World and European showjumping champion SFN Zenith NOP is to be inducted into CHIO Aachen’s “walk of fame”.
The walk of fame includes the shoes of top horses which have competed at the prestigious German venue.
The showjumper, who is partnered by Jeroen Dubbledam, took team and individual gold at this summer’s FEI European Showjumping Championships in Aachen.
“The horseshoe of Zenith will be added to the walk of fame shortly,” a spokesman for Aachen told H&H today (Friday 2 October).
The “walk of fame” celebrates great equestrian heroes and was the idea of Aachen show director Frank Kemperman.
The shoes are sunk into a tile on the floor, surrounded by a star —similar to those in Hollywood lauding celebrities.
Zenith joins other stars including Eric Lamaze’s hero Hickstead, Anky Van Grunsven’s Salinero, Isabelle Werth’s Olympic mount Satchmo, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum’s legendary Shutterfly and dressage wonder horse Totilas.
In 2014 Zenith was named KWPN horse of the year. This followed his team and individual gold at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy.
The 11-year-old bay gelding was last seen with Jeroen representing Holland in the Nations Cup final in Barcelona last week (26 September). The team finished third behind Belgium and Great Britain. The Netherlands and Britain both finished on eight penalties, but Team GBR just scraped ahead with a marginally faster time.
Zenith is one of the top Dutch horses. Horses suffixed SFN are owned by the Springpaarden Fonds Nederland (Showjumping Fund of the Netherlands), aimed primarily at saving them for championship teams.
SFN horses have competed at six of the past seven major medal events and SFN currently owns nine horses — including Zenith.
For more information on how the Dutch keep their top horses — don’t miss H&H’s exclusive article, here.
