{"id":69523,"date":"2026-09-14T10:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T00:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=69523"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:23:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T00:23:02","slug":"world-young-dressage-horse-champs-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2026\/09\/world-young-dressage-horse-champs-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"World Young Dressage Horse Champs 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christopher Hector analyses the breeding of the dressage horses at the World Champs<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Champion of the Five-Year-old class was Einfach Imposant B ridden by Kira Laura Soddemann.<\/p>\n

The gelding is by Escolar out of Wonapalai by Westerhagan one of the scores of Weltmeyer sons (134 of them approved) who failed to make a mark on sport horse breeding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Einfach Imposant B<\/em><\/p>\n

On the next line we find Rubinstein, another hugely popular stallion who failed to produce competitors of note, though canny breeders still like to see that \u2018R\u2019 on the paper since, even from afar, it is an indicator of good temperament.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Escolar is a controversial stallion. There is no denying his huge movement and imposing presence in the arena, there was always a question about his temperament, and it was hard not to see how careful Hubertus Schmidt was getting on him in the mounting yard.<\/p>\n

Escolar and his sire, Estobar, together saved the old Westphalian E line, though there are some breeders who wonder if that was a good thing, \u2018stiff, heavy, bad tempered\u2019 they say!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Escamillo<\/em><\/p>\n

Escolar is the sire of 55 approved sons and 21 Grand Prix horses, the best of them, Escamillo, though it\u2019s hard to see how the striking stallion son (out of a Rhodiamant mare) gets to be classified on the Horse Telex list as Grand Prix, since the only results on the official FEI database show the 11-year-old with one third and three seconds at the World Young Horse championships, full stop. That hasn\u2019t stopped the breeders or the Breeding Associations, hailing Escamillo as the new messiah. Every major European breeding association has been swamped with the blood of Escamillo and his sons, it\u2019s an influx greater than the flood of Sandro Hit or Weltmeyer, perhaps even both added together.<\/p>\n

Dutch stallion master, Joep van Uytert, stands one of the most influential Escamillo sons Extreme US who sired 281 foals in 2025 to head the KWPN top ten, though this was down from 454 the previous year. Joep warns that the Escamillo sons need mares with blood though, in truth, he says this about pretty well any stallion. Joep likes blood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Global A mour<\/em><\/p>\n

The Danish mega dealer and Grand Prix rider, Andreas Helgstrand, is not everyone\u2019s favourite equestrian identity, though I\u2019ve always found him a great interview, always happy to share his considerable insights on the sport horse scene. He himself is now emerging as a sire of note, with his son, Alexander Yde, riding Global Amour OLD to a reserve championship in the six-year-old class.<\/p>\n

Global Amour is by Global Player another of the World Young Horse stars, winning the 2022 six-year-old title, coming back the next year to stand reserve. Global Player is by Grand Galaxy Win out of a Don Schufro mare, not surprisingly he is WFFS\u00a0 positive as was his grand-sire, Apache and the dam sire Don Schufro. How lucky that Don Schufro\u2019s status was only discovered after his death, and after his sensational breeding career, sad that Apache was tainted before his career could really get under way.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Global Player was sold to German young rider Marie Sohler, not exactly a vote of confidence in him as a breeding stallion. With Marie, Global Player has been successful in young rider classes, their last appearance in February 24 at San Giovanni where they won the Individual class. Global Player is listed in the stallion roster at Studfarm Helgstrand in Denmark.<\/p>\n

Global Player\u2019s sire Grand Galaxy Win is by Apache, a great grandson of Jazz, and out of the Jazz mare, Winner T. Grand Galaxy Win competed at Intermediate level, and was gelded after an injury in 2022, but is back competing on the Florida circuit.<\/p>\n

Third to Weihe\u2019s Happiness and Alina Schneider. At first glance you might be forgiven for thinking this bay mare was one of the thirteen foals transplanted from Isabel Werth\u2019s great Weihegold (Sandro Hit \/ Don Schufro), but no, she is a grand-daughter being out of Weihe\u2019s Hope by Sir Donnerhall I. Happiness is by another highly controversial, and wildly popular stallion, Dynamic Dream by the Vivaldi son, Dream Boy out of a Sir Donnerhall I mare. Critics of Dynamic Dream point to incidents where he has been sanctioned as a result of positive drug tests along with his failure to pass a performance test (let alone compete).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dynamic Dream<\/em><\/p>\n

