Rob Hoekstra sued over lame horse

Show jumper Rob Hoekstra is facing a substantial damages claim after former clients Willium and Lynne van Heyningen successfully sued him over a mare which went lame.

Although the sum will bedetermined later, Judge Elizabeth Steel, sitting at Liverpool High Court, found Rob Hoekstra liable.

Mr Hoekstra allegedly had told the van Heyningens that the international mare, Pebble Beach, whom he sold to them for £350,000 in November 1997, had suffered no previous lameness.

However, soon after the puchase she became lame with osteoarthritis and, despite extensive treatment by both Mr MacMahon and sports medicine specialist Rob de Vink, she was retired in November 1999.

In 1998 the van Heyningens discovered that Pebble Beach may have had previous lameness and this led to litigation which, said Judge Steel, was “abrasive and antagonistic”, and led to a “bitter” fall-out.

Judge Steel summed up by confirming that she was satisfied that Mr Hoekstra had made fraudulent misrepresentation about Pebble Beach, and that he was aware of the mare’s history of lameness.

• For the full story see this weeks issue (12 July) of Horse & Hound magazine.