2004 A Visit at Mathieu Beckmann's

Travel Companion Thomas Bach Jensen

February 24, 2004

The internet works in mysterious ways. Four years ago, I received an email from a Danish guy named Thomas Bach Jensen, who appeared to be a dressage lover and horse breeder. I occasionally communicated with him, but it took four years for us to meet in the flesh. Although he is a Danish native, Thomas lives and works in Brussels, just as I do. We are only two kilometers apart from each other in Brussels, but never met. Thomas also saw my business associate Mary Phelps a couple of times, but I always had unexplainably disappeared from the scene when Thomas was there.

We finally changed this crazy separation by going to the Belgian Dressage Championships together in October 2003. We immediately clicked, as we shared horse breeding interests and a passion for bloodlines. It seems to have become the beginning of a very interesting friendship.

To cap off 2004, Thomas and I decided to go to the Vorwerk Stallion Show in Vechta, but we would go one day early to tour around Niedersachsen and visit some stallion stations. As Thomas owns a breeding farm in Denmark called "Stald Macohl" he had to make a decision on which stallions to use for his mares. On the top of his list are Rosentanz and Laudabilis.

So after sending dozens emails to each other laying out an itinerary, we decided last minute to make a detour to Wettringen, Germany, to visit Stallion Station Beckmann, where Laudabilis is stationed. Thomas borrowed the Diesel powered Rover of his friend Hector and picked me up at the highway exit in Arendonk, so that we could head to Germany together.

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