In the post WW2 boom in Warmblood breeding the performance test was the Holy Grail, but when breeding stallions began to compete the test lost importance, more and more it was seen as what it really always has been, an all-round test of soundness. Right now the Warmblood world is awash with tales of genetic unsoundness, like PSSM, affecting some of the stallion superstars, and their descendants, perhaps it is time to take the performance test seriously again.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the Five-year-olds top ten we have DSP Lord L\u00f6wenherz von Bellin(by the Lord Leatherdale son Lord Europe out of a United mare), fifth \u2013 McMary NRW (by the Millennium grandson McLaren, out of an Amp\u00e8re mare), sixth \u2013 Buskhagas Sanjay (by Saurez (Sezuan \/Desperados) out of a Sandro Hit mare), seventh \u2013\u00a0 Senza Parole F (by the Sezuan son Secret and out of a For Romance I \/ Don Schufro mare) eighth \u2013 Chantal (by Revolution out of a mare by the Schwadroneur son Blue Horse Hertug), ninth \u2013 Ready to Rumble (by Le Formidable out of Amp\u00e8re\/Negro mare) and rounding out our top ten Hamiltons Jazzmaster- by Jameson RS2 (Zack \/ Negro) out of a Dante Weltino mare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Furstenball<\/em><\/p>\n

The champion of the Six-year-olds was Faustino G, who carries the blood of two excessively good-looking horses, his sire F\u00fcrstenball and his dam sire, Da Caprio, both of whom never got past small tour level. He is out of a mare by Sezuan who won three young horse world championships in a row, despite this he was gelded in 2022, not the sort of thing you can have second thoughts about.<\/p>\n

Reserve to Merita Hagren and Dizzy. The chestnut mare is all Danish on her topline, half Dutch, half Hannoveraner on the mare line. She is by Hesselhoj Donkey Boy a striking bay by ERA Dancing Hit, out of a mare by Milan (by Michellino). Dizzy\u2019s dam is by the great Zack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Secret<\/em><\/p>\n

Third \u2013 Sir Gribaldi by the Sezuan son, Secret, whose breeding career literally rests on ten seconds on Facebook. Rumour has it that this video caught the imagination of some 600 breeders! Secret is well named. Appearing and disappearing on the breeding scene, absent at one stage because they couldn\u2019t get staff at his home stables!?. \u00a0He was retired after a competition career that saw him win silver at the world champs and two silvers and one gold at the Bundeschampionate. and by the time he was nine he had sired 37 licensed sons in Germany alone.<\/p>\n

Sir Gribaldi is only one of a number of Secret offspring to star in young horse classes. At the 2023 world champs eleven of the forty four in the Five year old class were by him. Sir Gribaldi is by the Trakehner son of Gribaldi, All Inclusive out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Lauries Crusador.<\/p>\n

When he was on a visit to Australia I asked my friend, and long-time breeding expert with the Hanoverian Verband, Ludwig Christman, what he thought of the stallion:<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never heard about Secret until I arrived in Australia and New Zealand and everybody asked me about him. I think first of all, Gest\u00fct FM had very effective marketing, the video they sent out was fantastic, and when he was presented he was a black, beautiful looking horse with outstanding gaits. There was huge demand for him, from all over Germany, especially many Hanoverian breeders because he stood about 20 kilometres from Verden. He was not a fantastic foal producer, but from what I have seen of the offspring, and the feed-back from riders and trainers, is that they are extremely trainable, and that they bring a different kind of mechanics into the Hanoverian breed. He has a fantastic uphill canter, a good trot, not so flat and with higher action, and that is what Hanover needed. They have a reputation of being extremely rideable and trainable horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his rider, Jessica Lyn Thomas, Secret is the horse of a lifetime, she told me his owner, Eckhard Wahlers, asked her to come to his stable and tell him what he had:<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease come and look at my horse \u2013 I don\u2019t know if it is a \u2018World Class\u2019 horse, I cannot really decide what it is. I came there and the stallion was super big, he had been ridden a few times, but very little, very little lunged. I came in the stable and saw this huge horse with a very big head, super thin, and all only legs. For sure, I have never seen something like this. Then we saw him on the lunge and he had legs all over the place, we did not know if he was trotting or cantering, we only knew he was super happy, this horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rode him the first time and I did not know how good he could be. Is this a world-class horse? Because the legs were so long and all over the place. He was so narrow, I had to have a really small saddle because he was like a baby. But I have to say that from the first day he was the nicest thing I have ever sat on and he was just broken in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t ride him much as a three and four-year-old, even as a five-year-old, very little because he bred a lot and we did not want to kill him. And he was very big, so we tried to do the shows riding him three times a week, that was very hard but I stayed cool. Everyone always asks, were you not nervous? No, because this horse would try for me to the end of the world, he would never let me down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say the politics with that horse was not so nice, because he got quite well-known, fast, from the first video. Me and Ecki, we did not count on that, we did not know that would happen, we loved him, but not everyone did.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is super sensitive to ride. I have never had a whip, ever! He only wants to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fourth \u2013 Viva Diamond, the brown mare is by Vitalis (Vivaldi \/ D-Day) out of a mare by the Diamond Hit son, Don Diamond.<\/p>\n

