Claudia Fassaert's first Grand Prix horse Carramba passed away Monday 10 April 2012 at age 29.The horse was suffering from old age and was euthanized at home. Nicknamed "Bumpy", Carramba was by Doruto x Ulex
and competed by Claudia (who was then married to Alex Bauwens) in the late 1990s. The combination was selected to compete at the 1998 World Equestrian Games but an injury prevented them from going.
Gert Jan van Olst has sold a 50% share in the ownership of his 4-year old Dutch warmblood licensed stallion Chippendale (by Lord Leatherdale x Negro). Van Olst found a partner in Joyce van der Meulen's Wenmoor Stables which now owns half the stallion.
Belgian professional dressage rider Werner van den Brande, who has been based in the U.S.A. since 2006, has married his girlfriend Mary-Cameron Rollins on the weekend of 31 March 2012. Aboard Kristina Sprehe's former Young Riders horse Rose Noir, Mary-Cameron became North American Young Riders Champion in 2009. Van den Brande won the U.S. Young Horse Championships in 2011 with Donna Tella. The pair runs a training and sales facility in Wellington, Florida. A photo of the happy couple can be seen here.
Horses.nl reported that Dutch junior rider Jeanine Nieuwenhuis has broken a Dutch dressage record. She has become the youngest ever Grand Prix rider in The Netherlands. The 16-year old showed the mare Truemanda (by Rubiquil) in the regional Grand Prix class in Schaijk, The Netherlands, the weekend of 30 March - 1 April and scored 63.14%. The previous record holder was Diederik van Silfhout who made his Grand Prix debut at age 17,5.
In our reproduction of the Hoefslag article on the Poetin lawsuit between the prestigious French stud farm Haras de Hus and Dutch ING Bank an important word got lost in translation. Haras de Hus' owner Xavier Marie was not ordered to pay 1,181,797 euro by the Amsterdam Court, but the French businessman claimed this amount of money back from the ING Bank at the Amsterdam court house. Unfortunately for him this claim was denied and Marie will not be reimbursed for buying the late World Champion Poetin at an executorial sale in The Netherlands on 1 September 2005.
Broere Stable sold its 16-year old KWPN licensed stallion Obelisk (by Matador x Clavecimbel) to the Dutch van der Weide family. The black stallion was trained and competed by Kirsten Beckers up to Prix St Georges level but an injury ended the horse's sports career. The stallion recently stood up for stud in Sweden since 2008.
Dixit - Quote of the Week
In Horse and Hound British gold medal team rider Carl Hester spoke out about the FEI vs IDRC feud. "We don't deserve being put in the naughty corner like a bunch of unruly kids. This is how it feels the FEI are treating the Dressage Riders Club (IDRC) at the moment, by taking steps to suspend the IDRC as an associate member of the FEI. As IDRC president Kyra Kyrklund stressed in a recent statement, it is about representation. Members of the IDRC unanimously agree that the riders' representative on the FEI Dressage Committee must be a rider who represents the interest of ALL riders, not one who has the interests of one national federation at heart. It's about time the FEI recognised this."