1998 European Dressage Pony Champion, Delphine Meiresonne, has two new top dressage horses at her disposal. Since her move to the junior and young riders' division, this incredibly talented young rider did not find the right click with two of the horses she owned. Ferrari, nor Ferragamo were the right choices for her and in 2001, Delphine held a sabbatical to find that new star.

2002 seems to be a promising year for Delphine, as she finally found two horses with which she really feels connected. For the young riders' division, Delphine has received the Dutch young rider team gold medal winning Habibi at her disposal. Habibi, formerly trained and competed by Dutch Marlies van Baalen, took a year off in 2001 due to a severe injury, but is now fit and back in shape for the competition year. As Marlies van Baalen's schedule is currently full with the training of many German stallions at Johan Hinnemann's, Habibi was looking for a new rider. Trainer Coby van Baalen offered the ride of the bay gelding by Ulft to her student. "Delphine is planning on competing Young Riders in Belgium with Habibi. He's currently moving along very well, but we have to be careful because he just recovered from his injury. Habibi has proven to be an excellent show horse and we have high hopes in him," mother Christine Meiresonne told Junior Riders.

Delphine has even more luck because Belgian stallion station Stoeterij van de Helle has offered their young Oldenburg mount Don Renoir to Delphine. Don Renoir is a pitch black gorgeous Donnerhall x Renoir offspring who stands up for stud at De Helle. He's licensed for the BWP studbook and at the time of his approval he was owned by Wilfried Cerpentier and Georges de Roeck. Delphine accepted the training of Don Renoir on condition that the stallion would move to the training stable of Coby van Baalen in Brakel. In 2000, Delphine briefly trained with Rien van der Schaft, due to Coby's busy Olympic schedule, but she is now back at Van Baalen's place for the completion of her training career.

Images copyrighted: Dirk Caremans