The World Champion of young dressage horses!

Trot - 10! Perspective - 10! Walk, canter, rideability - 9.5! 9.7 - Gold!!! Hesselhøj Downtown's final performance at the World Championships for five-year old dressage horses in Verden was pure goose bumps. With his rider Jeanna Hogberg/SWE, he demonstrated the perfect example in terms of swing, elasticity and mechanics and proving himself to be a "very obedient and happy looking horse", as chief judge Susanne Baarup/DEN enthusiastically described it in her commentary.

At the Danish Championships for young dressage horses that followed, the judges even went a little higher in their marks for Hesselhøj Downtown’s presentation: a dream score of 10 for trot and overall impression, 9.8 for canter and rideability and 9.6 for walk. In 2020, he was the ultimate benchmark at the qualifier for the four-year-old championships. At the time, he was ridden by Anders Sjøbeck Hoeck. The judges awarded 10 for canter and potential, 9.8 for walk, 9.7 for trot and 9.5 for rideability. In 2019, after his licensing in Herning/DEN, Hesselhøj Downtown passed his stallion performance test with uniformly good scores.

His sire Hesselhøj Donkey Boy, Champion Stallion of the licensing in Denmark, winner of his stallion performance test and Elite Stallion, was silver and bronze medallist at the World Championships for young dressage horses and is victorious in international Small Tour competitions. So far, four of his sons have been licensed, including, besides the World Champion Hesselhøj Downtown, his full brother Hesselhøj Donkey Boss, 2021 premium stallion in Denmark.

His dam's sire Zack took part in the Olympic Games in Tokyo/JPN with Nanna Skodborg Merrald/DEN and narrowly missed out on a medal with a fourth place by team. With Daniel Bachmann Andersen/DEN, he was part of the Danish Team at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon/USA and the European Championships in Rotterdam/NED. In 2018 and 2019, the pair was placed in the final of the World Cup. Zack, who is an elite stallion and Stallion of the Year in Denmark, produced over 40 licensed stallions, including our Vice German Champion, Zaunkönig. Thanks to the success in sport of his offspring, including the Grand Prix horses Zap Zap/Astrid Neumayer/AUT, Glock’s Zonik N.O.P./Hans Peter Minderhoud/NED, Zick Flower and Zepter/both ridden by Cristian Tudela Ruiz/ESP and ZigZag/Gilles Ngovan/SUI, he is already placed amongst the top 30 best dressage sires in the world.

The Hanoverian stallion Ragazzo and the Trakehner stallion Schwadroneur also appear in the pedigree.