What's Happening in the Dressage World

July 2005

American multiple Olympian Robert Dover is a man of many careers. The United States Equestrian Federation has hired Dover as their official American eventing team dressage trainer. "I am excited to be helping our elite event riders as they prepare for their national championships and next year's World Championships," Dover told Eurodressage.

Floriano, the horse of the 2004 American Olympic alternate rider Steffen Peters, has been sold, but Peters will not lose the ride over it. Floriano's owner Melani Pai of Houston, TX, sold Floriano to Laurie Browning on May 5, 2005. "Laurie Browning will own Floriano for the rest of his life. I'm very lucky to have a chance to compete Floriano until he retires," Peters said.

Four dressage rider were crowned Westfalian Regional Dressage Champion last weekend in Greven, Germany. Katrin Bettenworth won the big tour with Dujardin, Kristina Spaniol and Dienna became Young Riders champion, Marc Wortmann and Rubikon were the winners in the Junior Riders division and Karina Isselhorst and Virgil were the best in the Pony Riders classes.

The licensed New Forest Pony stallion Brummershoeve Boss has been retired from competition. The 16-year old Molenaars Golden King offspring was competed by Michelle van Lanen at FEI pony level, but never got selected for the Dutch Pony Dressage team. Nevertheless, the bay stallion is one of the best breeding New Forest Pony stallions in The Netherlands.

The 24-year old KWPN stallion Zortin (Marinier x Millerole) passed away this week. He was still breeding twenty mares a year and last Saturday, he came down from the phantom and died instantly. Zortin mainly produced jumpers, such as Goliath and Fedor.

A pigeon flew to our window with a note attached to a collar. It said that Swiss Sylvia Ikle and her Salieri CH are reaching unprecedented heights in their training. At the Manfred Swarovski Memorial Dressage Show in Wattens, Switzerland, Iklé and Salieri won the Special with 74.48%, but it could easily have been a 78 or 80%. Everything just went perfect in that test. Watch out for Ikle at the 2005 European Championships. They missed Las Vegas especially to prepare for the Europeans.

Even the best riders need some help from a friend occasionally. In an interview with Claartje van Andel, Anky van Grunsven confessed consulting a sport psychologist. " My concentration and my imperturbability have always been my strongest points and I am still improving thanks to the help of sports psychologist, methodologist and friend Peter Murphy and Sjef of course."

According to Horse Gate, 1988 Olympic individual silver medallist Margit Otto-Crepin has moved barns. She left the stable of her trainer Holger Munstermann in Werl, Germany, for Thomas von Samson's yard in Hamburg, Germany. Otto Crepin will live in Elbchaussee, Germany, but her horses are at von Samson's barn. She's taking Corlino, Tornado, Whitney and Calimero with her.

German horse dealer Norbert van Laak has received his "Goldenes Reitabzeichen," a gold medal a rider can earn if he has a certain number of victories at S-level. Van Laak, who used to restrict his career to training and horse dealing, has lately been competiting again with Dr Jorge de la Rocha's Quixote Diamond Fritz and with Warkantos.

In an interview with Horses of the Dutch, Dutch Grand Prix rider Alex van Silfhout praised his 17-year old son Diederik for having much feeling in the saddle. "His strong side is feeling. He has so much feeling for riding horses. He can handle any horse in principle. He has a good seat, which comes in handy because some horses can buck really hard and if you fall off each time, you tend to quit more easily. Diederik has the advantage that he has a solid seat and does not fall off that easily."

Eurodressage was at Frensham Manor last weekend for its renowned annual garden party with The Drifters performing live. Hosts Linda Hoad and Gordon Weston made sure that everything was perfect: a beautiful marquee, great food, copious amounts of champagne, great music and a fantastic atmosphere. They raised over £3,000 GBP for charity. The money will go towards medicin and school supplies for the village of Mushumbi in Zimbabwe.

Oh by the way, everybody in the house who lost approximately 300 euro on a non-refundable plain ticket to Moscow for the 2005 European Championships, raise your hand!

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