New Djembe de Hus rider announced

The Swiss magazine Pferdewoche.ch has announced who the new rider of Justin Verboomen’s eleven-year-old Oldenburg gelding Djembe de Hus is. It is the Zurich dressage rider Simone Zuffellato. Under her maiden name Simone von Stockar, she was one of the most successful young riders in the country in the 1980s, becoming Swiss champion three times among the U21 riders and once among the juniors and winning team bronze three times at the European Championships.

PferdeWoche spoke to Simone Zuffellato’s father-in-law Bernhard Scheu. He is a dressage trainer himself. Although it initially sounded as if Djembe de Hus would not be competing at all in the future, Scheu explains that the goal now is “first and foremost to have fun together and to ride well” and that it is still too early to talk about sporting ambitions, but he also admits that “in the long term and in the back of my mind, I would like to gain a foothold at Grand Prix level again”.

Sensitive Oldenburg from France

In terms of talent, Zuffellato would certainly have the right partner in Djembe de Hus, provided she can give the sensitive chestnut as much confidence as Justin Verboomen did at the World Cup competitions in Mechelen and Neumünster.

Djembe de Hus did not spend a whole year under the saddle of double European Champion Verboomen. He belonged to his breeder Xavier Marie from Haras de Hus in France all his life. There he received his basic training from his dressage manager Jessica Michel-Botton, was then promoted in Germany by Marcus Hermes from advanced (S) level to Grand Prix and was then to be sold. Instead, he was first ridden by Alizée Froment and finally by Justin Verboomen, who never made a secret of the fact that he would unfortunately not ride the chestnut permanently, precisely because he was for sale. He emphasized this in Neumünster. Shortly afterwards came the news that Djembe de Hus had a new home. There had been no talk of competitions at the time. So it will be interesting to see if, when, where and how the gelding can be seen in action again.