December 10, 2025 
Every horse-crazy kid grows up with a picture of their future “dream horse,” locked away in the secrets of their heart. For Belgian dressage rider Justin Verboomen that horse is Zonik Plus.
Crowned in Crozet, the reigning European gold medal-winning partnership, which helped Verboomen ascend to World no. 1 in September, is the first Belgian dressage combination to stand on a championship podium ever—be it the Olympics, the Europeans, the World Championships, or the FEI World Cup Finals.
And yet, over the last 12 months, Justin Verboomen and his 9-year-old breeding stallion have shown the potential to smash that record many times over in the years to come.
“[Zonik] was really the horse I was dreaming for since I was a kid,” Verboomen told Dressage-News in July, noting that the stallion ticked all the boxes on his list: a short back, energy, sensitivity, good looks, and impressive gaits. “I knew when I saw him that he was my horse.”
The sport of dressage has a way of embracing fairytales, often hard-working young riders (think: Charlotte Dujardin or Laura Graves), plucked out of obscurity and paired with an impossibly talented super-horse (i.e. Valegro or Verdades) who brings them into the spotlight and up to the top of the sport.
In his own way, Verboomen is the latest rendition of this time-honored tale, but also, a much-needed reboot. At a critical time in the sport’s history, empathy, both in and out of the saddle, seem to be Verboomen’s calling card.
For instance, he is the kind of rider who, on at least one occasion, has been moved to tears while discussing the heroic efforts his horse has put into a particular test. Verboomen explains that while dressage trainer Claudia Kircheiss is his eyes on the ground, he prefers to work with his horses alone, saying it’s when he feels most connected with them.
And then there’s his bond with Zonik: Verboomen believes that the reason Zonik respects him is because the Belgian rider doesn’t force his stallion to bend to his will. “He trusts me, I think, because I’m never imposing on him,” Verboomen has said.
The 38-year-old from Braine-le-Château, in central Belgium, grew up in a middle-class family: his mother was a doctor, his father a jumping, eventing, and classically trained dressage instructor who went on to specialize in Iberian horses.
After a couple of false starts pursing degrees in economics and veterinary medicine, Verboomen—who grew up riding and competing primarily in dressage—decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. Entering the sport professionally, he began riding and training Lusitano horses for nearly a decade, earning multiple Belgian and European titles along the way.
Known for their sensitivity, intelligence, collectability, and softness, Lusitanos and other Spanish-bred dressage horses generally prefer a softer use of the aids; one that is more gentle than warmbloods typically require.
In other words, Verboomen—who has said he aspires to “ride with the most discreet aids possible”—may be the best kind of medicine for a sport that’s currently under fire for artificial presentations inside the show arena, and questionable training methods outside of it.
Around six years ago, Verboomen was on the hunt for his next Lusitano champion. Having struck-out finding a horse within his budget elsewhere in Europe, Verboomen visited Dressage Plus in Portugal—a stud farm known for Lusitanos as well as warmbloods.
When he found, not a Lusitano, but a reasonably priced two-and-a-half-year-old Rheinlander stallion by Glock’s Zonik N.O.P., out of Heideblume (Hohenstein I), Verboomen jumped at the chance.
But that was back in the pandemic days; a blessing in disguise, in hindsight, as it allowed Verboomen extra time to train and get to know Zonik Plus (know as “Zozo” in the barn) in the early years of his career.
The world-class stallion couldn’t be kept under wraps for long, however.
At age five, Zozo became the Belgian Young Horse Champion, following the title up, one year later, with a sixth-place finish at the World Championships for Young Horses. At seven, Zonik Plus was once again the national champion, going on to debut directly on the Medium Tour, and then in Grand Prix in the fall of 2024.
The pair’s official coming-out party was the FEI World Cup™ qualifier in Mechelen, Belgium, the same year, when Verboomen and Zozo won the Grand Prix, and took second in the Grand Prix Freestyle. The following season, there were wins in Lier and then famously—improbably—at CHIO Aachen, the epicenter of German dressage dominance for the last 70 years.
Then, at the European Championships in Crozet, the pair set two personal bests in the Grand Prix Special (82.37%) and Grand Prix Freestyle (89.964%)—and their season still wasn’t over yet.
At the Longines Equita Lyon horse show in October, they received a standing ovation from French crowds, winning the CDI-W Grand Prix on a score of 81.19%, and the Grand Prix Freestyle on a score of 87.07%. One month later, Verboomen was honored with the Peden Bloodstock FEI Best Athlete award, placing him in the company of previous Dressage greats including Isabell Werth, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, and Charlotte Fry.
Unsurprisingly, even before the pair’s coup at the European Championships, the offers to buy of Zonik Plus were already rolling in, some from biggest players in the sport.
Verboomen, who has said he considers Zozo to be his “lifelong companion” and one day dreams of living at the farm where his horses are, admits he initially struggled to say no to what would have been life-changing money. He ultimately decided that Zozo wasn’t for sale.
Ever since, Verboomen said, he sleeps peacefully at night.
Still, there are likely to be many other demands on Justin Verboomen in the years to come: demands that come with being the fresh face of international dressage, and also, demands on his ultra-talented—and still very young—stallion.
And though he may be a dead-ringer for internationally acclaimed actor Rami Malek, Verboomen admits there are few parts of the limelight that he actually looks forward to, including talking to the media. The notoriously shy Belgian rider says what he truly enjoys is training at home, in the comfort of his stable and the people he knows.
While Verboomen may not want the trappings of fame that come with being the “it” rider of the moment, he may be the rider dressage needs in this moment. If for no other reason than this: Verboomen doesn’t want the crown if it comes at the expense of the horse that he loves.
“[Zonik]s gives everything, but I have to manage that well,” Verboomen told the FEI in August, adding that he only enters his stallion in a few competitions.
“You should not have to push a horse to get the job done. If that is what it takes to reach the top, I would rather not. I do not want to over-ask a horse.”
