Delacroix (VA) by Dancier/Don Crusador, born 2010
Breeder: Jens Hagemann, Parsau
Rider: Jill Irving/CAN
Delacroix’s career began at the winter auction in Verden in January 2014, when he was still a stallion. “Outstanding dressage offspring with obvious dressage talent, excellent potential and good level of schooling,” read the catalogue text for the black stallion with the name Domino H. Burkhard Wahler from Klosterhof Medingen secured the rough diamond. He was the first of five offspring of St.Pr.St. Donna Lion to find new owners in the Niedersachsenhalle. Among them was full brother Dancing Diamond, who is currently successful in advanced (S*) level dressage competitions with rider Franziska Linden. She had discovered the dark bay at the stallion sales in 2019. Granddam Lioness by Lindberg/Wendelin shows a clear dual disposition, producing the Escudo son Elwood Esbjerg, among others, who can boast successes up to 1.40 metres. Delacroix is already the second representative of the dam line of Nordküste to make it to world class level: Isabell Werth’s unforgotten Don Johnson FRH also goes back to the dam line of Nordküste.
With Theresa Wahler and Bart Desender, Delacroix, now a gelding, climbed the first rungs of the career ladder with top placings in tests for young riding and dressage horses before being sold to the Netherlands in the same year. Six years after his auction appearance, the shiny black stallion appeared in the international spotlight in 2021, on the big stage of the CHIO Aachen/GER. With Vincent van Gasselt, Delacroix finished second in the Nations Cup with the Oranje team after coming fourth in the Grand Prix Special. Three months later, he was sold into the Canadian championship hands of Jill Irving. The dressage rider, born in 1963, has good experience with the Hannoveraner D-blood. She took part in the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon/USA with the De Niro/Regazzoni son Degas (breeder: Christine Müller, Stade) and won team gold at the Pan-American Games in Lima/PER the following year. “It’s a dream come true,” said Jill Irving after her nomination with Delacroix. “As a child, I remember watching the Olympic Games, you know, and I’m not a younger athlete — I’ve been doing this a long time. Dreams can come true and you just have to stick with it, work hard and keep going no matter what.”
It was less than a year and a half ago that Delacroix and Jill Irving competed internationally for the first time. In Ocala, Florida, where the Canadian spends the winter months, they came fourth in both the Grand Prix and Freestyle. Delacroix is much more powerful than her previous horses, she says, and it took her a while to harness that power. But now that she is comfortable with her new teammate, she said he is very reliable in the ring. After a short trip to Europe, where she collected ribbons in Kronenberg/NED, Crozet/FRA and Dielsdorf-Zurich/SUI, top results in Welllington/USA and Myakka/USA at the beginning of the year helped her get her ticket to Paris.
