Lord Europe, Dynamic Dream, and Next Level Are the Pavo Cup Champions of the Netherlands

While the Bundeschampionat was taking place in Warendorf, some of the Netherlands’ best four-, five-, and six-year-old up-and-coming dressage horses gathered in Ermelo for the Pavo Cup. Becky Moody was invited as a guest rider to objectively assess the feel in the saddle on the three horses that had received the highest scores under their regular riders.

Six-Year-Olds

The requirements for six-year-olds in the Pavo Cup are the same as those for the German National Championships and the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses—a competition at the Dressage Horse “M” level. However, in the Netherlands, horses are already allowed to be presented with a curb bit.

The trio of Rappen horses that made it to the finals were Port-au-Prince by Desperado-De Niro, ridden by Emmelie Scholtens; Pythagoras WK by All At Once-Vitalis, ridden by Franka Loos; and Perfect Ritme by Lord Europe-Negro, ridden by Kim Noordijk.

The latter had received the highest preliminary score in the first part of the final—91.4 percent—which consisted of a 9.3 for the trot, 9.6 in the canter, a (generous, given the very limited reach) 7.9 in the walk, 9.4 for the truly beautiful and flowing circle in harmony, and 9.5 for the overall impression. The score for harmony would have been even higher had the rider managed to open up the frame a bit more, as the judges pointed out to her.

Becky Moody also seemed to feel very comfortable and particularly praised the natural balance that Perfect Ritme brings to the arena. She noted that one just has to make sure he doesn’t slow down too much in his hind legs. Her score for the elegant black horse, who placed 15th at this year’s World Championships in Verden, was 9.6.

For the overall standings in the Pavo Cup, the results from the semifinals in Ermelo, the finals, and the guest rider test are added together. Perfect Ritme was the best in every category: 89 percent in the semifinals, 91.4 in the finals, plus 96.0 from guest rider Moody, resulting in a fairly decisive victory with 276.4 points.

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Fifth at the World Championships, Takes Silver

Scholtens awarded a 9.2

to the

fifth-place finisher at the World Championships in Verden, the stallion Pythagoras WK from the successful bloodline of Stable 104 BV owned by Willeke Bos (Jameson RS2, Jatilinda …), whom she described as having “incredible drive.” When she first attempted to collect him a little more in the canter, the black stallion immediately responded with a canter from which she could easily have ridden a working pirouette.

The scores that had propelled Franka Loos and Pythagoras into the final of the foreign riders’ test were 8.5 in walk, 9.0 in trot, 8.8 in canter, 9.0 for harmony and 8.9 for overall impression, for a total of 88.4 percent. Added to this were 87 percent from the semifinals and the 92 from Moody, for a final score of 267.4 points.

Bronze for Scholtens’ Rising Star

For the second time since 2024, Emmelie Scholtens competed with the beautifully built gelding Port-au-Prince at the Pavo Cup. Back then, they didn’t make it into the top three, but this time they did. The black horse looks just like his sire, Desperado—who was part of Scholtens’ team at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam, among other events—and is also very similar to him in other ways, says Scholtens. When the pair won the Subli Championship in Amsterdam two years ago, she said it felt as if she were back in the saddle of Desperado when he was young. Last year, Port-au-Prince saw less action because Scholtens gave birth to her second child. Now at the Pavo Cup, he impressed with consistently high scores between 8 and 9 in all categories: 8.6 in walk, 8.7 in trot, canter, and overall impression, and 8.8 in harmony. Becky Moody gave him a perfect 9.

In the semifinals, Port-au-Prince had been ahead of Pythagoras with 87.8 percent. That, combined with the final result and Moody’s 90 percent, resulted in a total of 264.8 points.

Five-year-olds

The champion of the five-year-olds—who are allowed to compete in pairs in the Netherlands—was the licensed World Championship finalist Real Dream by Dynamic Dream-Negro, who won by a narrow margin. A few weeks ago, he placed eighth in the World Championships qualifier for young dressage horses and advanced to the final, where he, however, finished near the bottom of the standings. In Verden, he was still ridden by Sadie Smith in the saddle. The British rider had stepped in to ride for Team Dreams in place of their regular rider, Charlotte Fry, since Fry was scheduled to compete at the World Championships in Aachen just a few days later, where she then, of course, Two-time world champion with her Glamourdale. Fry presented Real Dream again at the Pavo Cup.

The pair scored exactly 90 percent in the test ridden by an outside rider: 8.5 for walk and trot, 9.7 for canter, 9.2 for harmony, and 9.1 for overall impression. Outside rider Robin Bernoski then added a 9.2 on top of that.

