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Coby van Baalen & Olympic
Ferro - Next to the fivefold World Cup winner and current European Champion, Anky van Grunsven, she is regarded to be the second trump-card of the Dutch dressage riders in view of the Olympic Games in Sydney: Coby van Baalen (43). Her "secret trump", which really has not been a secret any longer since the World Equestrian Games in Rome 1998, is "Olympic Ferro" (from the Latin word "ferrum" which also means "hardness"). At that time, the pair was not only part of the equipe that won the silver-medal but was also placed sixth in the individual ranking. Her greatest dream, however, had been realised before Rome: "Every year, I came to Aachen with my husband, Ari, and I always wanted to start here once in my life!" A dream that became reality in 1998, on the occasion the 100th anniversary of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein.
Next milestone in her career were the European Championships last year when she became second with the team again. But the World Cup Final in s´Hertogenbosch must be considered as the absolute highlight, where she was runner up behind Anky van Grunsven and Gestion Bonfire, after having won the World Cup Qualification in Berlin last autumn. And all this spite the fact that the 13-year-old KWPN-stallion Ferro wasn’t expected to become famous in the dressage arena. The approved stallion, which covers more than 300 mares each year, started his sportive career in the jumping course. He was four years old and stood at a stallion-station near Arnheim, where he was discovered by Coby van Baalen, who also had leased a stallion to that stud. With John Hinnemann (59), her trainer for 10 years now, she deliberated about Ferro and decided: "That’s ours!" Of course, the trot was not the nicest as Ferro had been trained on jumping. But: "I was so impressed by the power of his hindquarters which were very obvious especially in the canter and quite soon his trot also developed very well", Coby van Baalen is enthusiastic. "Well, he is not a typical horse for women because of his power and his temperament." But he is said to be very sensitive so that the rider can arrange with him and rely on him. "He is not very spooky, as dressage horses often are. And when he is upset he calms down very quickly", his rider describes him and attests him a straight character. Furthermore, she ensures: "I have never sat on a horse with so much power in the hindquarters. While riding a passage, a piaffe or a pirouette, you have the feeling of being on cloud nine." Johann Hinnemann, usually quite reserved with emotional utterances, is also enthusiastic when he rides Ferro: " His ability to collect and his charisma are of world-class format. I nearly dare to say that he is much better than Ideaal was." Ideaal was the horse, on which Hinnemann not only won the gold-medal with the team but also became third at the individual raking in the Canadian Cedar Valley in 1986. About Coby: Coby van Baalen was born on April 6th, 1957 in Dorresteyn, NED, as a daughter of a farmer. Her father did not want to have anything to do with horses, so it was quite a while before he bought her a horse. Today, he loves riding, too. Coby´s younger sister is also a dressage rider and quite successful up to Grand Prix. Coby van Baalen has two children, and especially her daughter Marlies follows in her mother’s footsteps: The 19-year-old was twice European Junior Dressage Championships, last year she was second with the team at the young riders competition at the European Championships. Coby’s international career started at the beginning of the 90s. She married Ari who is the owner of a farm with more than 250 acres and 100 cows. On this farm, she has her dressage horses with about 25 horses. She also trains the Dutch and some Belgian juniors here.
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