Carl Hester gave a wonderful interview to American equestrian magazine The Chronicle of the Horse and talked about his personal habits and pleasures.
When asked what his choice in drink is, he replied: "A spritzer. I used to be far too big a wine drinker. I’m from the Channel Islands, tax-free, where booze is cheap, and they always describe the island I live in, which is 600 people, as 600 alcoholics clinging to a rock. It was going to happen at some point. The way that I’ve managed to temper that is to drink spritzers. I try never to drink straight wine anymore, just spritzer, half-half." The Chronicle also asked him: "Looking back on your career so far, what advice are you glad you never took?" to which Carl replied: "Somebody will buy you a horse. I’m glad I never waited for that to happen. It doesn’t happen. You have to prove yourself. So that’s what I did. So that means the best bit of advice I ever got was train your own."
Those interested in the detailed report of the CAS hearing for Hayley Beresford's case against the Australian equestrian federation, read the file here.
Gestut Wiesenhof has sold its Trakehner licensed stallion Hibiskus (by Latimer x Hohenstein) to the Raili family and Detlef Casper and will stand at the Bavarian based Stall Zellsee. Wiesenhof has decided to close its stallion station. The 12-year old Hibiskus has six licensed offspring.
At the 2012 European Pony Championships in Fontainebleau I was often approached with the question where the 2013 Euro Pony Championships were going to be held. FEI Dressage Director Trond Asmyr confrmed to Eurodressage that no venue has been allocated yet. "This is not a dramatic situation," Asmyr said. "It has happened before and will probably happen again, that a championship is allocated less than a year before the event."
Isabell Werth's Grand Prix horse Warum Nicht injured himself quite severely six weeks ago in his stall. The stable personnel found "Hannes" lame in his box during the morning check. A vet exam showed that the chestnut Hanoverian had fractured a bone in his hip. The horse has been off from work since then and is currently being hand walked.
Belgian FEI Pony rider Noa Moermans will be making the transition to junior riders' level aboard Katrien Verreet's former horse Beach Boy van de Zuuthoeve (by Sir Lui x Weltmeyer II). Moermans was in her final year on ponies riding the Dutch bred Dempsy Smokey and she will now continue with the 12-year old Belgian warmblood.
At the national "Elmlohe Riding Days" show in Elmlohe, Germany, long-time German judge Heinz Lemmermann retired from his judging career. The 77-year old Lemmermann will look forward to travelling with his wife. "Of course I'll miss the shows," he told German photographer Kiki Beelitz, "but sitting in a judge's box in the shade of 30° sunshine for five hours is not so easy for me anymore at age 77."