Others in the top ten are: 5th<\/sup> \u00a0Pythagoras WK by All At Once (Amp\u00e8re \/Gribaldi) out of a Vitalis\/Negro mare; \u00a06th<\/sup> Straight Horse Leonardo, the black stallion is by Lord Europe, out of a De Niro mare, out of Zackonik by Zack, then we get fancy, the next mare is Romanik (Romanov \/ Don Schufro) the dam of four Grand Prix competitors including Zonik. 7th<\/sup> to Isabell Werth riding V Power which is very apt since the brown stallion is by Viva Gold by Vivaldi, out of Weironce, who is by For Romance and out of Isabell\u2019s megastar Weihegold. V Power is out of Finess by Fidertanz out of a mare by Show Star; 8th<\/sup> the Swedish stallion Sundown is by the stallion Suarez, I\u2019m sure you remember his breeding from earlier in this piece, but once again he is described on his Horse Telex pedigree as Grand Prix while the Horse Telex results show him Small Tour. Sundown is by Bellagio, at last the B line so successful a few years back, makes an appearance, but no, Bellagio is by United.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

V Power<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ninth, True Love WS by Toto Jnr (Totilas \/ Desperados) out of a grand-daughter of Sandro Hit.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the ten, it more or less had to be a daughter of Secret, Secret\u2019s Weapon, out of a Sir Donnerhall I \/ Weltmeyer mare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Odi Murona<\/em><\/p>\n

The champion of the seven year olds was the Dutch entry, Odi Murona. The mare is by Blue Hors Farrell, who we have met previously out of a mare by the world\u2019s number one dressage stallion, Johnson, then comes Vincent by Pretendent one of the early Dutch grand prix stallions (to follow the story of the emergence of Dutch dressage breeding follow this link https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2025\/06\/dutch-dressage-breeding-how-did-it-start\/).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Secret Agent<\/em><\/p>\n

The reserve championship went to Charlotte Dujardin riding Secret Agent by Secret out of a De Niro\/Stedinger mare.<\/p>\n

Third to Brandtbergs Divya by Donkey Boy, out of a Don Olymbrio \/ Zack mare.<\/p>\n

Fourth \u2013 Belcanto HB and at last the B line makes an appearance. The chestnut stallion is by Benicio, out of a mare that combines R and M, Rascalino and Weltmeyer. Fifth \u2013 Obsession Taonga by Vitalis out of an All at Once\/ \u00a0Negro mare.<\/p>\n

Sixth \u2013 Schatzmeister MZ by Secret out of a De Niro \/ Florencio mare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Secret<\/em><\/p>\n

At these Championships, Secret was the most represented sire, with 18 progeny (eight more than 2025) followed by Vitalis, nine and Escolar, eight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Don Martillo<\/em><\/p>\n

Seventh, Dribbler who is out of a Dancier \/ Wild Dance mare, by Don Martillo (Don Juan de Hus\/Beneton Dream) who looked a million dollars when I saw him win the Five-year-old championship in 2017. He is another who has mysteriously disappeared from the scene with rumours that he suffers from shivers which is not surprising because his sire certainly did. 8th<\/sup> Red Viper, by Romanov out of a Sir Sinclair mare.<\/p>\n

9th<\/sup> Felice FRH (by F\u00fcrst\u00a0 Samarant by For Romance) out of a Riverside\/ Sandro Hit mare.<\/p>\n

Nice that we finish this report with a fourth line that features some of the young horse stars of the last decade: F\u00fcrst Heinrich, Sir Donnerhall I, Florencio and, of course, Sandro Hit.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Hector analyses the bloodlines and finds there is one stallion that comes out on top – a very controversial stallion at that, check out the story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,714,4,1],"tags":[402,1243,601,1254],"class_list":["post-69523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-breeders-club","category-dressage","category-uncategorized","tag-christopher-hector","tag-dressage","tag-dressage-breeding","tag-world-young-horse-championships"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69523"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69572,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69523\/revisions\/69572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}