Old love never dies; written by Patrik Spits.
It must have been in the middle of the nineties when my fascination began at the Bloemenjumping in Lier.The intelligent head, the unseen energy, the fur as white as a sheet, but above all the extraordinary high jumping qualities caught my eye.
"Eric (late Eric Wauters), what’s the name of that horse?”
To which Eric replied with a smile: “You better take good notice of that name, because you will hear it a lot. That is BON AMI."
Quite coincidentally I had just bought a daughter of this horse from Jos: Horfé de l'Europe, a mare with extraordinary jumping capabilities. When she was 4 years old she almost died after a difficult delivery, in which the fowl was born dead.
Later that season Eric won the Belgian show jumping championship in Bavikhove with Bon Ami. A year later he competed at the Olympic Games with the Belgian team. If I am not mistaken, it was in Atlanta. The whole village of Peulis was ecstatic.
In the mean time I had not sat idle and I had trained Horfé to become a real show jumping star. At a selection event for Jumping Mechelen at Azelhof, Horfé competed in the Grand Prix 1.45 meter as a 6 year old. She made such a great impression that Eric now came up to me to ask: “Who is that?”
“It’s that daughter of Bon Ami I once told you about.”
"Is she for sale?" he asked. Proud and shy at the same time, I stated my price.
“For that price you can load her onto my van immediately,” Eric said. “That horse is worth five times more.”
He had hardly spoken these words, when Jan Tops wandered into the paddock.
"For sale?" he asked rather curtly.
"Yes", I answered and offered him the horse at four times the price I had stated before, without even blushing…
"Can I try a few jumps?" Jan Tops asked. I said yes and three days later we left Jan Tops’ premises as he said “Good luck with the money”. That must have been in 1997.
Six months later that same Horfé, renamed to "Faraway Hills", won the qualifying event for the World Cup in London with Paul Barker, who was only 18 years old at that moment. Quite a satisfying experience!
So I searched for a second offspring of Bon Ami. One bred, one bought…
Lalik MGC De Leuze was put up for sale by a friend of Jos, Marie Guy Chanoine. We set up a small double jump and set Lalik free in the ring. He had no problems with the double jump and even jumped the fence, which was 1.70m high!
"Sold!" I said.
Lalik was a beautiful large chestnut horse that strolled on the Walloon fields.
When he was 4 years old, he moved to Peter Charles where he was the "leading horse of the stable" for years in a row.
Did you know that Bon Ami only had 314 fowls?
Did you know that of these 314, 122 jumped over 1.40m or more?
Did you know that I bought Won Ami van den Aart at the provincial indoor event in Brecht?
Did you know that Michael Withaker claims he has never ridden a better horse?
Did you know that Joe Turi almost became world champion in Rome on Supperville (Bon Ami x Hedjaz) if only he had not taken the wrong track?
Did you know that Bon Ami’s mother was really legendary in the BGLSR with more than 200 victories?
Did you know that Bon Ami was the father of eight tested stallions worldwide, of which only Karioka del Follé, and Pomme D'Ami vh Erperhof have been used for breeding in Belgium?
Did you know that we have bought some frozen sperm of Bon Ami?
Did you know the saying "Old love never dies"?!!!!
Patrik Spits, 14 February 2009.
