New Horse from England for Michael Jung

At the moment, Michael Jung is still missing a horse of Chipmunks’ caliber to be able to defend his titles in the coming years. This is especially true now that he has sold Dzoker, who was considered a “Road2LA” candidate. That may have changed now. As British rider Fiona Kashel announced on Facebook, her ten-year-old gray horse, Monbeg Cazador, has been purchased for Michael Jung.

Jung himself has since introduced his new addition and expressed his gratitude to Dutch rider Madeleine Brugman, for whom he already rides several “Perseverance” horses, and who has now made the gray horse available to him. “With Penguin, I have the privilege of riding an incredibly talented horse,” said Jung. Penguin is the stable name of the gray horse he brought back from England. He actually comes from Ireland.

About Monbeg Cazador

Monbeg Cazador is an Irish sport horse and a grandson of Casall through Cazador LS, who was successful at the 1.50-meter level. The Cor de la Bryère blood on the sire’s side combines, via the maternal grandsire Chameur (sic!), with Capitol I blood and the Irish breeding heroes Clover Hill and King of Diamonds on the dam’s side. All of this is based on a Thoroughbred line that has already produced show jumpers successful up to 1.60 meters.

The mating was conceived by Irish Olympic rider Marion Hughes, who is even more successful as a breeder than she was as an athlete. She mostly breeds show jumpers, identifiable by the abbreviation HHS. Although Monbeg Cazador is an eventing horse, it’s clear that his breeder knows a thing or two about show jumping.

With just twelve starts—and used very sparingly since his first CCI in 2022—the gray horse has not made a single (!) jumping fault on the course. And that’s across all levels from CCI2* to CCI4*-L. At age seven, Fiona Kashel and Monbeg Cazador competed in the World Championships for Young Eventing Horses. At age eight, they made their debut at the CCI4*-S for eight- and nine-year-old young horses in Blenheim, an important benchmark event. In 2024, they placed 13th, and in 2025, fifth.

Her last competition was the CCIO4*-L in Boekelo, where she had only 0.4 time penalties in the cross-country. However, a MIM was triggered along the course, resulting in 11 additional penalty points. That, however, does not detract from Monbeg Cazador’s talent.

Fiona Kashel on social media: “Yesterday was a sad but exciting day as we said goodbye to Monbeg Cazador, aka ‘Perfect Penguin.’ It was an absolute pleasure to ride and train him, and I’m overjoyed that he’s been acquired by Michael Jung to compete with him in the upcoming championships. He has everything it takes to win at the highest level, and I can’t wait to see the two of them together. I wish them every success and all the best for the future.”

Team Jung and Others Succeed in Kronenberg

It’s possible that the van carrying Monbeg Cazador and Michael Jung arrived in Horb at the same time—Monbeg Cazador coming from England and Team Jung from the Netherlands, where the Peelbergen Equestrian Center hosted an eventing weekend this past weekend featuring competitions up to CCI4*-S level.

Michael Jung won the CCI1* Intro on the 10-year-old Polish gelding Safran. Jung’s first stable jockey, Sven Lux, rode the 11-year-old KWPN mare Kim la Sina (by Carrera VDL) to victory in the second division of the CCI2*-S, based on her dressage score.

In the CCI3*-S, World Champion Jung finished 12th on the eight-year-old Hanoverian Perseverance Sheer Magic—a son of Diacontinus—after incurring six time penalty points in the cross-country. The victory here went to Lara de Liedekerke-Meier riding the Hanoverian FRH Helios, a son of Herald. The top German pair was Libussa Lübbeke and her promising young horse Daroca de Rioja FRH, also registered as a Hanoverian, also descended from Diacontinus, and only seven years old. After the dressage and jumping, the pair was in the lead. In the cross-country, they incurred 6.4 time penalty points, which ultimately placed them fifth.

Michael Jung’s Dzoker, mentioned earlier, also competed in the class. With his new rider, Catharina Dannemann, he took a fantastic tenth place behind Kaya Thomsen riding Caruso JH and Arne Bergendahl riding Cliemann, and ahead of the European Championship pair Isabella von Roeder and Bob, as well as Dzoker’s trainer, Michael Jung.

The CCI4*-S was won by Korntawat Samran of Thailand, who trains with Maxime Livio in France, riding Feliz Am’or. The pair managed to finish ahead of the 2024 Luhmühlen winning duo, Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville. With Kiarado d’Arville, Belgium’s number one in cross-country had a second string to her bow, which she rode to fourth place, edged out only by her compatriot Senne Vervaecke in the saddle of Google van Alsingen.