Italian Grand Prix rider Anna Paprocka-Campanella has sold her Grand Prix horse Andretti H to Wilfried Bechtolsheimer. The dark bay Andretti is a 13-year old Hanoverian gelding by Aarking xx x Cavalier and was competed by Anna at the 2007 European Dressage Championships in Turin, Italy. Andretti H has also regularly been shown by Campanella's trainer Hubertus Schmidt, who became 2007 German Dressage Champion with him.
"It was a very hard decision for me because I owned this horse for the last 5 years," Anna Paprocka-Campanella told Eurodressage."I am building a new stable in Italy and have other talented horses in the stable of Hubertus Scmidt, so we decided to sell him."
Wilfried's daughter Laura Bechtolsheimer, a British WEG team rider, will be training and competing Andretti H as of now. "I am happy that Laura will ride Andretti," Campanella said, "because she is a very sensible and talented rider and I am sure that Andretti has found the best home possible with her."
The Bechtolsheimers are very pleased with their new horse. "We tried Andretti while we were at Dortmund CDI and Laura got on with him really well. He has been with us for almost 3 weeks now and we all like him very much," Wilfried Bechtolsheimer told Eurodressage. "Laura rode him at a small national show last weekend and came second with over 70% in her first Grand Prix with him, only beaten by her other ride, Mistral Hojris."
Even though Anna Campanella and Andretti H were virtually qualifed for the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, the Italian rider has reservations towards competing in China. "I do not want to be hypocrite and say that I would not go to Hong Kong just because of Tibet situation, but, in my opinion, these Olympic Games are not really "magical" this time: the difficult conditions for the horses, separate competition for them, and the situation in Tibet. I think that all this together makes you lose a bit of enthusiasm for being there. Every rider schould go there because of the many years of preparation, but we can not to pretend that the problem of Tibet does not exist," said a very world conscious Campanella.
Together with Hubertus Schmidt, Anna will be focusing on her preparing a new horse for the 2009 European Championships held in Windsor, Great Britain.
Photo copyrighted: Dirk Caremans
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