There was nothing inevitable about Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus – known on the yard as Zozo. The partnership that delivered Belgium’s first-ever dressage medals at last summer’s European Championships – double gold for the quietly spoken 38-year-old from Wauthier-Braine – could easily have been broken up before it ever truly began.
After his first grand prix outings on his Lusitano, Tamino, Justin knew he needed a horse capable of taking him higher. “I was always struggling – always searching for a horse that could put me at a higher level,” he says.
The search took him through Belgium, Germany and Ireland, trying horse after horse, none of which worked out. In the end, it was a conversation over dinner in Portugal that changed everything.
“At the end of the day, we were eating at a restaurant and there was a breeder there,” Justin recalls. “He told me, ‘Maybe I have a horse for you, just come and see him.’ So just before we took the plane, we went to see him – and I directly fell in love.”
Read the full interview in this week’s Horse & Hound, get your copy here
Zonik was not quite two and a half years old, a little wild, but there was something there Justin couldn’t ignore. “He had the capacity to focus on me after five or 10 minutes, and that was there from the beginning,” he says.
“Even now, it’s really incredible how he can focus on his rider, even when a lot is going on around him.”
He laughs, recalling how he tried to keep his cool as they haggled over the price. “I said, ‘OK… maybe I can buy him if the vet check is OK.’ But really, I was astonished that they wanted to sell him to me!”
But as the partnership developed and the bills mounted, Justin came close to making the most painful decision of his career.
“To reach my goals, I had to spend money that I just didn’t have,” he says. When Zonik was six – talented but still unproven – Justin came close to selling him.
It was the yard’s previous owner who pulled him back from the edge. “She really saved me,” he says. “Thanks to her, I was able to keep Zonik, because at one point I was in trouble and almost obliged to sell him.”
Two years ago, with success finally arriving, Justin made himself a promise. “I decided: it’s finished. I will keep him until the end of his life. Even if people propose whatever they want, I will say no. He is not for sale.”
Watching them together, it’s difficult to imagine one without the other.
“He’s really part of my family,” says Justin. “I don’t see my life without him. I don’t have kids, but I have four dogs and a lot of horses.”
He pauses, laughs. “Well, my husband, too – not at the bottom of the list, of course. But yeah, they are my family: four dogs, my husband, and Zonik.”
Read the full Justin Verboomen interview, including life on the yard, his riding philosophy, and the European Championships moment that changed everything, in this week’s Horse & Hound, in shops from 23 April.
- For more exclusive interviews with top riders and trainers, and to stay up to date with the latest news, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website
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