Selection committee
Eric jr van der Vleuten
Eric Jr van der Vleuten developed his talent as a show-jumping rider under his father’s guidance. He booked the necessary successes at this year’s Sunshine Tour.
Whereas brother Maikel focuses fully on top sports in Van der Vleuten Stable, Eric Jr divides his attention between showjumping, organising events and trade. Trained at the Dutch Equestrian Vocational Academy in Deurne, Van der Vleuten Jr focuses on the professional and mostly international market of talented show-jumping horses. Scouting young talents, excellent training and making the customer happy with a suitable horse - that is what Eric Jr sees as a major challenge.
Supported by his father and the experienced Kees van den Oetelaar, Eric Jr is in charge of Future Sport Horse Sales. With this auction of talented horses of the future, Eric Jr aims to present Van der Vleuten Stable’s core values: long-term quality.
Kees van de Oetelaar
Kees van den Oetelaar is one of the Netherlands’ most successful showjumper scouts and owners. He has early discoveries of world-class talents to his name, such as Jikke, Cedric, In Style and Hickstead. His top stallion, VDL Groep Verdi, has been a pillar in the golden Dutch show-jumping team for many years.
As the co-owner of stallions such as Concorde, Verdi, Marius Claudius and Eldorado van de Zeshoek, Van den Oetelaar made a major contribution to the development of today’s show-jumper
Kees van den Oetelaar built up his business in the sports horses trade. Furthermore, Van den Oetelaar’s professional life revolves around his passion for breeding horses. He has owned stallions all his life. Initially they were managed by other stallion stables. Since his daughter Lotte joined the company, many ‘Oetelaar stallions’ are available for breeding via their own company in Schijndel.
Eric van der Vleuten
Eric van der Vleuten’s natural talent became apparent at a young age, at Heijligers riding stables in Asten. He participated in the World Cup Qualifications in Antwerp on Kojack H. Fellow horsemen such as André Heijligers, Piet Raijmakers and Henk Nooren all had a positive influence on Eric van der Vleuten in his development towards becoming a top rider.
The list of horses Van der Vleuten rode to success at a high level is quite long. He won prizes with Expo Graphic, Diejasper T and Jikke, participated in the World Cup finals with Vink Especiale and took Vink Flower and Expo Matchline to the World Championships. On VDL Groep Tomboy, Van der Vleuten won the London-Olympia World Cup qualifier.
The list of top horses that Eric van der Vleuten detected at a young age is long. Van der Vleuten serves as the talent scout and coach of his sons Maikel and Eric Jr, and is also the official trainer of the Spanish Federation.
