Amande de B’Neville

Oh Mandy – Barry Manilow’s tearjerker resounded across the DOKR grounds when the transporter with Amande de B’Neville or “Mandy” came to a halt in the yard of the Federal Training Center in Warendorf on August 5, 2021 and Julia Krajewski led the mare down the ramp. Great station for a great heroine. Mandy was returning home that day from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she had won gold in eventing for Germany and for her rider Julia Krajewski. With this triumph, Krajewski not only went down in sporting history, she also proved once and for all that she was a “champion”. A red carpet had even been rolled out for Mandy. But the mare was probably more interested in the welcome gift that was waiting for her at the end of the carpet: a wheelbarrow full of carrots and apples.

Tokyo was Amande de B’Neville’s career highlight – although a year later she and her rider were once again the best pair in the victorious German team at the World Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro and also won silver in the individual classification. They were also touted as hot candidates for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. But it was not to be.

Sports off

Queen Mandy did not return to international sport after the 2022 World Championships. She was suffering from a hoof problem that was not a problem in everyday life, but was a problem at peak loads to which the hooves are exposed during eventing. So Krajewski and Prof. Bernd Heicke, Mandy’s owner and Krajewski’s long-time sponsor, decided to retire the mare from the sport at the age of 13. The news came on December 24, 2023, Krajewski wrote on her social media channels:

“Of course I’m very sad that I won’t feel Mandy’s incredible power, ability, cleverness and determination from the saddle again. That feeling of superiority, especially on the last day in Tokyo or Pratoni, that she gave me probably won’t happen a second time!”

When the mare put on her game face in the field, there could be no doubt what the hour had struck. The determination was literally written all over her face. With her jumping ability and her jumping style, Mandy would also have been among the world’s best in the show jumping ring. But she was also very fast, very skillful and blessed with a seemingly never-ending reserve of energy.

Career

It was precisely this energy that presented Julia Krajewski with many a challenge at the beginning of her partnership with the Selle Français mare. The fire that made Amande de B’Neville fly over so many cross-country courses was initially more of an inferno and had to be steered in the right direction.

The mare was discovered in her native France by Belgian horse expert Myriam Meylemans – just like Krajewski’s first Olympic partner Samourai du Thot and Sandra Auffarth’s four-legged legend Opgun Louvo aka “Wolle”. Mandy came to Krajewski’s stables at the age of six. In the same year, the pair competed in their first CIC1* competitions (now CCI2*-S). The following year, Krajewski’s partner at the time, Christoph Wahler, competed in the first two tests with her before Krajewski took her over again. Shortly afterwards, they celebrated their first victory in Hambach. In 2018, they placed several times at CIC2* level (CCI3*-S) and also ventured into the three-star class towards the end of the season. They worked their way forward step by step. Right up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

From the bench to Olympic victory

Julia Krajewski had neither planned nor expected this. Her hopes for Japan were actually pinned on her top horse at the time, Samourai du Thot. However, after an infection in the winter, the gelding had to have an eye removed and Krajewski did not want to expect him to undergo another adjustment at an advanced age so that he could continue to compete at the top level. He was retired. The number one spot in the stable was now vacant. And Mandy seemed to have been waiting for it.

The mare had recommended herself for the nomination with a victory at the CCI4*-L in Saumur at the end of April. At the German Championships in Luhmühlen, she won bronze behind Michael Jung with Chipmunk and Sandra Auffarth on Viamant du Matz. It was this trio that was selected for the Olympic team. “We’ll manage,” explained Krajewski in an interview with ARD beforehand. How right she was. They didn’t just pull it off, they rocked it. And while the press went into overdrive and spoke of a “sensation”, Julia Krajewski was pretty cool. Of course, she was also overjoyed and spoke of a once-in-a-lifetime moment. But she also said: “I don’t have such a problem with pressure on the last day. At that moment I imagined, come on Mandy, it’s like we’re practising at home and jumping a really high, cool course.” No sooner said than done. Krajewski had no doubt that Mandy would deliver: “We were in a tunnel together. That was special. I also had the feeling that she wouldn’t make a mistake, she knew it was all to play for now.”

It was the Covid games. An exceptional situation that meant that only a few spectators were able to follow Mandy and Krajewski’s path to the title of a lifetime live. But Julia Krajewski has no regrets. On the contrary. “There was something between me and my horse,” she later said in the CHIO Aachen podcast.

Mother’s joy

After Amande de B’Neville had to be taken out of the sport due to the aforementioned hoof problem, she was given a new task: the Oscar des Fontaines daughter, who has several 1.60 meter show jumpers in her family, became a mom. Anyone who knows the Heicke family, to whom Mandy belongs, knows that only one stallion came into question as the sire of the first foal: Prof. Bernd Heicke’s favorite, the Holstein stallion Cascadello I. And so it came about. Mandy also tackled her second career with vigor, became pregnant immediately and gave birth to a healthy colt, who is obviously in no way inferior to her in terms of energy, if the Instagram reels taken by Julia Krajewski during her visit to mother and son are anything to go by. In terms of color and markings, both parents have made their contribution: brown with a wide blaze. With parents like that, it can only be a cracker.