Breeder of the Year: The Nominees

The nominees for the Breeder of the Year award have been announced. One breeder (or breeding duo) has been nominated per section, namely Sjef Versleijen (A), Henk & Tineke van der Weerd (B), Willy Buyzer & Ilse van der Plaat (C/D), Hub Kuijpers (NWR), and Henk & Dini Lamberts-Dolfing (WPBR). Starting next week through Monday, February 3, 2020, you can vote for your favorite via a poll on this website. Below, we’d like to introduce the nominees to you in more detail.

Section A

Sjef Versleijen (Challenge)

For years, Sjef Versleijen has been competing at the top of the Dutch Section A breeding scene with his Challenge ponies. His breeding products never go unnoticed in the inspection ring, and a Challenge pony regularly walks away with a title. His father used to breed Welsh B ponies that were already competing at the top level at the inspections. Even as a young boy, Sjef would accompany his father to the inspections, though his interest was already leaning more toward Section A. In the late 1970s, his father switched to draft horses. After his father passed away in 1997, Sjef and his wife Frieda decided around 1999–2000 to return to the familiar Welsh ponies. This fresh start also brought a new stable name: “Challenge.” They began with just two ponies, but the number grew steadily from there. Their show results didn’t take long to follow, and they began to trend upward. Sjef explains that he always kept his eyes and ears open at the inspections to see what type of pony suited them best. This often led him to ponies bred by Vechtzicht and Springbourne, and by purchasing several ponies from these fine bloodlines, he began to build his breeding program.

Section B

Henk and Tineke van der Weerd (Warmtebron)

Henk and Tineke van der Weerd live in the small town of Oldenbroek in Gelderland, where they have been breeding Section B ponies for 20 years under the stable name “Warmtebron.” The stallion that put their breeding program and stable name on the map was Warmtebron’s Hielke (by Den Bramels Rio elite). His dam, Wheemhoeve’s Nikita (Ster, Keur, Kroon, Preferent, and Elite), is now 23 years old and is expecting her 20th foal in March of this year. Hielke was the first homebred stallion presented by the van der Weerd family at the CHK; he was named the Best 3-Year-Old Section B Stallion and also received the bronze medal from a judge representing the dam’s studbook. Tineke says that Hielke is a stallion with a golden temperament. He proved this, among other things, by competing as a 5-year-old, “dressed up” as Hielke Klinkhamer, in the Kameleon class at the international show in Kootwijk. After that, the van der Weerd family bred four more studbook stallions and a number of high-quality mares with prestigious titles.

Section C/D

Willy Buyzer & Ilse van der Plaat (Altingshof)

Willie Buyzer has been breeding Welsh Mountain ponies and Cobs for years and, in the past, showed the gray Section A mare Vleuterweide’s Pleunie with great success. At the time, Pleunie was owned by D. Alting of Meerkerk and bred under the name Altingshof. Because Willie always helped him with the ponies—preparing them and showing them on his behalf—after his death in 2005, she inherited the beautiful Vleuterweide’s Pleunie and was allowed to continue using the stable name Altingshof. After that, she was absent from the show ring for a number of years but resumed competing in 2017.

Meanwhile, their daughter Ilse has also been an indispensable presence on the show ring for several years now. Especially in Sections C and D, they have been a mainstay on the show ring in recent years—and not without success. She has been particularly successful in breeding and showing Section D ponies. Five years after their last Cob foal, Altingshof Whispering Why Chloë, the ladies bred another Cob foal: Altingshof Kind Of Magic. He was already crowned Section D Foal Champion at the Regional Championships in Heteren and repeated this feat at the National Championships, where he became Section D Reserve Champion and National Section D Foal Champion. Thus, Willie and Ilse managed to breed a national foal champion two years in a row: in 2018 in Section C, Altingshof Liberty Coco (Glebedale Razamataz), and in 2019 in Section D, Altingshof Kind of Magic (Shamrocklake Oliver Twist).

NWR

Hub Kuijpers (Castenrayseweg)

Hub has been a passionate Welsh pony breeder for 50 years and lives on Castenrayseweg (hence the stable name “Castenrayseweg’s”) in Oirlo. Hub bred with a maximum of three mares per year, which has earned him a truly impressive list of achievements. The list of well-known sport and show ponies that have been born on Castenrayseweg in Oirlo is therefore quite extensive.
His breeding program began with Karin, a mare that lived to be 29 years old, with whom Hub bred eight foals by the stallion Naivnyi. Even back then, Hub had an eye for breeding well-conformed sport foals with great presence.
After Karin could no longer become pregnant, Hub donated the well-behaved mare to a riding school for children with disabilities, where they were able to enjoy her company for many years to come.
Next, the mare Jacobspeel’s Cecile (by Bokkesprong Czardas) was purchased. With this beautiful chestnut mare, Hub enjoyed a series of successful shows with good results. Next, the black mare Steffie was purchased—another Bokkesprong Czardas—and she turned out to be a real hit. In combination with Bokkesprong Casjmier, she produced the preferent and now 22-year-old foundation mare Castenrayseweg’s Julia and has produced a total of 19 foals. Julia was named foal champion and, at the time, was named best 3-year-old at the inspection in Wanroij. In combination with Leuns Veld’s Lord, she produced a series of fine offspring, including an FEI pony and a stallion approved in Germany.

Welsh Partbred

Henk and Dini Lamberts – Dolfing (Hendi’s)

The stable name “Hendi’s” is an abbreviation of the names of the married couple Henk and Dini Lamberts–Dolfing. Henk and Dini’s breeding program began with two Welsh Section A ponies: a mare named Miranda, by the Elite/Keur stallion Nachtegaal’s Captiain, and a two-year-old colt.
Henk has also always been active in club life; for example, he served on the Members' Council and was also a board member of the North Chapter.
The transition from the A-class ponies to the first NWR class took place in 1999 at the RK in Stadskanaal. There, Henk spotted a beautiful foal’s head peeking over the back of the trailer; it turned out to be Sonjahof Udillia, a daughter of the stallion Bokkesprongs Czardas. As an adult, Udillia won a number of championships at regional inspections and was ultimately awarded the “Kroon” predicate.
Because there were quite a few issues within the NWR regarding inbreeding, Henk and Dini decided to look for more genetic diversity, but outside the NWR. That’s how they came across the WPBR stallion Power and Paint, who was registered in the studbook and was used for breeding at home at the time. The ster/preferente mare Wester Aikema’s Carolien was bred to him in 2015, resulting in the keur mare Hendi’s Beauty Lady. That this proved to be a huge success was demonstrated by this mare’s first foal, named Hendi’s Arrow. As a foal, he was already crowned foal champion at the RK in Tolbert in 2016. Last year, he was presented at the CHK, where he was crowned a studbook stallion and also received the title of Section Champion.
Five years ago, Henk and Dini bred the national NWR foal champion; until then, whoever bred the foal champion was automatically nominated for Breeder of the Year. Unfortunately for Henk and Dini, the nomination process changed after that. But in the end, these two true-blue and passionate Welsh breeders have now been nominated after all and have built up an impressive track record of breeding results.