National Dutch Endurance Champion Joan Eikelboom passed away on 1 February 2008 at the age of 38. The sad event occurred on her farm Katjapia, Okahandja in Namibia, where she had moved in October last year and got married in December.Joan was the national and international face of Dutch endurance for the last decade. She began riding as a teenager. In 1995 she took up Endurance gradually increasing the competition distances from 80 to 160 km. In 2004 she became Dutch National Endurance Champion.
At the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, she was one of the organizers of the support and grooming for the South African Endurance team.
The funeral took place on 7 February 2008.