He is (former) Olympic, World and European champion but, until last Sunday, the national title was missing from his list of achievements. In Mierlo however, Jeroen Dubbeldam made maximum profit of the faults of the other combinations and, with BMC Van Grunsven Whisper, he was, ultimately, the strongest of all. Of course, our horseman from Weerselo will be participating in Outdoor Gelderland at the beginning of next month. We called to have a chat with the brand new champion:
Congratulations. It’s Outdoor Gelderland at the beginning of next month; how will that competiton fit into your schedule?
Jeroen Dubbeldam: “I don’t have a schedule; I take the season a step at a time- just as it comes.”
Can you explain?
“BMC Up and Down is, in principle, my number one horse but he is only gradually recovering from an injury. So for the present I have been allotted BMC Van Grunsven Whisper, BMC Van Grunsven Simon and BMC Jasper Bleu. Young and talented horses every one of them but with them I’m still in the getting-to-know-each-other phase. So it wouldn’t be reasonable to set all kinds of goals at present.”
Nevertheless you get to become Dutch Champion.
“Of course, I enter competitions in order to win. And then, apparantly without any problem at all one can win.”
A question of chance?
“No, no, definately not. Actually it clicked with BMC Van Grunsven Whisper from the very first moment and during the last weeks I also felt he was developing great form. The title is more or less a confirmation of that.”
In the coming weeks we have La Baule and Rome, followed by Outdoor Gelderland.
“I’m not going to Rome. First for me now is La Baule where I will be coming out with BMC Van Grunsven Whisper and BMC Van Grunsven Simon. And then, for me, after that comes Outdoor.”
And then also with those two horses?
“I’m not sure about that yet. It could very well be that I also take BMC Up and Down with me. In the beginning of April I rode him in the light tour in the French Hardelot and that went really well. He still needs to develop his rhythm and he isn’t yet up to his full capacity but Outdoor could be an excellent new test case. We’ll see how things go in the weeks to come.”
And then in August the EC?
“That’s even further up the road; I’m not thinking about that just yet. Like what I said before- I take things a step at a time. Let’s first see how the horses do.”
Outdoor Gelderland will take place from 3 through to 7 June 2009. For the latest information, opening times, the programme and ticket sales, click on www.outdoorgelderland.nl or www.kasteelfairmiddachten.nl.
