Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus.
LIER, Belgium, May 17, 2025–Belgium, led by the top scoring Justin Verboomen on Zonik Plus, won the CDIO4* Nations Cup at home Saturday, the country’s first ever victory in the trans-Atlantic series launched in 2013. Germany which had won the first two team competitions so far this year took silver and the Netherlands bronze.
Belgium earned a score of 220.825 for gold while Germany was on 218.892 for silver and Holland’s total was 212.131.
With Lier midway in the six-event series this year, Germany still has a commanding lead in overall standings with the biggest events, at Rotterdam, Netherlands and Aachen, Germany to be staged in June and July. Germany has topped the series the last two years.
Top sport success for Belgium is relatively recent.
Justin and and his nine-year-old Hanoverian stallion competed in the Word Young Horse Championships three years ago, did not show internationally at Grand Prix until last November and since then has won five of nine starts including Saturday’s with a score of 78.543%, the highest of the 31 horse and rider combinations from nine countries.
Larissa Pauluis on Flambeau, 15-year-old KWPN gelding that she competed at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and last month’s World Cup Final, was awarded 72.478%. The pair has been key in the rise of Belgium’s dressage fortunes.
Germany which won the Nations Cups in Wellington, Florida and Compiègne, France earlier this year did not include a fourth combination as a possible discard.
Katharina Hemmer on Denoix PCH, the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding, she took over two years ago from her coach, German Olympian Hubertus Schmidt and part-owner with America’s Nancy Gooding, was awarded 74.957%, the second highest score of the contest. With results from teammates Svenja Kämper-Meyer on Amanyara M FRH for 72.196% and Isabell Werth on Special Blend for 71.739% it was enough to withstand Belgium.
Olympian Hans Peter Minderhoud on Glock’s Taminiau with 72.761% was the highest scoring Dutch rider.