, The Netherlands.

Dutch Team Anchor

Dinja van Liere and Hermes have been a Dutch Grand Prix team anchor from 2022 through 2025.

At the 2018 World Young Horse Championships

Van Liere has been riding Hermes for owner Joop van Uytert since he was a youngster and they first came into the spotlight at the 2018 World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo, where they won bronze in the 6-year old division. A year later at the 2019 World Championships they had to retire in the 7-year old consolation class. Hermes' sensitive temperament would stamp his name: on the one hand it gave him the fuel to be a winner, but also was a hurdle in his career.

They made their international small tour debut in February 2020 at the CDI Lier and rode their first international Grand Prix at the CDI Hagen in April 2021. They were nominated on the Dutch Olympic team, but in the end couldn't go because of an FEI ownership registration issue. Instead, the pair won the CDIO Aachen Grand Prix in September 2021.

Hermes' highlight year was in 2022: he won the Dutch Championships and claimed double bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Herning. The NOP foundation signed Hermes for its programme and he was not allowed to be sold until Paris. Van Uytert had sold a co-ownership to Dutch horse investor Jan Anker.

As of 2023 niggling injuries started to interrupt the stallion's career. They qualified for the 2023 World Cup Finals in Omaha, but had to withdraw from the Grand Prix. They missed out on the 2023 Europeans in Riesenbeck after having to withdraw from the team observation trial in Aachen.

The pair returned to the CDI ring at the 2024 CDI Aachen Festival " Dressage and proved form at the CDIO Rotterdam after winning the Grand Prix and Kur. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris they were fourth individually in the Kur finals. After Paris, Hermes lost his NOP status as the owners were considering selling the stallion, but no sale happened. Van Liere continued to compete her "Hermie" and finished the year by riding Stockholm and the World Cup qualifier in Mechelen.

Hermes re-injured himself at the start of 2025 and only made his come back to the arena at the Dutch Championships in July, which he won. He was nominated on the Dutch team for the 2025 Europeans in Crozet, where he was fourth in the Grand Prix (76.941%), eighth in the Special (75.486%) and thirteenth in the Kur to Music (77.782%).

Final Ride

An emotional Van Liere revealed in the interview following her Kur that this was her last competition on Hermes.

"This was my final ride here in the competition, so I'm of course I'm a bit sad," said Van Liere. "He will still have a nice future ahead so that's nice."

In a press release posted by the Dutch Equestrian Federation after the freestyle, Van Liere said, "I took a risk today, and unfortunately, it didn't work out well in the canter, but I would have been even more disappointed if we had ridden a mediocre test in our last competition. “I would have liked to ride a better test today. He showed a beautiful and harmonious performance earlier this week, but we just couldn't quite keep up then. I wanted to push it a bit more now, but he got a bit too sharp in the canter, which unfortunately led to a few mistakes. On the other hand, sometimes you have to take a risk, and it can happen that it doesn't quite work out."

When asked what she considers their career highlights together, Dinja replied "Of course Paris, we did everything for Paris.. and the World Championship in Herning."

Van Liere couldn't disclose much about Hermes' future. "Joop wants to keep his plans a secret for now. I can't say anything about that either. The only thing I can say is that he's not supposed to retire. Our goal together has always been Paris. We made it, and it was fantastic. I had a wonderful time with him. I've been riding him since he was three and have clearly built a bond with him. He's a character, and that bit of fighting spirit of his has taken us far. Our careers have had their ups and downs, but you can see he really understands the game now. Otherwise, you can't compete at the European Championships in your second competition of the season. It's been great to retire now while he's still incredibly fit and in top form!"