In the World  Equestrian Games in 1998 at Rome, 13 from the 84 international dressageriders participated with a Dutch breeded KWPN-dressagehorse. I don’t know the pedigree of 3 horses; the pedigree of the other 10 horses is: 1 pure Gelderlander, 3 are 75% Gelderlander and 3 are 50% Gelderlander. Thus totally 7 of these 10 horses are descended at least half from the old Gelderlander bloodlines from before the founding in 1969 of the KWPN (Royal Dutch Warmblood Studbook).

The KWPN always told that the native Gelderlander and Groninger horse are not good enough as ridinghorse and has problems to declare the opposite. But the international results proof it clearly. The multipurpose Gelderlander horse, which was used in earlier days for agricultural work and as ridinghorse for young farmers, is very rare nowadays. The KWPN includes only 300 Gelderlander mares and more than 10.000 so called “rijpaard”-mares (”ridinghorses”).
The second best KWPN-dressagehorse in the Grand Prix was the 75% Gelderlander horse Elorianne that in Rome competed for Spain. Her father is Zoöloog, the only pure Gelderlander stallion that by the KWPN is approved for the breeding of “ridinghorses”. Because of his Gelderlander pedigree Zoöloog sired only a few number of mares (and not even the best). For that reason he is sold to America and he was a dressagehorse of the team of the USA that won silver at the Pan-American Games in 1991 (see internet http://www.bdeq.net/zooloog.htm) Zoöloog has only 49 descendants, 3 of them are at this moment international dressagehorses. There is no stallion in the whole world that has such a high percentage of his children at that level. The stallion Zoöloog with the Gelderlander pedigree is thus far the best stallion of the KWPN-breeding. Because the KWPN never gave any information about Zoöloog, he is totally unknown in Holland however.

In America Zoöloog is well-known not only for his sport results but even more because severe cruelty and a juridical case that attracts attention (see http://equinerescue.org/  since 1996 this homepage had more than 2.000.000 visitors)

Probably begins with the super-results of Zoöloog the comeback of the Gelderlander horse that is still the best horse in the world as well for recreation as for breeding international showjumpers and dressagehorses.

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