On Sunday, Bentheim NRW secured the red and white sash of the Westphalian Champion for the second time in his young career at the Westphalian Week in Münster-Handorf. It was the eighth victory in ten starts for the young star from the Gut Neuenhof stallion station.
Bentheim had already won the Westphalian Championships in 2024. A few weeks later, he also secured the title for three-year-old riding horse stallions at the Bundeschampionat in Warendorf. Since then, the Belvedere DB son from the famous Dodona line of the de Baey family in Lemgo (Ahlerich, Amon, Rembrandt, Rubinstein) has been allowed to use the name suffix NRW. Now a four-year-old, Bentheim NRW is seamlessly following on from the successes of the previous season. The crowning glory for the time being was his renewed triumph at the Westphalian Championships last weekend. As with every one of his appearances to date, Danica Duen was in the saddle again this time and guided the stallion to success.
Both groups of judges awarded Bentheim’s trot a 9.0 and the scores for canter and training also shot up to 9.0. “Good” to “very good” was the verdict for walk. Type and quality of conformation were again unanimously “very good”.
This was the second victory for Bentheim NRW in the course of the Westfalen-Woche 2025, after he had already won the qualifier, which was also part one of the HLP for four-year-old riding horse stallions.
Set for Warendorf
As last year’s champion, Bentheim NRW was already seeded for the Bundeschampionat, but confirmed this impressively once again this weekend.
The second Westphalian riding horse that was already nominated for Warendorf before the Westfalen-Woche is the bronze medal winner of the three-year-old mares and geldings from the previous year. And she also comes from Gestüt Gut Neuenhof: the home-bred Maxima NRW, whose genes combine the blood of Totilas with that of Escolar via the Gut Neuenhof sire Maxim. Maxima’s dam Edina by Estobar NRW-Fürst Piccolo is a full sister of the Gut Neuenhof stallion.
