Dinja van Liere's Hermès victorious on debut with new rider

A regional dressage tournament is taking place this weekend in Wezep, the Netherlands, which is open to Grand Prix level and has a fairly prominent starting field. Among others, Dinja van Liere’s World Championship bronze medal winner Hermès will be represented there with a new rider. And his trainer Dinja van Liere presented her new great hope for the future.

Hermès’ new rider

The new girl in the saddle at Hermès is Eline Anker. According to horses.nl, the 22-year-old is the daughter of Hermès’ co-owner Jan Anker. She was part of the Dutch U21 team that won silver at the 2024 European Championships in St. Margarethen, Austria. Back then, she rode the stallion In Style, who, like Hermès, is marketed by Van Uytert. She made her first appearances in the U25 camp last year with Hey You. Today she made her debut with Hermès, and it was a success.

The 14-year-old Easy Game son, who won individual bronze with Dinja van Liere at the 2022 World Championships and accompanied her to the Olympic Games in Paris and the European Championships in Crozet, gave his new rider a 70 percent score and a yellow ribbon in the Intermédiaire II for the U25 age group straight away. To be precise, it was 71.078 percent. All three judges saw the pair at the top.

They were equally unanimous about the ranking behind them. Former U25 European Champion Marten Luiten came second, albeit not with successful mare Fynona, but with a 13-year-old Westphalian gelding called Johnny, whom he had ridden exclusively in the small tour until last year. The pair rode the U25 short Grand Prix and received 68.975 percent.

Third place went to another young Dutch rider with Olympic experience, Lara van Nek on the now 16-year-old Ampere son All at Once, who accompanied Moroccan rider Yessin Rahmouni at his starts in Tokyo and Paris under Olympic fire as well as at the 2022 World Championships. Lara van Nek has been riding the stallion since last year and has since established herself as fourth in the U25 world rankings. Today they came third with 66.88 percent, also in the U25 Grand Prix.

Mauro Turfhorst takes off

There was also a Grand Prix de Dressage in Wezep today. Dinja van Liere was the clear winner here on her future hope Mauro Turfhorst, who was victorious in the small tour in Aachen last year. Even back then, the Dutch champion rider said that she had high hopes for the Zonik son and that he has everything a Grand Prix horse needs. Now nine years old, he already proved this a few weeks ago in his first Grand Prix and today he won with 76.522 percent in separate judging with three judges.

The Netherlands’ other dressage hopeful, Hans-Peter Minderhoud’s former world champion dressage horse My Toto, also competed in Wezep. However, Minderhoud gave up.

You can find all the results here.