What's Happening in the Dressage World?

February 2009 - Part II

One of the highlights of the Blue Hors stallion show in Germany was the appearance of Blue Hors Romanow (by Rohdiamant x Grundstein II) under German trainer and Danish team coach Rudolf Zeilinger. Blue Hors in-house rider Sune Hansen was unable to ride the stallions at the show because of a blocked nerve in his back. Hansen is expected to recover quickly and will appear at the Danish Stallion Licensing in Herning at the beginning of March, but meanwhile Zeilinger has taken over the ride of the Grand Prix horse. "Maria [Andersen] was already showing Zack and Leredo in the stallion show and we didn't want her to take over Romanov last minute," Blue Hors director Esben Møller said. "That's why we asked Zeilinger if he would ride the stallion for one time in the show because he has known him for many years."

New American citizen Dr. Cesar Parra attended the Presidential National Prayer Breakfast and listened to President Obama and other past and present world leaders speak, including British former Prime Minister Tony Blair.  "As a new citizen I felt extremely special to be part of an event of this importance.  Many thanks to Steven Oliver for organizing this amazing experience for Marcela and myself - it was life altering," Parra told Eurodressage. " There were so many important concepts that were made clear to me, but the ones that stick most in my mind are reconciliation, being a player in life if you want things to happen and when you say yes then be prepared to say no many times."

American upcoming Grand Prix rider Jessica Jo Tate and her team will move to Chesapeake City to base her business out of the Hassler Dressage training facility upon Tate's return from the 2009 winter season in Florida. For the past few years, JJ has been a dedicated student of Scott Hassler's. JJ will be accepting horses for training, trailer-in students, and short-term training retreats. She will arrive at Hassler's Riverside West Farm in April!

The licensed Hanoverian stallion JJ RayBan (by Rascalino x Londonderry x Weltmeyer) will be stationed at Jan Brink's Tullstorp stables. The 3-year old chestnut colt left an outstanding impression at the Swedish Warmblood Stallion Performance Testing and was supposed to go back into training with Holga Finken in Germany. However, his Norwegian owners, Ole-Marius Johnson and Ole Jørgen Jørgentvedt who are behind the company JJ Horses, decided for him to stay in Sweden. Rayban is approved for Hanoverian, the Norwegian warmblood society and Swedish warmblood society. Rayban was acquired in Germany by JJ Horses in co-operation with B. Gjerde.

The international Hanoverian family has grown by a member in the north of Europe. On the last day of January about 25 friends of the Hanoverian breed met at the stud farm of Helena Niiranen near the horse village Ypäjä and established a Finnish Hanoverian breeding club, the Finnish Hanoverian Society. The committed Hanoverian breeder Miia Ojala from Tammela was elected president. She had already been a driving force in the working group who had prepared the foundation of the society. Vice-president became Helena Niiranen. Pia Karhu, Vampulla, presented the goals of the society which are f.i. an annual Hanoverian Show, breeders`s trips to Germany as well as the creation of a Finnish website. Dr. Ludwig Christmann, in charge of Hanoverian breeding abroad at Hannoveraner Verband, had already got an impression of the commitment of Finnish breeders on occasion of a seminar he held at Ypäjä last September.

The first woman has been appointed by the Oldenburg state as member of the Oldenburg Stallion Licensing Committee since 1820. Dr. Evelin Schlotmann will join the five breeding judge board that will consist of her, Dr. Schulze Schleppinghof, Ulrich Henschke, Sören Pedersen, and Wolfram Wittig. Dr. Schlotmann was born in Schleswig-Holstein and graduated from the University of Kiel in agriculture. She worked for years as the gestuet assistant for the Niedersachsen Landgestuet Celle and was the representative for the director, Dr. Burchard Bade. In 1997 she came to work for the Oldenburg Verband where she was not only responsible for the registration and inspection process of the foals, mares, and stallions in Germany, she also was the Breeding Director for the foreign breeding programs such as the Oldenburg Horse Breeders' Society in North America. At the end of 2005 she left the Oldenburg Verband to help her husband, Günter Schlotmann, in their own firm which supported the research of renewable energy.

Anne van Olst's small tour horse Exquis Spargo (by Negro x Damocles x Jasper) passed away on Thursday February 12, 2009. The black stallion died in the field from a heart attack. He was owned by Team Exquis and his rider Van Olst had planned on making his debut at Grand Prix level in two weeks. Spargo was 9 years old.

Equine Canada announced Mike Gallagher of Saint John, NB, as its new President. On February 8, Gallagher was elected president of Equine Canada for a one-year-term. Over the years Gallagher has shown enormous commitment to equestrian sport in Canada. He has taken on a remarkable number of roles over the years—including competitor, coach, horse show organizer, judge, eventing technical delegate. He has also been the chair of the Canadian Eventing Committee, president of Horse Trials Canada, chair of Eventing High Performance, chair of Equine Canada Sport Council and a member of the Equine Canada Board of Directors.

We started this What's Happening with a story on a Blue Hors and we'll end this page with a Blue Horse. The 32-foot blue 'Mustang' sculpture that is seen at Denver International Airport has become a hot topic of conversation a year after its installation by artist Luis Jimenez. The horse has already been baptised "Bluecifer," "Satan's Steed" and "Blue Devil Horse" and it puts an image of fear in the mind of airline travellers. "It's not the image you want in your head as you're about to board a plane," said Christie Carlson of the Denver suburb of Thornton. "My daughter asked me `Is that the devil's horse?'" Read more here

Photo copyrighted AP

What's Happening in the Dressage World?