‘We are pregnant’: joy as Olympic champion expecting first foal

Germany’s Julia Krajewski has announced her Olympic eventing champion Amande De B’Neville is in foal.

“We are pregnant,” said Julia. “I am delighted to share the news that ‘Mandy’ is in foal by Cascadello.”

Julia and 14-year-old Amande De B’Neville (Oscar Des Fontaines x Elan De La Cour) made history when they won individual gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021, with Julia the first woman to win an individual Olympic eventing title.

They were part of the silver medal-winning team at the World Eventing Championships in Pratoni in 2022, in what would be the mare’s final international competition. Julia announced Mandy’s retirement in January 2024 owing to an “undramatic” hoof issue, which had failed to improve despite “all sorts of approaches in treatment”.

Julia said Mandy’s pregnancy had been “safely confirmed”, but that it is “obviously early days, so fingers crossed”.

“I wanted to let you know because it made me very happy and some people have been asking,” she said.

“As to the father to be, Cascadello was a bit of the obvious choice for her first foal. As some might know, he is owned by Professor Bernd Heicke, who also owns Mandy with me. To have a foal by your own stallion, out of your own Olympic gold medallist mare, is probably something every breeder/owner dreams of, so that was a no-brainer”.

Julia said that “time will tell” if the foal will be an eventer, but joked that she is “pretty sure” he or she will be able to jump.

“For now I hope for no complications and that Mandy can enjoy the time with her mare crew in the field,” she said.

Earlier this week the German longlist for the Paris Olympics was announced. Three blocks were named in order of likely preference, but Julia Krajewski is likely to miss out on defending her title as she is only named in block three with her current top rider Nickel. Block one – the probable team – consists of newly crowned German national champions Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH, Sandra Auffarth with Viamant Du Matz, and Christoph Wahler with Carjatan S.

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