Add top talent to top talent and you get top performance. Gilles Thomas won his second Global Champions Tour Grand Prix with the nine-year-old (!) Qalista DN (Emerald x Landetto) a few weeks ago in New York.With Qalista DN, bred by Wim De Nul from Stekene, Gilles has a new and particularly impressive asset in his already impressive stable.

Overwhelming

It took Wim De Nul and his wife Sabrina a day to realise what their breeding product had achieved. On Sunday, it had all been just a little too overwhelming. Last year, she was still jumping under the saddle of their son-in-law Jeroen Van de Vyver at national and regional level. They could not have dreamed that she would already be performing like this as a nine-year-old.

Walter and Jeroen

Wim: We then started lessons with Marc at the Nieuwenhof stable, who already knew Qalista from the cycle when Walter Lelie was in the saddle. Gilles then took her to the national level a few times. That was promising, and they started building up slowly. In November, they jumped their first Ranking competition at 2* level in Lier, which she immediately won. In February, she went on to the Sunshine Tour, where the foundation for the summer season was laid. There, too, she won a 1m50 class at 3* level. In March, she jumped her first 5* competition in Paris, finishing first and fourth. In June, they embarked on their Global Champions adventure.

Thanks

Wim: She jumped her first 5* GP at 1m60 level in St-Tropez, where she jumped double clear and finished fourth. In Valkenswaard she finished third and in New York they won. It is and remains a fantastic dream for us, which is becoming reality. We are therefore very grateful to Gilles and the entire team at Stal Nieuwenhof for taking the leap and joining forces with us. She is fantastically supported there by the whole team and her groom Sanne. For which we offer our sincere thanks for the excellent care and opportunities she receives.

Ulricke van 't Paradijs

Wim: We were able to breed her from Ulricke van 't Paradijs. This mare was then owned by the parents of our son-in-law, the Van De Vijver-Rooms family. We are really grateful to them for the opportunity they gave us. Qalista was the very first foal we ever bred and she was actually destined to compete in the sport with our daughter Kelly. But because she proved to be quite difficult as a young horse, we took her to lessons with Walter Lelie, whom we have known since our youth. He then took over the reins during the cycle of competitions for 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds. Every year she was successful and consistently achieved a top-4 place in the cycle. She competed every year at the World Championships in Lanaken, with a victory in the second round for 6-year-olds. Walter did a great job training Qalista. She remained at home all that time and was ridden in dressage by our daughter and jumped by Jeroen. Until last year, when Gilles took her to competition. Since January this year, she has been at Stal Nieuwenhof full-time.

Three foals

Wim: We still have her foals. A five-year-old Taloubet Z mare, who competed in Lanaken at the World Championships with Jeroen in the saddle. A two-year-old Tangelo mare and a yearling colt by Kasanova de la Pomme. The foals are trained by our daughter and her boyfriend Jeroen. Kelly does the dressage work and Jeroen the jumping. We are a very small stable and therefore try to take the best possible care of our horses. Sabrina does this with heart and soul and with a great deal of feeling. I see her as the biggest factor in our success. I hope that “our Qalista” can stay healthy in the first place and that we can continue to enjoy her. ‘It's a Qalista world and we get to live in it!’