Valentina Pistner's QC Flamboyant Retired from Sport

Dressage

Germany

QC Flamboyant, one of Germany's most successful medal winning junior/young riders horses, has been retired from sport.

QC Flamboyant is a 17-year old Oldenburg gelding by Fidertanz out of Diva (by De Niro x Rubinstein). He is bred by Werner Meyer

Belgian Ownership

Flamboyant was scouted as a foal by Belgian horse investor Patrick D'Eer of QC Stables in Sint-Niklaas, but the horse had his sport career developed in Germany.

Under German Marita Pundsack the first came into the spotlight by winning the 2013 Bundeschampionate as a 5-year old and then representing Germany at the 2014 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Verden, where they finished 14th in the Finals. At the 2014 Bundeschampionate they were fourth.

Isabell Werth

In December 2014 owner D'Eer moved the dark bay gelding to Werth's yard for his FEI level training. Werth competed him at one show in 2015 in the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualifier in Perl-Borg. They were 4th in the warm up round, but got eliminated the Final round for issues in the canter work. In 2016 Werth's stable jockey Niklaas Feilzer took over the ride and competed him at local shows at M and S-level throughout 2017.

Werth climbed back into the saddle once to qualify Flamboyant for the Burgpokal in Donaueschingen with a score over 80%! Two weeks before the Finals, Felzer showed Flamboyant locally in Vreschen-Bokel, but at the Finals Werth was back on board and won the title, although the audience preferred Hubertus Schmidt on Escolar as winner.

Valentina Pistner

German junior rider Valentina Pistner tried out QC Flamboyant twice before the Nurnberger Burgpokal Finals and the horse sold straight away. The pair became one of Germany's most successful junior-young rider team members.

Trained by Stefanie Lugge-Kerner, the pair was second at the 2018 Preis der Besten and qualified on the German team for the 2018 European Junior Riders Championships, where they won triple silver. In 2019 they won the preis der besten and claimed team gold and double bronze at the 2019 European Junior Riders Championships. In 2020 they returned for their third, consecutive Europeans and collected team and Kur gold and individual test silver. As junior rider Pistner won gold at the 2018 German Junior Riders Championships but skipped the 2019 and 2020 edition.

in 2021 Valentina began studying for her Bachelor degree in Media and Information with a minor in Datascience and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam and moved to The Netherlands. She switched trainers and began working with the Dutch based Vincent van Gasselt, alongside Rosi Kemper.

A 2.5-year break from international competition followed. Nationally Pistner and Flamboyant placed fifth at the 2022 German Young Riders Championships, but they only returned to the CDI ring in March 2023 as a young rider, competing at the Aachen Festival 4 Dressage and then the CDIO Hagen to be nominated on the German team for the 2023 European Young Riders Championships, where they won team silver and got individual test silver. They were fourth in the Kur. They skipped the 2023 and 2024 Nationals. In 2024 they did the CDI Leeuwarden and Hagen to return to the 2024 European Young Riders Championships, where they scored team gold, individual test silver and again they were fourth in the freestyle.

In April 2025 Pistner rode her last CDI on QC Flamboyant in the senior small tour in Hagen.

Retirement

At the 2023 CDI Aachen Festival 4 Dressage

The highly decorated, medal winning QC Flamboyant has now been fully retired from sport.

"He is now full time in the field, already together with other horses," Valentina told Eurodressage, adding "one of them being my Lissaro van de Helle. Both, of course, will stay forever be with my family."

Pistner has been riding less this year. "I have taken it a bit easier, more focused on finishing my Bachelors and slowly training the mares to Grand Prix level," she said.

Valentina is riding her home-bred mares Sellerina and Sezuana, both by Sezuan. "Horse will always be a big part of my life and my dream is to compete in the U25 and one day ride a big Grand Prix," she explained.

Pistner wants to combine horses with an academic career and will be pursuong a Master degree. "I will always have a professional career alongside the horses," she stated.