Zonik Plus and Justin Verboomen - will they be spared Totilas' fate?

Zonik Plus and Justin Verboomen, Aachen winners, European champions, number one in the world, superstars! From a purely factual point of view, the story has the makings of déjà vu: a black stallion, a slim rider from Benelux and a meteoric rise to the top of the world. These parallels are easy to draw between the “wonder stallion” of the 2010s, Totilas, and the wonderful Zonik Plus.

And apart from that?

The performances of Dutch rider Edward Gal with Totilas were celebrated by judges and enthusiasts of raised front legs alike. They are emblematic of a phase in dressage in which good values were ignored and the spectacular always took precedence over the real. A dark time. It could go black before your eyes. Riding properly was enough? Not at all. The medal ranks required a completely different approach. And they did, across all nations.

Things didn’t get any better when Totilas moved to Germany – for however many millions of euros. At least Paul Schockemöhle proved with the purchase and breeding of Totilas that his instinct as a horse breeder is by no means limited to the show jumping sector.

Zonik Plus and Totilas – a lot in common, and yet not

Black, pretty, licensed, and a mixture of Dutch and Trakehner genes (incidentally, the Trakehner mare Karben by Ibikus appears in Zonik Plus as the great-great-great-granddam, with Totilas it is one “great-generation” less, this info only for breeding nerds) – but that is what the two stallions have in common. And of course the gold medal and the world ranking position.

But the ideas of the two couples could not be more different. Justin Verboomen, the son of a riding instructor and a doctor, has worked with Iberian horses for many years. His riding is characterized by lightness and harmony, barely visible aids and a textbook seat. His horse goes unshod. A novelty in a sport in which there are horses that seem to have a different horseshoe construction under almost every hoof. Justin trusts his stallion, and Zonik Plus trusts his rider. The black stallion is only nine years old. But the two have known each other for seven years. Their bond is close, their rein connection never is. How beautiful!

A real team

At the 2025 European Championships in Crozet, Zonik Plus entered the ninth Grand Prix of his career and beat the world’s best. Yes, of course it wasn’t perfect yet. There is always something wrong – slight tension, the hock in the piaffe – but the journey is the reward. And the path leads in the right direction. The performance in Frankfurt showed that. Justin Verboomen was the first man on the podium since 2017. Back then, Sönke Rothenberger won silver at the European Championships in Gothenburg. Verboomen won the first “male” gold medal at a championship since Edward Gal became world champion in Kentucky in 2010. And he was riding Totilas, who was subsequently sold.

As bitter as it may sound, even at the final salute in Crozet and at the latest when the cameras caught the incredulous amazement on Justin Verboomen’s face, only one thought flashed through my mind: How much is this horse worth now? Seven million? Ten million? Or even more euros? In sporting terms, the black horse can already be considered a potential contender to win the 2028 Olympics. If he stays healthy. And when looking at his pedigree, breeding arithmetic calculates a breeding value that is almost higher than Totilas: Zonik Plus has four medal winners at the Olympic Games, World and European Championships, three World Cup finalists and, in addition to Zack, the leading bloodlines of international dressage with Don Schufro and his sire Donnerhall combined in one horse. And this horse not only impresses with his performance, but also with his beauty.

How nice it would be if this wonderful couple weren’t torn apart by a million-euro deal. Good for Zonik Plus. For Justin Verboomen. For dressage as a whole, which so desperately needs pairs like this.