What's Happening in the Dressage World?

December 2007 - Part II

Double World Young Horse Champion Florencio is back in business. The Westfalian branded stallion by Florestan x Weltmeyer made his show debut at Prix St Georges level at a regional show in Emmen, The Netherlands. The pair won the class with 66.88%. "Florencio did a nice test. He lacks some show routine but I thought it went well. It is almost two years ago that we last entered the show ring. "Floris" suffered long from a nasty hoof injury, but that's now behind us and I now dare to ride a few shows. I hope to do a couple of shows this winter to give him some routine at small tour level," rider Hans Peter Minderhoud stated on his website.

Minderhoud's partner Edward Gal got a special Christmas present from Hans Peter. Santa Claus brought him a 9-weeks old chocolate coloured Cocker Spaniel from Hungary and named her Sophie. Gal also got a new horse. Nelleke Hoogendoorn's small tour horse Next One (Jazz x Le Mexico) has been purchased by company Interfloor and the company has put the 12-year old KWPN gelding in training with Edward.

Check out Kyra Kyrklund's season greetings on her homepage.

One of our favourite movies with horses is without a doubt "Phar Lap" featuring the life story and tragic end of the legendary Australian race horse Phar Lap. Death by poisoning of the liver chestnut race horse was always assumed but never proven. Recent tests have been carried out on a hair from Phar Lap's mane in a bid to determine how the champion horse was poisoned. Analysis of the latest tests could shed light on a long-held theory that Phar Lap may have been accidentally poisoned with an arsenic-laced tonic known as Fowler's Solution. Scientific tests last year proved for the first time that Phar Lap died of arsenic poisoning. The arsenic traces found by Dr Ivan Kempson, of the Australian Synchrotron Research Program, and Museum Victoria's Dermot Henry, were consistent with a large, single dose of the poison about 35 hours before Phar Lap died in California on April 5, 1932. Read More here

Australian Dressage Coach Ralf Isselhorst was in Australia from 7-14 December to conduct clinics with National Squad and other invited riders in Victoria and NSW. Equine Influenza-enforced horse movement restrictions meant that it was not possible to hold one clinic in a central location, so conducting shorter clinics in several locations was the ‘next best’ solution. Ralf was very enthusiastic about the opportunity he had to see up and coming horse and rider combinations as well the National Squad riders who are still in Australia. He certainly didn’t think that shorter than normal clinics were a problem. ‘We must always be looking for new talented horses and riders, so seeing a wider group was very good. It’s important that I see the riders and horses and how they are trained and also how they are progressing, but I do not need many days to do this in," Isselhorst told the Australian Equestrian Federation. ‘It would be very good if in future I can see more new talented riders and horses. The clinic in Victoria showed me an excellent future Grand Prix prospect. I would like to see more of these developing horses and riders.’

Belgian Julie de Deken won the 2007 Pikeur Trophy Finals at the CDI- Mechelen, Belgium. Aboard the Westfalian gelding Fazzino, she scored 71,45% and beat Jenny Schreven on Kennet (71,05%) and Thamar Zweistra on Hexagon's Truppa (70,15%). It was the first time a Belgian riding won the Belgian-Dutch challenge of small tour riders under 29.

Eurodressage's editor in chief, Astrid Appels, is spending the holidays in Lenk, Switzerland, to chill out and snow board on the Bühlberg after having finished writing her PhD on the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.