Mark Vab De Donk

Mark van de Donk

A gifted young Dutch rider, Mark van de Donk has both riding and teaching qualifications, known in Holland as Phase I and II, to back up his talented riding and the quality input he has received from his trainers; he recently completely his Phase II with a 9 for teaching and a ten for riding (on a scale of one to ten).

Mark has always been trained by Grand Prix riders, namely Karen Nijvelt, Johan Rockx, Penny Zavitz, Christa Laarakkers and, for the past year, Adelinde Cornelissen. Adelinde is, of course, famous for her outstanding international dressage performances with the tricky but immensely talented Parzival.

He competes up to ZZ-light, which is a National class that all those wishing to compete as Young Riders in Holland must qualify for. He trains his own and clients’ horses to Prix St Georges (PSG)/Intermedeaire 1 and 2, touching on some areas of Grand Prix such as passage, piaffe and two-time flying changes.

The main horses he competes on behalf of his clients are the 6-year old mare Winnipeg, who – like the 9-year old former show-jumper Tolstoy - competes at Z2 level. This is the highest level for a six-year old horse and is a difficult test with a lot of collection, half passes in trot and canter, and flying changes.

He bought his own horse, Ultra, as a weanling. Ultra competes at ZZ-light, which is a tougher version of Z2, and is a National class with quarter pirouettes. He hopes to start Ultra in PSG classes in 2010.

For the past two years Mark has been selected for the RABOBANK TALENT PLAN, which is a training plan for talented people under 22-years old. Selection, which is done by the national equipe coaches, entitles Talent Plan riders to sponsorship to train with national trainers such as Adelinde Cornelissen, Anky von Grunsven, Imke Schellekens-Bartels and Edward Gal.

Many of Mark’s pupils are regularly winning dressage competitions, and in the last two years six of them have won National titles.

Mark and his partner Robert Roel van den Bos, a former Dutch National Carriage Driving Champion, have recently moved from a public training yard in Assen to their home in Zuidlaarderveen where they are building a training facility for sports horses.