Karin Donckers and Ceres De La Brasserie. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
There are championship riders, and then there is Karin Donckers. The 54-year-old ever-jolly Belgian is making her 30th senior squad appearance – she was riding at championships before a good percentage of her rivals were born – and Blenheim is her 15th Europeans. Twenty years ago, when the European Championships last took place at Blenheim, she finished in that most irritating of positions – fourth individually – on the Irish Thoroughbred Gormley.
“It’s really nice to be back – England is England, everything is so horsey here, so green; it’s beautiful to ride in a park like this, and since Brexit we don’t come here so often because it’s all a bit more complicated,” said Karin with a grin.
“Riding at a championship never gets old [for me] – it keeps me fit, it keeps me passionate, it keeps me motivated, and as long as I enjoy it so much and I feel good and I have the right horse, I will do it.”
Karin was matter-of-fact about her dressage score of 34.9 on Ceres De La Brasserie, the 13-year-old daughter of Gazelle De La Brasserie, herself a homebred that Karin rode at two Olympics, two World Equestrian Games and two European Championships, by I’m Special De Muze.
Karin Donckers and Ceres De La Brasserie. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“I was happy. Of course it can improve; she jogged in the walk and her flying changes aren’t established yet. She’s almost there, but then you feel the difference in an environment like this and in a championship test; it’s all a little more excited, so I need to work on that,” she said.
Is Ceres similar to her dam?
“In a way, yes – they have similar brains. She takes care of herself – she’s a clever mare and pays attention. She knows what she’s doing and that’s what I like across country – horses that think, and take care of themselves and of the rider.
At the peak of her career, Karin would lead – or near enough – the dressage at five-star level, and tell the media with a self-deprecating smile that she wouldn’t go fast enough cross-country to hold on to that. Usually true, but her horses are beautifully produced and skip around big tracks happily, so her thoughts on Mark Phillips’ cross-country course at Blenheim are worth heeding.
“It’s a proper track,” she underlined. “You have to come in your rhythm with the big fences at the beginning, and then from the second quarter to the end of the third quarter, there are a lot of technical distances that you have to ride. I will have to make sure that we have a bit of energy in the tank to be able to finish properly. But I don’t think it will be a dressage competition – it’s a really English course.”
EN is proud to welcome Horsepal onboard as the sponsor of our European Championships coverage! Horsepal is a newly-launched heart rate monitor brought to you by Tom MacGuinness, founder of Horseware and an FEI eventer and endurance rider, who’s brought his decades of knowledge to practice in the design of Horsepal. You can now purchase Horsepal directly to the UK and Europe — learn more here.
Agria FEI European Eventing Championships at Blenheim: [Website] [Tickets] [Live Stream] [BBC iPlayer Broadcast] [FEI YouTube Streams] [Entries] [Timing & Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [EN’s Coverage] [Support Our Sponsor: Horsepal]