In the semifinals, things hadn’t gone quite as well for Real Dream as they did later on. There, the pair had finished behind their competitors with a score of 83.6 percent. Their 90 percent score in the final ultimately tipped the scales in their favor, securing a narrow victory by two-tenths of a point. The pair totaled 265.6 points, while the runner-up scored 265.4.

The Guest Rider’s Favorite

The second-highest score in the final under their own rider was actually achieved by Grunsven student Lina Uzunhasan (USA) and her own horse, Magic McKee by Total McLaren-Negro: 88.8 percent, 8.5 in walk, 8.8 in trot, 9.3 in canter, plus 8.9 each for harmony and overall impression. But the licensed stallion—who looks like a more elegant version of his grandfather Totilas—was missing from the test ridden by another rider.

One of the horses to benefit from this was the premium stallion Rockstar Millionaire, presented by Emmelie Scholtens—a son of Lisa Müller’s D’avie out of a Sandro Hit-Silvano N dam. As a stallion, he is used to having unfamiliar riders in the saddle and moved through the arena with Bernoski in an extremely loose and relaxed manner, earning him scores of 9.5 and 95 percent, respectively. Previously, Rockstar Millionaire had advanced from the semifinals with 85 percent and from the finals with 85.4 percent, where he received scores of 9.2 and 9.5 in trot and canter, respectively, but only 7.0 in walk. Harmony and overall impression: 8.5.

Red Rock

Thanks to Magic McKee’s withdrawal, the chestnut Red Rock by Mowgli V.O.D.-Bordeaux, ridden by his co-owner Geertje Hoogendorn, advanced to the final. With scores of 8.5 in all sections, the pair achieved 85 percent in Part A of the final—the same result as in the semifinals. Guest rider Bernoski awarded exactly 90 percent to the chestnut, who seemed quite energetic but still did his job. Final score: 260 points.

Four-year-olds

In the Netherlands, four-year-olds also compete in pairs in the arena and are presented in Class A dressage tests. The outcome here was extremely exciting. The winner of the semifinal, So You Can Dance by Next Level-Ferguson, ridden by Gerrel Vink, had to concede the top spot to Franka Loos and So Nice in the final. The deciding factor was guest rider Becky Moody, who, while not rating So You Can Dance as having the very best riding qualities among her three test candidates, still awarded it three percent more than So Nice. As a result, So You Can Dance scored 89 percent in the semifinals and 90.8 percent in the finals (walk 8.5, trot 9.3, canter 9.4, harmony 9.0, overall impression 9.2) and 94 percent from riding judge Becky Moody, totaling 273.8 points, to emerge as the winner of the 2026 Pavo Cup.

Silver for Son of Zalome

When two people argue, a third party benefits—and in this case, that was Son of Zalome by Vitalis-Aljano, ridden by Robert-Jan de Visser. They were the second-best pair in the semifinals and finished third in the final under their own rider with 87.6 percent (walk 8.4, trot 8.8, canter 9, harmony and overall impression 8.8). If it had been up to Becky Moody alone, she probably wouldn’t have dismounted from that magnificent, galloping bay at all. She gave him 95 percent and praised, among other things, his responsiveness on the one hand, but also his composure on the other. She also noted that the bay was wonderfully easy to control. All in all, Son of Zalome scored 269.2 points and won the silver medal.

So Nice – the name says it all

Before the Oldenburg premium stallion So Perfect by Sezuan was retired and sold as a sport horse to the Lövsta Stud in Sweden, he sired several remarkable offspring. One of them is the elegantly built bay So Nice, out of a Ziesto dam, whom Franka Loos presented in Ermelo. The gelding placed third in the semifinals with 85.2 percent, but went on to win the finals with 91.4 percent, where he received scores of 8.8 for walk, 9.0 in trot, 9.3 in canter, 9.4 for harmony, and 9.2 for overall impression. This resulted in a final score of 91.4 percent.

However, the chemistry between him and Becky Moody didn’t seem quite right. The gelding reared up, looked around, arched his back, and couldn’t quite get into a relaxed, flowing rhythm. Moody still gave him 91 percent, acknowledging the talent the gelding had already demonstrated under his own rider and praising the boundless energy with which So Nice works. She said the gelding had felt insecure with a rider he didn’t know. This, she explained, accounted for the contact and balance issues that had not been apparent before. With 267.6 points, So Nice ultimately took the bronze.