A LOOK back at Heike Holstein’s FEI record shows a wealth of experience. She represented Ireland at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta on Devereaux, the 2000 Games in Sydney with Ballaseyr Royal, and the 2004 Athens Games aboard Welt Adel.
She competed at the European Championships in 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, and most recently in 2019 when she helped Ireland secure a historic team slot, as well as the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Rome.
After the European Championships in Hagan in 2005, Holstein’s international career was paused for 13 years, until July 2018 when she made her international comeback in Hickstead with the home-bred Sambuca. During that time, Heike had her two children, Archie and Jake, with husband William Bell, and she continued to produce her young horses on a national level, becoming national champion seven times during that period.
The golden girl of dressage in Ireland, Heike won a record-breaking 13th national champion title after winning the Grand Prix in 2019.
Sambuca is registered with the Breeders Elite Studbook for Irish and European Sporthorses Limited (BE-SIES). Riding a home-bred and home-owned horse at the Games is most special for Heike, who always believed she would be a Grand Prix horse.
“When I started riding her, she always felt like a Grand Prix horse. She was very powerful but she didn’t look the prettiest. Mum [Gisela Holstein] used to say ‘what are you doing with that horse!’ And I would say ‘no, she feels like a Grand Prix horse’. Luckily she was!” Heike told The Irish Field.
Heike and Sambuca have had four international outings since the sport was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic last season. In 2021, they travelled to Exloo CDI3*, Wellington CDI3* and just earlier this month, the five-star at Rotterdam before going into quarantine in Aachen.
They set a new Grand Prix Special record of 70.59% at Wellington in May, but will not be performing that test in Tokyo as it is for the team riders only. Their best Grand Prix score (70.43%) came as Compiegne CDI3* in May 2019, while a more recent notable Grand Prix score was 70.08% in Wellington. The combination’s Freestyle record is 74.91%, achieved at Windsor in May 2019.
YOU have to go back to Los Angeles 1984 to find the last male dressage Olympic champion, such is the domination of female athletes in the world of international dressage, and my guess is that the streak of eight successive female Olympic winners will not be broken in Tokyo.
Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin claimed back-to-back gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 with the magnificent Valegro. He scored an incredible 93.85% (which was not his highest ever score) in the Freestyle at Rio to claim the gold medal in his last ever competitive appearance.
There was a surprise earlier this month when Charlotte announced that she would ride Gio in Tokyo, instead of her 2018 WEG bronze medallist Mount St John Freestyle. The 10-year-old gelding did his first international Grand Prix Special at Wellington CDI in May, scoring 81.43%, and has only done two Freestyles in his career so will she make the podium this time round?
Germany’s Isabell Werth is the most decorated Olympic equestrian athlete of all time, having won six gold and four silver medals at five Olympic Games. Tokyo will be her sixth Olympic appearance and she takes Bella Rose, with who she won an emotional gold with at the 2018 WEG in Tryon and at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam where they scored a whopping 90.87% in the Freestyle.
Werth’s Tokyo teammate Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB wowed dressage fans in June when they scored 93%, just 1% off Valegro’s all-time record, and will be watched closely.
Isabell Werth salutes the crowd after she and Bella Rose won gold at the Longines FEI Dressage European Championships in Rotterdam, The Netherlands \ Dean Mouhtaropoulos Getty Images for FEI
GERMANY won dressage team gold at Rio 2016 for a remarkable 13th time, and alongside Werth and von Bredow-Werndl, Dorothee Schneider (Showtime FRH) will also be pushing for an individual podium place, which make them a formidable trio to claim the team gold medal.
The British team have won medals at almost every championship in recent years, and has the experience of Dujardin and Carl Hester, but Tokyo will be an Olympic and championship debut for every horse. They are joined by debutants Charlotte Fry and Gareth Hughes (alternate).
The USA won bronze in 2016 but just one of that team – Steffen Peters – travels to Tokyo, while Catherine Dufour spearheads the Danish team as does Patrik Kittel for Sweden. The Dutch will be looking for another Olympic medal and former medal winners Edward Gal (Total US) and Hans-Peter Minderhoud (Dream Boy) accompany Marlies van Baalen (Go Legend) who was on the team that finished fourth at the 2004 Olympic Games. It will be a fascinating competition!