2005 KWPN Licensing Champion Verdi (Jazz x Flemmingh) will be standing in Germany this spring. Owner Henk Nijhof announced that fresh semen of this stallion is available till March 1, 2005. In March, he'll be doing his 30-day test in Germany and will only be available through frozen semen. Fresh semen will be back on the market on April 1. (600 € for a breeding, tax not included). Verdi has also been renamed into "Johnson" dropping his KWPN V-name and going for a German J-name, which refers to his sire Jazz.
Photo of Verdi is copyrighted: Dirk Caremans
Gestut Vorwerk's Mon Dieu has been sold after all. Earlier reports of a sale of Mon Dieu were denied by Vorwerk, but in January 2005 the black licensed stallion was eventually sold to Thuringen.. Mon Dieu is now standing at Agrar GmbH in Crawinkel, Germany, where former Vorwerk stallion Rosier is also stabled. Mon Dieu is by Michelangelo x Donnerhall.
Horses of the Dutch reported that KWPN licensed stallion Hexagon's Rubiquil (by Rubinstein) will be standing at stud at Van Bommel's in Aarle Rixtel, The Netherlands, from now on. Rubiquil's owner Leunis van Lieren will be focusing himself more on training dressage horses and can no longer manage the stallion's stud duties. Rubiquil will not be competing in 2005 and Van Bommel will be handling his breedings for the 2005 season. Rubiquil's best performing offspring is the Grand Prix horse Hexagon's Ollright.
Many international dressage riders have been doing some serious horse truck shopping this past winter. Grand Prix riders Anky van Grunsven, Coby van Baalen, Sven Rothenberger, Victoria Max Theurer and Wayne Channon all bought the latest super deluxe model. Van Grunsven and Van Baalen got themselves a sponsored truck, Max Theurer shopped at Roelofsen Raalte and got a silver one, Wayne Channon purchased a monster truck in a lovely champagne colour at Anemone/Ketterer. Watch out for Channon's lorry because it really stands out with its gorgeous red drawings on the sides by equine artist Tim Nathan.
On the Trakehners International website you can read that the Trakehner stallion Stradivari sold to France. Stradivari is by the recently deceased Anglo Arab Upan la Jarthe AA. "Stradivari stood at the very small privately owned Brettachtal stud in South Germany and only covered a handful of mares. Less than 50 of his offspring are registered in Germany, many of them winning especially in show jumping and eventing. His sons Key West and the 2001 champion K2 are popular and will hopefully put this very valuable line on a broader basis," Trakehners International wrote.
The Australian National Dressage Selectors for the years 2005-2008 will be Virginia Creed, Joanne Fowler and Mary Seefried. Congratulations! Mrs. Judy Cubitt, who has retired from the panel, did not seek re-election.
The organizers of the CDI Pompadour in France sent us a note that their CDI has been promoted to a Three Star CDI***. The show will also included CDI/FEI Young Horses classes as well as a CDI for FEI pony riders. The dates of the CDI Pompadour are July 20-24, 2005.
The Belgian equestrian magazine Paardekracht will be back in circulation in April 2005. Due to severe health problems, PK's editor in chief Rob Delafontaine was unable to publish his magazine in 2004. Fortunately, he announced on his website that he's back in the saddle and PK will be rolling of the presses again in April.
At the 2005 FEI/PSI Freestyle Forum, we were extremely happy to hear that the Westfalian licensed stallion Future (by Florestan x Apart) is in training with Sven Rothenberger. Future is owned by Adrie Gordijn of De Ijzeren Man, Sven's father in law. "Daddy loves Future because he's one of the few stallions he can really cuddle with, but eventually he agreed to give us the horse for training," Gonnelien Rothenberger told Eurodressage. According to Gonnelien, Future has an oustanding talent for piaffe and passage. He's currently schooling the Prix St Georges.
Jan Peeters' Future Cup is lifting off in The Netherlands. The Dutch counterpart of the German Piaff Forderpreis, the Future Cup is a series of competitions in which young riders no older than 29 can ride a specially designed Grand Prix test in preparation of the actual Grand Prix tour. The Future Cup test includes seven tempi changes every single stride and some pieces of passage (no piaffe). At Bartels' Horse Academy, the first training session for the Future Cup took place on February 16, 2005. Jan Peeters was supervisor, Wim Ernes judged, and Tineke Bartels provided comments before and after the test. Marlies van Baalen and Roman Nature were the high scorers of the day with 70% for their ride. Angela van den Berg and Mix scored 69%. Peeters was so pleased with the excellent performances of the riders, that he's considering putting a piece of piaffe in the test after all. "The quality of the participants is so high, that can handle the piaffe," Peeters commented.
The Hanoverian Verband announced that the 2005 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing will only take three days instead of the usual four. "Following the work of various coordination meetings, the Board of Directors has decided to modify the most important event of the Hanoverian breeding year. In 2005, the licensing of young stallions will be shortened by one day. The event will now start one day later, on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28. Saturday, October 29, will be reserved to the stallion market with the auction of licensed and non-licensed stallions," the Hanoverian Verband stated.