Olivier Philippaerts and Precious Dwerse Hagen brought home the bronze medal from the Jumping World Breeding Championship for Young Horses Lanaken 2022. Just the day before, his twin brother Nicola won the Belgian Championship with Luna van ’t Ruytershof.
As always, Zangersheide hosts the Jumping World Breeding Championship for Young Horses simultaneously with the Belgian Championship. Ain't no difference this year. Olivier and Precious Dwerse Hagen and 39 other combinations took their place in the final on Sunday to see who would be crowned world champions. Only 8 managed to stay clear and continue to the jump-off, amongst which Olivier and Precious. Just a little too slow to beat runner-up Christian Ahlmann (Dourkhan Hero Z) and the unbeatable winner Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (Caillan).
Olivier happily looks back at the championship “It always gives an incredible feeling to leave a championship with a medal”, says Olivier. “We produced a clear round on the first day, but our time was not so good. Precious is a horse that got his training and preparation from Stijn Timmermans. I rode him for the first time at the Stephex Masters. The world championship last week was only my second competition with him. Our second qualification round was way better already and we qualified for the final on Sunday, in which we managed to stay clear again. None of the four combinations that rode the jump-off before us, were clear. So our idea was just to ride a clean round. If we'd manage to do that and only one other combination got a fence, we'd get a medal. And so it happened, we stayed clear and the rider just after us got a fence. We were just not sure yet about the color. I'm satisfied with bronze. Precious is still young, but if he keeps continuing this way, we'll have a great time together. Many thanks to Stijn Timmermans for the good and hard work”.
