Dressage has been a hot topic in Belgium since the Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus boom. This became clear at the latest at the Nations Cup in Lier 2025, where Belgium won an “international match” in the arena for the first time in the history of the sport. There is no question that Verboomen and his black stallion have made Belgium a serious contender for the more established dressage nations.

Verboomen’s World Cup preparation

Verboomen and Zonik Plus are the hot favorites for the individual gold medal at the World Championships in Aachen. Lier is to be the last tournament before the WEG, the double European Champion from Crozet revealed in an interview with the show organizer.

“After Lier, I’ll be staying at home with Zonik for the whole of June. He will also get a bit of a vacation. He won’t go to any more tournaments before the World Championships in Aachen. We have another training camp with the Belgian team at the end of July, that’s enough for me. There wasn’t really another show before Aachen where I thought: I really want to compete there. I prefer to work on the details at home.”

What exactly does he mean by that? “Since Fontainebleau ( where he won Grand Prix and Freestyle with Personal Best, editor’s note. ) I hardly rode any lessons at home. I mainly concentrated on the small details: Looseness in canter and contact. But in the end, these are not details at all. That’s the basis.”

His goal for Lier is to be able to call up the same feeling in the dressage arena as he does at home – a canter with a swinging back and the harmony in the passages and piaffe as in Fontainebleau.

The new one from Justin Verboomen

The fact that he doesn’t want to ride any more competitions after Lier until the World Championships in Aachen also means that Justin Verboomen will be missing next week’s Belgian Championships. Although he had originally considered presenting a new partner here: Fellini du Soleil.

Fellini du Soleil is a twelve-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Foundation-Rubin Royal, bred in Germany by Marianne Eichenberger, but owned in France by former Olympic rider Dominique Brieussel and his wife Stephanie, who has also shown him at competitions to date. However, at the beginning of April, Eurodressage reported that the Brieussel couple had decided to give the chestnut to Verboomen. This was due to health problems. A serious illness of her husband meant that Stephanie had to do the work for two, while she herself also had problems with her shoulder. In this situation, she entrusted her “baby” Justin to Verboomen.

He said in an interview: “I had planned to bring Fellini to the Belgian Championships, but we’re not quite there yet. I want to do everything as well as possible and take my time. That’s why I won’t be riding next week.”

His stallion doesn’t need more starts to relax at the show, but rather the peace and quiet around the events. “What he really needs is to arrive at a show early so that he can settle in. That relaxes him.”

Germany’s debutant team in Lier

From a German perspective, the Nations Cup in Lier will also be very interesting. Monica Theodorescu has opted for a team with pairs that are still inexperienced in Nations Cups at Grand Prix level.

Semmieke Rothenberger knows the feeling of riding for Germany from the countless European Championships she competed in as a young rider (and where she always returned home with at least one gold medal, usually several), but this weekend she and her Aachen freestyle winner from 2025, Farrington, are competing in a senior team for the first time.

The feeling of wearing the national eagle on his chest is completely new for Tobias Nabben. He will be bringing his Finest son Forster, with whom he was a finalist in last year’s Louisdor Prize, to the start. The fact that the two are now riding for Germany for the first time is almost like a Cinderella fairytale when you look at the story of this tender gelding and his rider and confidant. A career that shows what is possible when a horse finds the right person.

Forster is not the only Louisdor Prize finalist from last year who is now competing in the Nations Cup for the first time. The same applies to the two other team horses and their trainers.

One of these is the nine-year-old Global Power OLD with Evelyn Eger. The pair made a perfect international debut in Fontainebleau, where they showed huge potential.

On the other hand, Louisdor Vice Champion Escolar’s Emil will be making his first appearance for Germany with Thomas Wagner.

The Nations’ Cup is scheduled for Saturday, 1 p.m., in Lier.

Austria’s World Cup candidates Wernitznig and Superb

A few days ago, we reported that Isabell Werth’s stable rider Lisa Wernitznig, who was born in Austria, competed at the World Championships in her home country with the mare Superb, who was ridden by Isabell Werth until last spring. The pair scored over 70 percent at the inspection. However, they still lack the international qualification to even be considered for nomination. In Lier yesterday, they achieved the first over 66 percent rating in the Grand Prix, which is necessary for this and must be achieved at two different CDI3* and higher.

They came sixth in the test with 68.826 percent.

Addendum: After the Grand Prix, Wernitznig opted for the Special instead of the Freestyle as the second test. Here the pair took third place with 68.830 percent.

Second place in the U21 Nations Cup for GER

Lier is also the host of the Nations Cup for young riders. The decisions were already made yesterday. Germany had only sent one young rider team, none for juniors and pony riders. With a score of 214.166 percent, Lotte Beckmann/Devito van de Kempenhoeve (69.118), Carolina Miesner/Exclusiv (69.657), Martha-Sophie Pickers/Ferri Rousseau (71.274) and Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel/Escalla OLD FH (73.235) were only beaten by the team from Denmark.

0.343 percent made the difference, with Luna Købæk Rosenberg/Extreme Noir Hit (68.382), Theresa Rosenkilde/Blue Hors Zwobber (71.255), Andrea Hamann Sand/Blue Hors Victor (70.735) and Anna Have Larsen-Ledet/Finnigan-Vitz (72.549) trotting to the top step of the podium.

Incidentally, Denmark also won the Nations Cups for pony riders and juniors.

Lana-Pinou Baumgürtel and Escolar’s daughter Escalla, who cannot deny her sire either visually or in terms of movement quality, delivered a great performance, with which they also secured victory in the individual classification.

You can find all the results from Lier here.