What's Happening in the Dressage World?

May 2007 - Part II

The Danish warmblood stallion Lucky Light has passed away at age 22. The bay stallion by Lagano x Marmor x Mangon won the European Championship for approved stallions Zangersheide. In 1993 he was the most successful show jumper in Denmark and in 1995 was awarded Elite Stallion status based on his performance as well as that of his offspring. His most famous dressage offspring is Mary Hanna's Limbo, who was a member of the Australian 2000 Olympic Dressage Team and Jane Bredin's Grand Prix horse Lucky Star.

The VDL stud owned KWPN stallion Good Times (Nimmerdor x Caletto) has gone into retirement in England. John Drake and Pat Ruck will put the stallion up at their stable in Coventry where he will go into the field there and will be used for breeding only limitedly. Due to his age, the amount of his semen has decreased though the quality is still good. The now 19-year old Good Times was the stallion performance test champion and was a true allround horse. His most famous dressage offspring are the Grand Prix horse and Pavo Cup winner Lucky Times and the young riders horse Kennet W. He has three licensed offspring with the KWPN: Kenwood, Kalusha and Londontimes. Good Times will be joined by another VDL stallion Hattrick (Ahorn x L Ronald) who also moves to Drake's stud in England.

Dutch stallion owner Joop van Uytert and his wife Anne van Uytert-Franssen, a Grand Prix rider, have become the proud parents of a baby girl named Gwen. Van Uytert gave birth to her baby via a caesarian section on Monday May 21, 2007.

Mary Phelps and JJ Hathaway celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary at their Kentucky home on May 23, 2007. JJ treated Mary to a campfire dinner near a creek on their property. He cooked her lamb from Debbie Atkinson's Farm, curried veggies, and wine. Now that's a husband :) Congratulations!

The KWPN licensed stallion Winckenburg passed away on May 25, 2007. The grey stallion by Stuyvesant xx out of Fanory (Utopia x Orlando) was 27 years old. He was bred by G.J. Vernooij. His most famous offspring is the Grand Prix horse Le Montrachet.

Horse breeder and journalist Hjordis Kamph has won the Karlsdals Cup for her dedication and commitment to the breeding of Swedish Warmblood horses. Kamph was active for 11 years within the ASVH (Swedish Warmblood Breed Society) and helped with the development of the BLUP index. Currently she is also writing for the Swedish magazine Tidningen Ridsport.

Jacqueline van Grunsven sold her Grand Prix horse Mistral (by Balzflug) to the Swedish Junior Rider Sanne Nielsson, who trains with Mattias Jansson.

Aram Gregory and wife Jane Bredin-Gregory purchased Ulla Salzgeber's Grand Prix horse Piet (by Jazz) after they had read on the internet that the horse was for sale (guess on which website they found out about the news!!!). Piet will be Aram's new mount with which he hopes to represent his native Hong Kong at the 2008 Olympic Games.

British Grand Prix rider Vicky Thompson also went shopping and bought the 10-year old German bred Papillon from Tony and Sarah Pidgley. Thompson tried out the horse at Johan Hinnemann's stable and bought it.

British Dressage reported that Hubertus Schmidt will be the keynote speaker at the 2007 British Dressage National Convention in Addington on November 24-25, 2007. It will be Schmidt's first British clinic ever.

German magazine St. Georg reported some extra news on the Poetin case. The legal battle about the death of Poetin between the ING Bank and Poetin's last owner, the French Xavier Marie, will be settled June 27, 2007. What has been proven so far is that on the day of the executorial auction, when Poetin sold from his Dutch owner Peter van der Zwan to Marie, the mare was injected with Celestovet, a product which contains the cortizones Betametazon. After the sale, the mare foundered severely and had to be put down.

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