Up-To-Date with: The amazing championship horse VDL Bubalu

VDL Bubalu looking as good as ever as he enjoys his retirement. Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.

Under Jur Vrieling, VDL Bubalu contributed to much of the success that the Dutch team has had over the last years. VDL Bubalu was part of the winning Dutch team at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, was on the silver winning team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and was also on the winning team at the 2014 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona.

At the beginning of 2015, the stallion was official retired from the sport at the age of 15 to dedicate himself to breeding.

World of Showjuming got the chance to catch up with Bubalu during our visit to the VDL Stud.

VDL Stud sold half of Bubalu when he was five and he went to Colombia, but four years later the VDL Stud bought him back and Jur Vrieling got him to ride. It didn't take long before the two of them were a part of the Dutch team competing at the highest level of the sport.

Everyone that has seen VDL Bubalu in action, might have noticed that his canter is a bit different. "He didn't canter like that when he was young, but probably he had an accident when he was away and we had a hard time to find out what the problem was. In the end we did, but if we would have known two or three years earlier we could probably have done something about it – now we could do just a little. On the other hand, he was always jumping good and the canter never seemed to be a problem for him," Wiebe-Yde van de Lageweg from the VDL Stud explains.

Bubalu’s offspring are looking quite exciting: His daughter Huwerna was honored as National Foal Champion in Ermelo in 2012 and became Champion of the Central Mare Show in Zeeland last year as a 3-year-old scoring 80/80 for type and jumping to earn her ster.

The colt Kassidy (Bubalu x Colino) won the 2015 National Foalshow of Ireland during Millstreet International Horseshow.

From Bubalu’s first crop, three sons were invited for the second round of the KWPN Stallion Show and Ivaro (Bubalu x Quidam de Revel) was selected for the KWPN Performance Test and finished 4th in the KWPN Champions Ring.