Hilltop farm acquired the Westphalian stallion Festrausch (by Florestan) from Ullrich Kasselmann. Owner Scott Hassler will entering the black in the 6 year old class at the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Arnhem.
Junior Riders Market Place is a big success. With Valentijn finding a new barn in Belgium through our web site, two other ponies, promoted on this site, have found new homes.
Wendy van der Helm's number one pony "Alympia" was sold to Julie De Deken, who trains with Arlette Holsters in Zandhoven. De Deken started her pony FEI pony career on Nathalie Burssens former Belgian Team pony Watershof Marc. Her parents then purchased the lovely stallion Panache, who already shone under Iris van kerckhoven in several equitation classes. De Deken had bad luck with two of her other ponies. Highness died and No Limit injured himself severely. With Alympia De Deken hopes one day to become a Belgian pony team member.
And finally the 1998 European Dressage Pony Champion, Noble Casper, has moved to Luxembourg to the Henschen family. Their 12 year old daughter hopes to enjoy the pony as much as the Meiresonnes did. "My stomach hurt when I saw Casper leave our premises. He was my absolute favourite and it's so sad to see him go away," Mrs Meiresonne said.
More Belgian horses find new careers abroad. Frank van Dijck's Belgian Young Dressage Horse Champion Ritmeister moved to Florida. Young Rider Thamara Gimbel will be showing the black stallion now. Ritmeister won the finals of the 6 year olds at the Belgian Young Dressage Horse Championships. The black, licensed Westphalian stallion enjoyed a brief career at Prix St. Georges level competing in several smaller three star CDI's. Ritmeister is sired by Rosenkavalier, a foundation stallion for the Westphalian studbook who passed away mid May at age 23.
Hoefslag did a special interview with Belgian Grand Prix rider Stefan van Ingelgem about his collection of horses. Apparently the Dutch equestrian magazine wrote that Van Ingelgem's number one Grand Prix horse, the Latvian Bravurnik, is for sale, but Mrs Carmen van Ingelgem denies this. "He's not for sale and Stefan will compete him at the CDI Arnhem at the end of June, together with his other Grand Prix horse Remy Martin," Carmen told Junior Riders.
At the CDN Mol - "Dressage at De Steppe" - outsider Regina Moldan - Speeckaert reined supreme at Grand Prix level. With Edelweiss, formerly known as Facchio Toto, she scored 63.14% and left all competition behind her. Moldan is a native Austrian who trained with Georg Wahl during her years of stardom. In 1987 the classy daughter of a chalk factory and hotel director won the European Young Riders Championships with her dapple grey gelding Dacapo. Regina Moldan-Speeckaert is currently trained by Kristine Geerts and Ludo Verbraeken and her horse are stabled at home in the small rural village of Lommel, Belgium.
We have learnt that Oldenburg's number one dressage sire Rubinstein is suffering from a decease called 'Hodenbruch'. The stallion had to be operated on and consequently he dealt with a protean problem in his blood, referred to as 'Rehe'. Although Rubinstein is currently feeling himself a bit under the weather, he is sill able to breed. Holsteiner stallion Landadelwas also diagnosed with this same problem but still sired nice products for years.
Dark Diamant (by Davignon) has been tipped as one of the most promising young dressage horses in the Belgian "Classic Circuit for Young Dressage Horses." Rider Sophie-Baetens van Lent took a break two years ago when giving birth to her first born. Now the lady from Grimbergen seems to be totally back with a pack of promising prospects of which Dark Diamant is one of them.