Laurens van Lieren's Dutch Design Leased to Japan

Dressage

Japan

Laurens van Lieren's international Grand Prix horse Dutch Design has been leased to Japanase rider Yusuke Hasegawa.

Dutch Design is a 17-year old Dutch warmblood by Vivaldi out of Utopia (by Gribaldi x Tolbert). He is bred by G. Gijsbers

Dutch Design

Originally named Diederik, the black stallion has been trained to Grand Prix level by Laurens van Lieren.

The pair lightly competed at national level until 2017. The stallion was owned by Russians at the time but in 2019 Laurens van Lieren and Jan Pieter Dalsem bought the horse?

A three year break between 2017 and 2020 followed before Laurens and Dutch Design's return to the arena at national small tour level in Nieuw en St. Joosland.

They made a late debut in international dressage sport, premiering straight away at Grand Prix level in 2021 when the horse was 13 years old. The pair rode its first CDI in Exloo and posted 66.370% in the Grand Prix. They returned to the CDI ring two years later at the 2023 CDI-W 's Hertogenbosch and rode their "busiest" year that year with starts at the Aachen Festival, Exloo, Herning and Kronenberg as well as the Dutch Championships in which they finished 12th in the Kur.

In 2024 the pair rode three CDI's - in Doha, Tolbert and Compiegne. The latter was their last international. In 2025 they were 7th in the consolation Special at the Dutch Championships

Leased as Championship Hopeful

Hasegawa on Zingar Northstar at the 2020 CDI Lier

The Grand Prix horse has now been leased to Hasegawa as a 2026 World Championships hopeful.

Yusuke Hasegawa owns Effort Stable, north east of Tokyo, and has been competing at international Grand Prix level with horses Denksport, Ego Tripper Texel, Zingar Northside and Shara Edel since 2016. He also owns Lynne Maas' former GP horse Eastpoint.

Hasegawa confirmed to Eurodressage that with his string of horses his "main focus is to aim for the Asian Games and the World Equestrian Games." Hasegawa has spent time in The Netherlands training under Laurens to get to know Dutch Design. "I have already stayed for five weeks to train with Laurens," he said. "I will return to Japan once, then go back to the Netherlands in February. The next major event is a CDI3 to be held in Hungary in April."

The Japanese team selection trial for European based Japanese riders for the 2026 Asian Games (combined at small and big tour level) will be at the CDI-W Mariakalnok on 30 April - 3 May 2026.

"Both Dutch Design and I will do our best to be selected for the Japanese team for the Asian Games," he said. "Of course, we are also aiming for the WEG, but for now, let’s see how things develop."