An interesting foal has been born in Leslie Morse's stable in California. The black colt Tip Top's Knight (pictured right and below) is the result of 5 years of dedicated breeding. The jet black colt is by Leslie Morse's Swedish warmblood sireTip Top out of dam King's Ruby (by Morse's Dutch Grand Prix stallion Kingston). "It has taken 5 years to produce this line, by America's two leading competition stallions The colt shows Tip Top's elasticity, while having the top line of Kingston along with his long legs . Truly the best of both." Tip Top (by Master) has recently been awarded a Premium A breeding license for the Swedish Warmblood society because of the quality of his offspring. Morse is expecting one more foal to her ever growing herd, a Tip Top x Kingston x Welt Hit II
Morse also said that Kingston is recovering well from the injurythat sidelined him almost for a year. "Kingston is doing fabulous. It's amazing how horses forget nothing, and with a little rest actually become even more brilliant. We are working on his muscle strength and fitness. I am not rushing,so he will be the tower of strength and healthiness that I've always been able to count on," Morse told Eurodressage.
It has been awfully quiet around Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff. The German A-team rider has not competed since the summer of 2006 and the reason for that has recently been revealed on her website. Linsenhoff has been ill this winter suffering from Lyme disease. Her website mentioned the following: "An uncountable number of examinations have resulted in a diagnosis of Lyme disease, which has sidelined Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff this winter. Now she can finally be treated against it and now that she is recovering, a new show schedule has been set up. Even though there was much quietness and no pressure, the past few months took much energy and new strength has to be built up. We have decided that our first competition will be the beautiful show Horses & Dreams in Hagen in April."
At the 2007 Palm Beach Dressage Derby, UllrichKasselmann, Dr. Ulf Möller, and Tim Dutta signed a contractwith Gill Merrick, the director of High Performance Dressage, to become the title sponsors of the USEF Developing Horse Program. This is a special show circuit for Prix St Georges horses between 7 and 9. These horses have to compete in specially designated PSG classes for their age division throughout the country and there will be a big whopping finals at the 2007 National Young Horse Championships in Lexington, KY, in September. "We have Scott Hassler as our national young horse coach, Debbie McDonald as our developing horse coach and Klaus Balkenhol as our national dressage coach," Gill Merrick explained. "With the Developing Horse Program all this will be tied together." Kasselmann and Dutta explained their motivation for sponsorship as "giving something back to the sport." "Many of the riders are our clients and for us this is a way to thank them," Dutta said. The trio added that the program is a good way for riders and trainers of small tour horses to stimulate them to move onto Grand Prix. The entire program is part of a major plan to gather a pool of talented FEI horses from which team horses for the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky could potentially be picked.
Susan Dutta, Tim Dutta's wife, will take over the ride on the Hanoverian licensed stallion Pik L (by Pik Bube II x Abajo xx). Owner Anne Whitten of Horses Unlimited has offered Pik L to Susan as her Pan American hope. Dutta aims to qualify the dark bay stallion for the U.S. Pan American team that will compete at the 2007 Pan Ams in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.. When Horses Unlimited split with Dr. Cesar Parra one month ago, the Danish Mikala Gunderson started to train and compete the stallion, but as Gunderson has the Danish nationality she cannot qualify for the Pan Ams. Susan Dutta will now give it a try. Under Dr. Cesar Parra, Pik L placed individually fourth at the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.
More euro-celebrities were spotted at the 2007 Palm Beach Derby. It was a pleasant delight to see the Danish/Swedish duo Per Sandgaard and Peter Markne inspecting the horses at the CDI ring. I go up to them and say hi, but for them it takes a while to recognize me. I spoke to Per on the phone a few years ago when his horse Zancor got sold to Nadine Capellmann and met Per and Peter for the first time at the Equine Elite Auction in October 2006. They had just bought a horse and were celebrating that with lots of champagne. Good reason why they wouldn't remember me now. When asked what Per and Peter were doing in Florida, they said that they were on vacation and exploring the Florida scene on their very first trip to the United States. Their sponsor Leni Söderberg has a farm in Florida and they were checking that out, taking a winter stint with some horses in Florida next year into consideration.
Also at the Derby were Ulla Salzgeber, who was training Christopher Hickey, andMartin Schaudt who was coaching Pati Pierucci aboard Kim van Kampen's Andalusian horses.
The KWPN licensed breeding stallion Topas has passed away on February 27, 2007. The 30-year old Topas died in his stall at Okkema's stable in Vrouwenparochie, The Netherlands, where he was enjoying his retirement. Topas produced the licensed stallion Kingston (dam sire Ramiro Z, don't confuse him with Leslie Morse's Kingston) and international show jumping horses Little Big Man, Limminka, Kilian, and Cortaflex Mondriaan.
Dutch Junior Rider Merel Peper has been submitted to the Dutch Junior Riders A-team. Aboard her horse Flayrah (by Michelangelo) she has scored several times above 67% and has earned her spot on the A-team.