Bram Chardon European Champion Four-in-Hand Driving

Pavo sponsor rider Bram Chardon managed to secure the gold medal at the European Championship Four- in- hand driving in Exloo last weekend. He had a strong championship. After the dressage, Chardon was in second place. After a strong marathon, he took the lead and did not relinquish it including the Cones as well.

This was not the only gold medal Chardon received last weekend. The Dutch team also took their place on the highest podium. With Chardon’s performance, he made an important contribution.

Bram Chardon says with satisfaction: "This was the most important competition of the year that you actually work towards all season. If you then take double gold, that's fantastic. The right horses peaked at the right time. We rode the highest dressage score of the season, stayed clear in the marathon and made no mistakes in the Cones."

Good management
Chardon says that good management underlies his successes. Of course, nutrition is an important part of this. "The temperatures were variable. You want to prepare the horses well for the tough marathon. They were given extra electrolytes throughout the championship in the form of Pavo ReHydrate. This is because you want them to recover quickly even after a tough marathon. We also have a horse that always eats his concentrate less well during races due to stress so then loses weight quickly. We give him Pavo DailyPlus throughout the day and also a lot of Pavo SlobberMash to keep his strength up. On the last day in the skill, the horses were still in such good shape. They ran through the skill with so much suppleness, they are just in super shape." All of Chardon's horses are fed Pavo Performance as a base. 

There is now a period when the horses get a bit more rest. "We slowly build them down bit by bit. But again, we look at this per horse. One horse will need to have more quiet than another."

IJsbrand Chardon was also part of the gold team. Due to bad luck in the marathon, he did not finish any higher than thirteenth individually.  However, in both the dressage and the cones he made an important contribution to the team result.