Albert Zoer (born 31 July 1975, in Echten,

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

champion in

show jumping Show jumping is a part of a group of English riding equestrianism, equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, Show hunter, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes are commonly seen at horse shows throughout the world, including th ...

. He owns his own business, called Zoer B.V., for breeding and training

stallion A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded (castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" nec ...

s, a venture with which his father, Arent Zoer, helps him.

Background

With two older sisters, Jenny and Gina, Zoer grew up on the farm in Echten which his father purchased in the year before his birth. This farm initially had only five stables, but from the time Zoer and his sisters were all riding horses, that number gradually increased to twenty and more. He began show jumping since the age of seven and he declares that his passion, or addiction to riding horses made him dislike having to go to school. At the age of sixteen, Zoer was a member of the victorious Dutch team at the 1989 European Pony Championships. Jenny Zoer participated in the 1992 Olympic Games (the Dutch won the gold medal for team show jumping). Meanwhile, her brother competed in the

European Show Jumping Championships The FEI European Show Jumping Championships is the European Championship for the equestrian discipline of show jumping. First held in 1957 in Rotterdam, and on an annual basis, it is held every two years, on the years between Olympic Games and Wor ...

for juniors in 1991 and for young riders in 1993. Though certainly a serious contender, he has yet to achieve his Olympic dream.

Career highlights

His team won the gold medal at the 2006 World Equestrian Games as well as the 2007 European Championships in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

. On 20 December 2007, he and Okidoki won at the International Horse Show in

Olympia, London Olympia London, sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. A range of international ...

. He and his horse Sam won the Grand Prix at the

2008 Samsung Super League The 2008 Samsung Super League was the 2008 edition of the Samsung Super League, the premier international team Grand Prix show jumping competition run by the FEI and sponsored by Samsung Electronics. It was held at eight European venues from May 9 ...

's event in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. Two weeks later, he and Sam again were victorious in the league's Grand Prix in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

., He also won the 10th round of the FEI World Cup Jumping 2008–09 in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, despite a double fracture in his leg. The Royal Netherlands Equestrian Union confirmed that, prior to the accident, Zoer had been a leading contender for the Dutch Olympic equestrian team in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

.Horse Talk, 9 July 2008
/ref> The fracture occurred while Zoer was training on the Tuesday after his Aachen win.

Global Champions Tour

Zoer and his horse Okidoki were the winners of the

Global Champions Tour The Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) is an annual pre-eminent individual show jumping series that comprises up to 15 rounds of competition hosted around the world. It brings together the top 30 riders in the FEI Jumping World Rankings. It wa ...

final for 2007. Zoer and Sam were the runners-up on the first day of the 2009

Doha, Qatar Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...

. With a finish time of 40.42 and zero penalties, he was just a third of a second slower than the winner,

Jessica Kurten Jessica may refer to: Given name * Jessica (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters with this name * Jessica Folcker, a Swedish singer known by the mononym Jessica * Jessica Jung, a Korean-American singer known by the ...

. His prize money amounted to €38,581. Riding Okidoki, Zoer ranked third in the first round qualifier of the Global Champions Tour final in Doha on 13 November 2009. His award from the purse was €8500. His final time was 75.63. This ranking put Zoer well within the qualification for the final purse (€300,000) on 14 November, as the 25 contenders were narrowed down to 18 in the first round.

Eric Lamaze Eric Lamaze (born April 17, 1968) is a Canadian retired showjumper and Olympic champion. He won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, riding his famed horse Hickstead. Lamaze has won three Olympic medals, as well as four ...

and

Bernardo Alves Bernardo Cardoso de Resende Alves (born November 20, 1974, Belo Horizonte)Hipismo B ...

ranked ahead of Zoer.Kyriacou, Lulu: "Hickstead and Eric Lamaze win last Doha qualifier." HorseTalk. 14 November 2009.
/ref>

List of horses

FEI Biography
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

) * Promises in Millstreet * Cordillio * Don Camillo * Lowina * Lincoln -

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...

owned by Engemann Youngsters GmbH * Okidoki (b. 1996) -

Dutch Warmblood A Dutch Warmblood is a warmblood type of horse registered with the Koninklijk Warmbloed Paardenstamboek Nederland (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands (KWPN), which governs the breeding of competitive dressage and show jumping horse ...

gelding A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...

, bay * Sam (b. 1999) -

, bay

External links

Official Website of Zoer B.V.
(horse breeding business)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoer, Albert 1975 births Living people People from De Wolden Dutch show jumping riders Dutch male equestrians Sportspeople from Drenthe