The legendary Swedish warmblood dressage stallion Master has passed away on Tuesday night 8 March 2011. The dark bay licensed stallion died peacefully in his sleep at the Flyinge State Stud in Sweden, where he was to stand at stud this year.
"He was found in Flyinge in his stall this morning," Kyrklund told Eurodressage. "It looks like a sudden death as his bed was "untoutched". He was supposed to stand at Flyinge this season and was in very good condition."
Master was born in 1988 and bred by Paul-Erik Lang. The dark bay colt was by Ceylon out of Bellis (by Iran x Sombrero) and owned by Kyra Kyrklund in partnership with Birgitta Kjellin. He was licensed for the Swedish, Danish and Finnish warmblood society as well as for the AES and British warmblood breeders' society. He has been proclaimed "elite" stallion in Sweden.
Master had a superb performance record. With Kyra Kyrklund, he won everything from the Swedish championships as a 5 and 6 year old to the World Cup qualifier in A?rhus in 1997. He competed 21 times winning 18 of them and he was placed in the other 3! In his first sea- son in Grand Prix he even finished 6th at the 1998 World Cup Final.
Master was ranked 7th on the 2007 and 2008 World Breeding Ranking for dressage sires and has been proclaimed “Stallion of the Year 2008” by the Swedish Warmblood society.
Master has multiple offspring competing at Grand Prix level in dressage. His most famous son was Kyrklund's Max, who placed 8th at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. He was 4th in 2007 and 3rd in 2008 at the World Cup finals. Leslie Morse's Tip Top was team bronze medal winner at the 2006 World Equestrian Games and represented the US in the World Cup Final in both 2006 and 2007.
One of Kyra's fondest recollections of Master was her doing a special show with him in Scandinavia. "He loved doing his "fireshow" with 20 people holding a torch, drum music and a lot of atmosphare. When he heard "his" music, he was almost unstoppable. He WANTED to go in with or without me. I remember once in Gothenburg when we were suppose to do a show with him. I trained the people first on foot with the music and his groom Pernilla Gyllbrink was handwalking Master. He heard the music and was almost cantering into the arena with her hanging on. He was not going to miss the show..
"He had a super head for competitions. He loved to show himself, never got nervous of the surroundings but he just grew bigger at shows,," Kyrklund told Eurodressage in praise of her former Grand Prix horse. "He was like that from the start. When he was 5 years old, I took him to his first show, a qualifier for the young horse championships in Falsterbo. As soon as he entered the competition ring, he felt like a Grand Prix horse, although he of course couldn't do the movements yet. Also it felt as if he had a fourth dimension in his movements. He was a very special horse."
Article © Eurodressage - No Reproduction without permission
Photos courtesy K.Kyrklund - Flyinge.se
Related Links
Master to Stand at Stud in Sweden
Master 9th in 2009 WBFSH Sire Ranking
Kyra Kyrklund and Her Students Shine at 2009 WBFSH Gala Evening
Kyra Kyrklund's Max Retired from Competition