Attoucha Hero Z, a crown diamond of the Vision 2024 investment group and undoubtedly one of the most winning young horses in recent years, has been sold to the American lady rider Paris Ann Sellon. She will certainly take her to the next level with a lot of love. Through consistent intensive training and professional guidance, Attoucha Hero Z, a daughter of top sire Aganix du Seigneur Z, climbed to the top. Under the saddle of Melanie Gelin, she jumped to no fewer than 18 international victories in the last few years. And then we have not even talked about the countless places of honor that they managed to collect. Of course, those good performances did not go unnoticed. There were many candidates, but Paris Ann Sellon was trusted by Vision 2024.
As her name suggests, Attoucha Hero Z is a breeding product of Luc Henry and she is a good example of his vision on breeding. She was bred out of the mare Gatoucha Van 't Roosakker, a daughter of Diamant de Semilly who jumped herself at 1.50m level with Michael Korompis and who is, among others, a half-sister of Jos Lanksink's former top horse Electra Van' t Roosakker (by Carthago Z). In terms of genes, this can already count! “I was the owner of Aganix du Seigneur Z at that time and I also believe very strongly in line inbreeding in the 2nd or 3rd generation”, explains Luc Henry about his choice of stallion at the time. "And by combining Aganix du Seigneur Z with Gatoucha Van 't Roosakker, I had line inbreeding on Darco in the 3rd generation." The qualities of the young Attoucha Hero Z emerged already young and Luc Henry was convinced. “Attoucha Hero Z is for me the most talented young horse I have ever had. She was just a natural talent with free jumping as a 2- and a 3-year-old! You have horses that are careful, you have horses that are good at estimating the obstacle and you have horses that have a lot of courage, but she just had everything! And it stayed that way (laughs). ”
Lieven van Decraen
Lieven Van Decraen is genuinely proud of the special bond of trust that he shares with Luc Henry. “The collaboration with Luc goes back more than 20 years and we share the same passion and vision about equestrian sports and breeding”, Lieven tells us. “For example, the first horse I bought from Luc was Urico, which I later sold to Mario Deslauriers and who is perhaps also known under the saddle of Ben Maher. But that's just one example of many, because horses like Chic Hin d'Hyrencourt, Ayade de Septon and most recently Ganesh Hero Z ended up at my stable thanks to Luc Henry ... I even think that 70 to 80 percent of the GP horses that I sold come from Luc's breeding farm or are horses that ended up here via him. I bought Attoucha Hero Z and her full sister Alana Hero Z 3 years ago as a 5-year-old. Luc himself also has a number of horses under saddle, but still feels mainly a breeder. Melanie Gelin was riding Attoucha Hero Z for Luc at the time, and she moved to Van Decraen Stables together with the purchase ”, Lieven laughs.
Vision 2024
As an entrepreneur, Lieven Van Decraen is always looking for innovations, not only in his collaborations with breeders, but also for opportunities to attract investors. Together with his partner Jarda Turek from Prague, he founded the international investment group Vision 2024 in 2018. Vision 2024 became a pilot project and a healthy foundation under the common objective to invest in a number of young promising horses. "Vision and know-how pay the best interest" is a statement that Vision 2024 considers to be of paramount importance. “At the start of the project, we had the idea, or perhaps rather the dream, of going to the Olympic Games with one of these horses. Paris was the first option, which is why we also named the project Vision 2024. But that Olympic dream was certainly not the main goal of the whole project. If it worked out, it was just a bonus. We decided that we would first test run for a while to see how we would approach everything, because of course we want to exceed the expectations of the investors! We brought in 6 horses ourselves and Attoucha Hero Z is now the first to sell out. Besides her, I think there are 3 other horses, including her sister Alana Hero Z, who have the potential to become a future GP horse and that will make our stakeholders very happy. Of course we are not only picky about the selection of our horses, but also about our investors ”, Lieven jokes.
A number of young horses have been scouted by Lieven and are ready to join the group next year. “Starting January 2021 a new group of young horses will be selected and Vision 2024 will be open to new investors. While I take care of the selection and training of the future stars, my partner Jarda Turek takes care of the business and the acquisition of future investors. You have to gain confidence and perform every day, but with Attoucha Hero Z we have of course gained the proof and confidence to expand further. Attoucha Hero Z is not only a great example of the goals of the VISION 2024 Group, but also a magnet for the Vision 2024 investment group. ”
‘There is no deeper secret than between a rider and his horse’
A statement by Robert Smith Surtees, that certainly applies to the passionate riders Melanie Gelin and Piergiorgio Bucci, who both have given their everything to ride Attoucha Hero Z to the top of the international show jumping sport. After Melanie's great performance at the end of 2018, where she took a 3rd place twice in the CSI2* competition of the Longines Global Champions Tour final in Prague, Lieven brought Attoucha Hero Z to the Italian Piergiorgio Bucci for several months last year. As analytical coach, Lieven felt that Attoucha, now 8 years old, was ready to go a step further in the international sport with the rider Piergiorgio Bucci, who would give her more chances to start at 3, 4 and 5* shows. “I had already successfully worked with Pigi (Piergiorgio) several times in the past and my trust was rewarded. In those few months at Pigi, Attoucha got even more stretch and scope than before.
But honestly, in the ring it’s actually more of a girls horse. She has a super attitude and she fights for you like a lioness, but you have to let her be a little bit so she can let her natural genes shine. When Pigi went to Italy for a few weeks for the national championship (which he won by the way) and some other competitions, we decided to bring her back home.
Melanie has taken the reins again and in September we decided to travel for 2 weeks to Azelhof in Lier. Since she had not jumped a competition for a few weeks, we just rode her the first week in the CSI1* competition, where she immediately became 3rd and 5th. But when she finished 2nd in the CSI2* Longines Ranking class the following week, it all went quickly. Shortly afterwards we received a phone call from Paris Sellon and the rest is history. ”
Breeding
In addition to the sport, Attoucha Hero Z has of course also been used several times for embryo transfers in recent years. For example, she is the mother of the stallion Kadco Hero Z (Kassander Van 't Roosakker), who in September in Azelhof in Lier crowned himself Belgian Champion of the 4-year-old horses under the saddle of Lennert Korsten. “We now have 2 descendants of Attoucha who are under the saddle”, says Lieven. “Kadco is a big horse that still needs some time to get stronger, but he has already proved in recent months in the Belgian cycle that he has certainly inherited the attitude of his dam. We also have his full sister Kinmar Queen Hero Z, who is a completely different horse then Kadco Hero Z in terms of type, but she also shows a lot of quality. She currently stands in Italy for ICSI to maintain the quality of this exclusive damline before she is released into the sport.
Paris Ann Sellon
In any case, Paris Ann Sellon is enthusiastic about her latest addition. “From the first moment I had a good feeling and I knew it was a good match for me! She is super easy to ride and she really is the type of horse I love to ride. It had been a long time since I had such a good click when trying a horse. ” But how did Attoucha Hero Z come her way? “Because Martin (Fuchs) and I are constantly looking for some horses, both for me and for him, we have been watching countless videos and results over the past year and that's how we ended up with Attoucha Hero Z a few weeks ago. We then contacted Lieven to come and try her. ” Despite the good feeling, Paris wants to take it easy for the time being and really take the time to get to know each other better. "My other horses are getting a year older and of course I already dream of Grand Prix’s and Nations Cups, but she is also only 8 years old and I don't want to put any unnecessary pressure on us." But could she also be a future GP horse for Martin? “Martin is European Champion, so he will undoubtedly be able to ride her. But she was bought for me (laughs). ”