March 20, 2026 
It’s the hope of show jumping owners and riders everywhere that they’ll one day have a championship-caliber horse on the barn aisle. But it’s not always easy to sustain that dream, most especially when you’re breeding them yourself.
Breeding is a fickle business, the foal and young-horse years can be long, potential injuries loom, and training setbacks happen to even the best of partnerships. And yet, Pieter Devos’s homebred Casual DV Z is a true exception to that rule—and she has the accolades to prove it.
Already this year, Devos and Casual have risen to the top of the show jumping rankings by more than one Jumpr Stats margin thanks to numerous tri-color finishes, including their third place in the Rolex Grand Prix of the Dutch Masters this month. And yet, while he may have had beginner’s luck on his side, leading the victory gallop is exactly where Devos always imagined he and Casual would be.
After all, Casual’s mother, Just Me D, was a mare that Devos had campaigned himself. Knowing that Just Me was athletic, but could use more flexibility in her body, Devos selected Cornet Obolensky as the stallion for his first homebred foal, Casual DV Z. His intuition paid off.
Beginning with her earliest free-jumps, Casual impressed from the start.
As a 4- and 5-year-old, she could be challenging (read: hard to stay on) for Devos Stables’s young horse riders. Although the Belgian show jumper had a string of horses competing at the top shows at the time, when Pieter came back home to his farm between shows, he took over Casual’s reins himself, feeling that the extra effort would pay dividends down the road.
When the mare turned six, Pieter’s wife Caroline Devos-Poels began campaigning Casual at local horse shows, a system the couple developed to give their young horses ample time to practice and progress slowly up the ranks.
At just 9 years old, Casual and Devos jumped clear for the Belgian team in the Nations Cup of Rome and the Longines League of Nations™ Rotterdam, earning a 3rd place in the FEI Jumping World Cup qualifier in Mechelen, and finishing in the top-10 at the FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The following season, the pair earned second in the FEI Jumping World Cup qualifier in Bordeaux, were fourth in the Rolex Grand Prix at the Dutch Masters, and helped the Belgian team earned gold at the 2025 European Championships in August.
But 2026 may shape up to be their strongest year to date.
In February, they earned two podium finishes in 5* Grands Prix in Doha, following it up with that third place in the prestigious Rolex Grand Prix at the Dutch Masters. According to Devos, Casual’s “rubber ball” physicality makes her both adjustable and versatile in the ring—essential qualities for today’s top sport horses.
And the mare is also smart. Like, really smart.
“It is unbelievable how intelligent [Casual] is,” Devos told World of Showjumping last spring. “For me, that is the most important quality that she has.”
According to Jumpr Stats, Casual currently tops the list for prize money this season at €520,000. But she also leads the pack with four, 5* 1.60m+ podium finishes in 2026.
In fact, she and Devos have been nearly foot-perfect in 1.60m classes this year, jumping clear in six rounds at 83%, and making the podium 100% of the time after the four jump-off rounds they’ve competed so far.
So don’t let you the name fool you. The mare may be ‘Casual,’ but her numbers are most definitely not.
