Amerigo 2.0, the horse of Sinterklaas between 2014 and 2020, has passed away at the age of thirty. The noble animal was euthanized on Monday at Stichting De Paardenkamp in Soest, the horse retirement home where he had resided since 2022.
“Last Monday, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Amerigo 2.0,” the foundation writes on Instagram. “He was able to enjoy three wonderful years of his retirement at De Paardenkamp and reached an admirable age of 30 years. We will miss him enormously.”
Amerigo 2.0, or Number Seven as the white horse was actually called, took over the work in 2014 from horse Amerigo, which had been the official horse of Sinterklaas since 1990.
Sinterklaas actor Bram van der Vlugt did not enjoy riding horses, a spokesperson for De Paardenkamp tells the AD. “He did not want to be put on completely strange horses. Number Seven turned out to have a well-behaved character.”
Amerigo 2.0 and Van der Vlugt were seen annually during the national Sinterklaas arrival. They also starred in several Sinterklaas films, including The Letter for Sinterklaas (2019) and The Great Sinterklaas Film (2020). After the death of Van der Vlugt in 2020, Amerigo 2.0 retired.
In 2011, actor Stefan de Walle already took over the role as Sinterklaas during the arrivals. Since 2019, he has been doing this together with the horse Ozosnel.