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“Faustino de Tili is a horse who really got me up in the rankings at the earlier stages of my career and helped me stay there,” Kristen Vanderveen tells World of Showjumping about Bull Run’s Faustino De Tili (Berlin x Darco). “He's an incredible horse. He's a winner, and he stayed so sound. I had him for 10 years, and he never had any health issues, and he was a serious competitor.”

The now 21-year-old grey stallion has a record that is hard to match, having won countless international classes in the U.S. as well as in Europe. Produced by Tim van den Broeck (BEL) and Olivier Philippaerts (BEL), Vanderveen took over the ride at the beginning of 2015 – and never looked back. “He was a unique one that I could jump in speed classes and win, and he could win a five-star Grand Prix as well,” Kristen explains. “He won a bunch of four-star, three-star, and two-star Grand Prix competitions. Also, he is a great character in the barn.”

“There were so many great moments with him,” Kristen recalls about their decade together. “Obviously, our five-star Grand Prix win in Tryon in 2016 was a big deal. I show in Tryon a lot, and he provided a lot of great memories there. He also did a European tour with me; he won a class in Dinard and he won a class in Saint-Tropez. That was fun, as it was my first time competing in Europe. To have a horse like him that could come and win when you feel like the little guy, those are some really good memories.”

“He's fully sound and healthy and it just came to the point that my other horses weren't getting a chance to develop because I would always pick him because he won a lot,” Kristen tells about the decision to retire Faustino. “I wanted to end with him being the winner and give the other horses kind of a chance to keep developing. You can only jog two or three horses for the big classes and that was really holding out my younger ones.”

“He did a little bit of hunter showing, just because he loves coming to the show. I couldn't totally let go of it because I felt like he's fit and he wants to do it. He came and he did some hunter derbies, and he got nice placements in this and that was just for fun.”

“I have used him on my own mares and as his offspring seemed like quite nice horses, breeding more with him seemed like a good idea,” Kristen continues. “The idea was that it would be the best life for him to come to Europe and breed. He's going to stand at stud at Gut Osterrade in Bovenau, Germany, which is close to Peter and Lena Glisic, who I work very closely with. After the breeding season, he'll go to their farm and their daughter is going to continue riding him. I think it's nice that he'll still be able to be somebody's favourite while producing the next generation of top horses. He doesn't have a lot of older babies, but the ones now that are coming of age that are doing the young horse classes have great characters and look like they're going to be good horses.”

11.5.2026 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.