Justin Verboomen's Djembe de Hus Sold to Switzerland

Dressage

Belgium

European dressage champion Justin Verboomen parted ways with his second Grand Prix ride, Djembe de Hus. The chestnut sold to a dressage rider in Switzerland.

Djembe de Hus is an 11-year old Oldenburg gelding by Damon Hill out of Elfe (by Argentinus x Fahnenträger II). He is bred by Xavier Marie with embryotransfer.

French Young Horse Champion

French Olympian Jessica Michel-Botton trained Djembe from young horse level to Grand Prix.

The pair became the French Young Horse Champions in 2019 and 2020, finished fourth in 2021. They represented France at the 2021 World Young Horse Championships in Verden, where they finished 12th in the 6-year old finals.

Djembe was sent to Germany to Marcus Hermes to help confirm the Grand Prix buttons on the horse during Jessica's pregnancy. He tried qualifying the gelding for the 2022 German WCYH team but didn’t make the cut. The horse was in Germany for 1.5 years and between June 2022 and February 2023 Hermes showed him in a three national tests: one S* level class and two S*** level classes, each time with scores well in the seventies.

Michel made her international show debut on Djembe at Grand Prix level in March 2024 at the CDI Ornago, followed by Aachen, Hagen, Exloo, Le Mans and Jardy. They were selected to represent France at the FEI Nations Cup in Falsterbo and conclude the year in Ermelo. The Olympic dream of Paris was alive, but scores were not high enough yet for team selection.

De Hus Clearance Sales

In 2024 Djembe's owner, French millionaire Xavier Marie, called his (dressage) horse project at Haras de Hus quits and sold his entire stock with a few exceptions in a clearance auction. Djembe was not auctioned.

With Michel at the 2024 CDI Aachen Festival

Instead Marie sent the chestnut to Belgium to get ridden by Alizee Froment in order to be sold. Froment never competed the horse and a sale didn't take place.

Justin Verboomen

In April 2025 Haras de Hus' manager Sébastien Jaulin arranged for Djembe to move to the Brussels based Justin Verboomen, who had just began his meteoric rise in the dressage world with Zonik Plus.

Verboomen and Djembe made their showdebut at the CDN Laakdal on 11 May 2025, where they rode a Grand Prix test hors concours scoring 72%. Their international show debut was at the CDI Troisdorf in October 2025 where they scored 73.107%. At the World Cup qualifier in Mechelen in December they posted 73.065% in the Grand Prix and 82.450% in the kur for two second places.

Their third and last CDI as a pair was in Neumunster last weekend, where he posted a whopping 76.826% in the Grand Prix for the win and 81.985% for a second place in the freestyle.

Switzerland

Verboomen was always very clear that his partnership on Djembe was temporary as the horse was to be sold.

Belgian horse dealer Dominique Mohimont matched a Swiss client to Djembe and the gelding has been sold to Switzerland to an amateur dressage lover who is not planning a future in high performance sport for the horse.

"The new owner tried out Djembe and rode him with a lot of feeling and heart, which is something Justin and I really liked," Mohimont told Eurodressage. "After winning the Grand Prix in Neumunster many more offers came in from famous horse dealers, for much more money, but Justin and I believed that the Swiss made the perfect combination with Djembe and he's going to a 5* home."