KWPN Stallion Hennessy Continues as Sport Horse with New U25 Rider

Dressage

KWPN

The KWPN licensed stallion Hennessy has found a new rider in a Belgian based Dutch Under 25 rider.

Hennessy is a 14-year old by De Niro out of Silhouette x Jazz x Ulft). He is bred by Ploegmakers-van Bavel

Licensed Stallion, Sport Career

Originally named Handsome Boy, the black was licensed at the 2015 KWPN Stallion Licensing and became the winner of the 2015 KWPN spring stallion performance testing. He was owned by the Verhagen family and Wiepke van de Lageweg at the time.

He was first trained by Vai Bruntink, but was withdrawn early from the 2016-2017 KWPN Stallion Competition circuit due to an injury.

Hennessy was pulled from Bruntink's stable and moved to Kim Koolen, where he only stayed briefly. By the end of 2017 Hennessy was put in training with Remy Bastings, who competed him on the 2017-2018 KWPN Stallion Competition Circuit and finished fifth in the finals. In 2019 Remy started competing Hennessy at national ZZ-Zwaar and small tour level. In August 2020 Bastings and Hennessy made their international debut at the CDI-W Brno in Czech Republic, celebrating a win in the Inter I Kur, their first and only international as a pair.

In 2021 Bastings and Hennessy split as a combination and the horse was offered for sale.

Next Phase

By the end of 2021 the black sold to Hennie Gijsbers of Next Level Stables in Asten, The Netherlands. Tom Verhoeven showed the stallion at one CDI in randbol (DEN) in November 2011 at small tour level and continued to show him nationally in the small tour in 2023. He did his first national GP last autumn.

Hennessy was quite a popular breeding stallion as a young horse. In 2017 there were 168 foals foals born sired by him, but he moved out of the spotlight as a breeding stallion in the following years, even though he was still offered at stud. So far he has sired 480 KWPN registered foals, of which 2 were born in 2026. He sired one licensed KWPN son (Maddox Mart), and 4 further sons with different studbooks (Happy Nirvana BMH, Hades von Seedes, Legacy S, Locomotion), 13 elite daughters, and 2 keur daughters.

The ride on Hennessy has now been passed on to Raoul Wehrmeijer, who is based in Kinrooi, Belgium. In the spring of 2026 he competed the 16-year old KWPN bred Appie (by Sorento) in two national shows in Belgium at Under 25 level, but scored only in one. Raoul is yet to make his international show debut.