Jos Verlooy has sold his top horse Domino to Audrey Coulter from Copernicus Stables. The young American rider from San Francisco has been at Euro Horse stables for a year now and was looking for a new horse. She didn’t have to look far, although it was never the plan to sell Domino.
Jos still had great plans with his favourite horse, he wanted to go to the Olympic Games next year with Domino but at the recent European Championships the Belgian Team failed to qualify and that was the deciding factor for Jos, he explaines: “It was a difficult decision, we had some long discussions with the family. Every rider is associated with one horse, for me this is and will probably always be Domino, we made each other en thanks to Domino I represented Belgium at two European Championships and the World Championships in the last 3 years. Domino launched my professional carrier, finishing 5th at the World Cup Finals in Las Vegas.
Jos doesn’t have to say goodbye to his best friend and that makes this decision a lot less painful. “Audrey is a young talented rider and she still has a chance to go to Rio next year and Domino deserves to jump at the Olympics. As Audrey is staying in our stables, Domino will also stay in his own stable and I will keep training him for Audrey. She is the new owner but I will still see him every day and that was an important argument in my decision. Also I know Audrey and I know she will be very good for Domino, he will be as happy with her as he was with me and I am convinced that they will gather many great results together!”