Conrad de Hus, the horse that helped Gregory Wathelet of Belgium take the individual silver medal in the 2015 European Championships (Germany), has been sold to Hunter Harrison’s Double H Farm, to be competed by U.S. rider Quentin Judge.

The 11-year-old Holsteiner stallion (Con Air—Minne I, Locato) was also a part of the Belgian team that won the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona in 2015 and jumped on the team at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France). Wathelet and Conrad de Hus won the Longines GCT Grand Prix in Chantilly, France.

Conrad de Hus and Wathelet also made headlines in 2014 when the horse’s bridle slipped over his ears during a class at the Longines Global Champions Tour of Paris and Wathelet finished the course. 

France’s Michel Robert gave the stallion his start at the CSI level in 2013 before Wathelet took over for the rest of the horse’s international career to date.

“My immediate plan is for Conrad is to have him stay in Belgium, in Gregory Wathelet’s stable. Gregory has been very generous and kind in what is not an easy situation for him, I’m sure. He’s offered to keep Conrad there in work and to help me to get to know him,” Judge said.

Judge plans to campaign Conrad lightly in Europe during the spring before the rest of the Double H team travels to meet him for the summer.

“I’ve learned with buying horses before that for me it’s most helpful to take a little time to get to know them, jump small, and just really kind of figure the horse out,” Judge said. “Especially with a horse like this—this is a horse a lot of people know, and it makes it a little bit nerve-wracking as a rider to get on a horse like that and have people watching you start with that horse. I’ll be more than happy to jump 1.40-meter for a little bit.”

Judge tried Conrad this year in Spain at the Sunshine Series. “He was very simple to ride, he goes in a plain snaffle, and the horse is beautifully balanced. He’s very powerful, but he’s at the same time very careful,” said Judge. “I really love that horse because he feels like a bit of a lighter version of my horse HH Copin van de Broy. He’s beautifully broke, and just—you couldn’t really say there’s anything wrong with him!”

As far as long-term goals for the stallion, Judge and Double H Farm have no plans to breed the horse. Judge commented there is still quite a bit of frozen semen available from him in Europe, and he already has offspring on the ground. But the sky is the limit when it comes to the show ring.

“When you get a horse like this, you really hope to be able to ride Nations Cup teams, jump the biggest grand prixs in the world, and look forward to trying to get on some championship teams in the next few years. So all of those things are on the radar,” Judge said. “We just have to hope that I can keep riding the horse well and give him the chance to be there, because the horse has the ability.”