Tearfully she shared: “Hermes has been great the whole week. We wanted to give it all today. It was a difficult ride, because it was our final one. I can’t say much more now, but I am sure he will have a great future ahead of him.”
Dinja has been riding Hermes (Easy Game x Flemmingh) since he was a young horse, showcasing him in the 2018 World Young Horse Championships at Ermelo where they finished third in the six-year-old class with a massive score of 87.800%. In 2021 they made their CDI Grand Prix debut at Hagen with a score of 69.391% and the pair only grew from there. With the rising talent obvious the combination was selected for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, however due to a technical mistake in the owner’s FEI registration they were unable to compete for the Netherlands. Undeterred they continued and at Aachen in the same year, they won the CDIO5* Grand Prix with 78.022% and second in the Freestyle with 86.740%.
They continued to go from strength to strength leading the Grand Prix at the 2022 Nations Cup at CDIO Rotterdam with 79.739% to help secure the Netherlands’ team victory. They were selected for the 2022 FEI World Championships at Herning where they were third in every test, securing the combination two individual bronze medals at their first World Championships.
In 2023 they qualified for the World Cup Final, however small injuries interrupted their path and resulted in them withdrawing from the Final.
In 2024 they returned to competition winning the Grand Prix CDI3* at Aachen and then the CDIO5* at Rotterdam, leading to team selection for the 2024 Paris Olympics where the combination was individually fourth in the Grand Prix Freestyle with 88.432%.
Young horses coming through the ranks
It will be sad to no longer see the combination in the Grand Prix classes, but Dinja has many promising rides currently coming through the levels. This year alone she has showcased Reesink Stallions B.V’s Red Viper (Glocks Romanov x Sir Sinclair), who was the Six-Year-Old Champion at the 2025 World Young Horse Championships in Verden with an extraordinary 90.400%. The eight-year-old stallion, Mauro Turfhorst (Glock’s Zonik N.O.P x Negro), owned in partnership with Reesink Horses BV and Stoeterij Turfhorst BV, has not been out of the top three placings at all CDIs this year at Small Tour level, winning the WOTAX-Prize Intermediate I at CHIO Aachen with 75.294%. Dinja also has two other Grand Prix mounts that she has presented this year: Hartsuijker, a thirteen-year-old gelding (Glock’s Johnson TN x Watermill Scandic) who she has been campaigning at Grand Prix CDIs since 2022 and Imposantos, a twelve-year-old stallion (Wynton x IPS Krack C) who has only had a handful of starts at Grand Prix since 2024.
The final performance of Dinja Van Liere and Hermes marks the end of a significant chapter in Dutch dressage. From World Young Horse Championships to standing on senior podiums across Europe, the pair built a partnership defined by consistency, elegant and resilience. Whilst it’s undoubtedly a loss for the Grand Prix circuit, Dinja’s stable is filled with promising young horses already making their mark on the international stage.
