The Horse Collection

On the second day of my visit, I felt this great feeling of power come over me, because I was the one deciding where everyone had to ride that day. It was freezing cold outside, but I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful Indian summer landscape and bright light outside to take good photos of the horses.

One by one Cesar rode his horses outdoors, something which is not good for his Latin blood. "Everything above 70° is fine, everything below is col," Cesar stated. His students shared the same fate, having to ride outside for their lesson.

The first horse of the day was Galant du Serein, a 10-year old Selle Français by Apache d'Adries out of Sojornet (by Jalme de Mesnils). Galant is Cesar's Olympic horse. "The Olympics came a bit early for us," he confessed, "the horse is so much better now and in a month he'll be flying. This is the first time in a year that I am home for a long time and can really focus on my riding." Parra prepared Galant for the Olympics at Hubertus Schmidt's farm in Germany in the summer and learned much there. "I always tried to ride Galant the way Hubertus did, but realized that that is impossible. You can't copy the master. You have to learn from him and ride your own style."

Cesar's up and coming horses are the 8-year old Westfalian gelding Charming Boy, a Casaretto x Ehrentusch, whose fortés are his flying changes and piaffe- passage. Charming is only 16.2 hands high, but the horse is international caliber.

The combination is still working on more suppleness and throughness in the body, but they are Prix St Georges confirmed and will make their small tour debut in the 2005 show season.

Much hope lies on the shoulders of the gray Dutch warmblood mare Cali(sta). Owned by Martha Gantsoudes, Cali is a gorgeous mare with much personality. She's not an easy horse, but she's brimming with talent for the FEI ring. Her basic gaits are outstanding and her canter is fantastic, but the mare still need to learn to keep her cool in the tempi changes.

Cesar trained her tempi's by riding her on the third or fourth track and doing only two changes and then go straight again, so that she wouldn't freak out. On the diagonal he tried to do more changes. When she bolted out of the exercise, he rode a small circle to relax her again, and continued on the diagonal with tempi changes. He always patted the horse when the mission was accomplished.

Cesar's fifth FEI horse is Welfenprinz, a recently important Oldenburg horse by Welt Hit II. Welfenprinz is a dark bay gelding, with three classy gaits and much talent. The Hanoverian is on the verge of breaking through at the Prix St Georges level and shows much talent for the piaffe and passage.

Welfenprinz used to be competed at Fourth level in Germany by Heiner Schiergen, and he participated in the 2001 Bundeschampionate.

Text and Images copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage.com. No Reproduction Allowed

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