The lap of honour by Lordswood Dancing Diamond concluded the second edition of the Longines FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses. Aat Both, chairman of the board: “We look back on a successful second edition of the Championships. This year we could enjoy excelling dressage talents once again. Similar to last edition, a Danish warmblood performed a hat-trick by winning the championships for three consecutive years. In the five- and six-year-olds classes the jury even awarded 10s, which indicates the high-level performances seen in this arena. We had some absolute outliers, but also in the width we saw a lot of quality.
Once again, we could welcome dressage enthusiasts from all over the world here in Ermelo. Thanks to our sponsors Longines, Province of Gelderland, Anemone Horsetrucks and BWM Kalfsbeek, we were able to organise a well-rounded event, during which wished to provide both the riders and horses with the best facilities while simultaneously offering the visitors an exciting program at a beautiful venue and abundant supply of food, drinks, shopping and a vibrant atmosphere. We have enjoyed it and are proud that the FEI granted us an extra year to organise these incredible championships. The coming 2 years we will do everything in our power to please the competitors, exhibitors, officials and visitors. We hope to welcome everybody back in Ermelo next year: from the 2nd to the 5th of August 2018.”
Joris Kemperman, project manager of this prestigious event responded enthusiastically: “First of all, congratulations to all the medal winners! Furthermore, we would like to thank all of our sponsors, especially Longines, for their support. We, as the organisation, are very satisfied. We had a concept based on last year, but of course we are keen to improve ourselves each year. Thus, the program in the second arena was more elaborate this edition, the qualification rounds for five- and six-year-olds were split up over two days and besides the Stallions of the Year, we had the international Small Tour competition that included a Freestyle to Music in the main arena on Friday night. We may count on a number of fantastic sponsors that agreed to also support us for the coming two editions in Ermelo. Thanks to several entrepreneurs, we were able to offer the visitors a wide range of appealing products: from riding gear and jewelry to Dutch pancakes and smoothies. In the exhibition area we implemented various improvements, also the catering facilities were expanded and we scheduled in longer breaks to enable the audience to have a bite to eat or go shopping.
From day one, the turnout was higher than expected. We are very happy that people from all over the world have travelled to Ermelo to attend this second edition in the Netherlands. The whole terrain was filled with a buzzing crowd and the seated tickets for the main arena were sold out for the Saturday and Sunday. In total, we greeted more then 20.000 visitors. We hope to welcome each and every one back in Ermelo next year in the first weekend of august.”
Next year. the LONGINES FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses 2017 takes place in Ermelo from the 2nd until the 5th of August.
