It was Colombia’s Dayro Arroyave and Koriano van Klapscheut (Lord Z x Darco) that stole the spotlight in the FEI WBFSH World Breeding Championship for 7-year-old horses at Zangersheide this afternoon, as the sun set over Lanaken.

Koriano van Klapscheut, a son of Coriana van Klapscheut that herself has had a hugely successful career at the highest level of the sport, was one of five horses to produce double clear rounds in the final for the 7-year-old horses that was set at 1.45m – also counting for the Longines Ranking.

It took thirteen riders before no. fourteen succeeded with a clear round in the final for the 7-year-olds, and in the end nine moved on to the jump-off after tackling the big thirteen fence track set by Eugene Mathy – that included an open water, a triple combination as well as a tricky vertical-vertical combination. “Today it was perhaps not so big but really technical, and that is why there were not more clear rounds I think,” said Arroyave afterwards.

The battle for the medals would end up a hard one, and after the first four riders in the ring for the jump-off there were still no clear rounds – everybody took the risk, and paid the price.

So, when Belgium’s own Koen Vereecke went clear with the Zangersheide-bred Calgary Z (Calvaro x Polydor) the home crowds went nuts in Lanaken. The time to beat was set, and the clock showed 42.86 seconds. But, Vereecke was overtaken by the next rider in the ring as Spain’s Ivan Serrano Saenz on the Oldenburger-bred stallion Citizen Mezz (Chacco-Blue x Charity) shaved the time down to 41.86 seconds after a great run down the last stretch. Hopes were high for home hero Nicola Philippaerts and the BWP gelding Krapuul F (Diamant de Semilly x Goliath Z), but the turn inside the decorations next to the Stephex vertical on the stretch leading to the final oxer did not go as smoothly as planned and the two lost time to stop the clock at 42.07 seconds slotting in behind Serrano Saenz.

Second last to go, Dayro Arroyave – always dangerous against the clock – had his competitors biting their nails, and with good reason. Arroyave got a great angle to the second jump – the Stephex vertical, raced down the next line and took a super short turn into the combination. On the last run, Arroyave got a great turn inside the decorations set in between the second and third jump racing down to the last – when he crossed the finish line the time had been brought down to an incredible 40.62 seconds, good enough for gold position.

Belgium had the chance to snatch the gold with Pieter Devos and the KWPN gelding Flash (Numero Uno x Indoctor) as last to go, but the big striding bay could not catch up with the quick-toed Koriano van Klapscheut with Devos having to settle for silver this time around after stopping the clock on 41.49 seconds.

“I have been riding this horse for a year, as well as it has been a year since I started for Gilbert (De Roock),” explained Dayro about his partnership with Koriano van Klapscheut. “It is a very special horse, but in a good way – the horse likes to play around a little bit. It also has a bit of character, but I really like it. It is a fantastic horse!”

“I have won both the Championship for 5- and 6-year-olds here before, so now to add the 7-year-old title – that makes me really happy about today!” concluded Dayro.

Pieter Devos was also very happy with his horse: “I am delighted with my horse, it is a fantastic horse. I have had it since April in my stable, it’s half from us and half from my family in-law. My sister in-law has been riding the horse since it was 4-years-old – they had it together with the breeders. Then it came to me, we thought it was a horse for the big sport – that is why it came to my place. I have been developing it a little bit over the last few months, but as you know I am a lot away at other shows so it was not really my aim to be here on the podium,” said Devos who took the time to thank his family, his sister in-law and his team at home for their contributions towards the medal seeing that he has limited possibilities to show the younger horses with a busy schedule of big shows: “If you can come here and get a silver medal like I did, it’s not only me – I’m only the pilot today. It is a work of a lot of people behind the scenes that make this possible and I want to thank them!”

Text © World of Showjumping // Pictures © Haide Westring