Danish born Swede Per Sandgaard has been appointed dressage stable master at the Stromsholm Equestrian centre in Sweden. Tidningen Ridsport reported that Sandgaard will be responsible for the dressage training at the centre.
He will be joining Jens Fredricson who is head of show jumping there.
Patrik Kittel has joined the De Niro club like Anabel Balkenhol, Fabienne Lutkemeier and Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and is now riding a De Niro offspring as FEI star. Kittel's sponsors Arlette Jasper and Ed Kohl acquired the 6-year old chestnut Denaro (by De Niro x Warkant), nicknamed "Dennis". "He has a lot of expression and is sensitive, just as I like them," Kittel said about his new ride. "I am thrilled to have the chance to ride such a horse, and must thank Arlette and Ed for their support! I look forward to see what the future brings with this horse!"
Kittel's sponsors purchased Derano from Katrin Bettenworth who discovered him 1,5 years ago and she trained and competed him last year. "Three times he won the young horses classes with scores up to 8,8 and two times highly placed," Bettenworth told Eurodressage. "He is a gorgeous chestnut with all you need for riding Grand Prix later. He has a very good walk, super trot and super canter with outstanding hindlegs. He's a big horse but elegant and nice to ride, super sensitive but not spooky, something like a diamant."
Kittel's wife Lyndal Oatley acquired the 10-year old stallion Sandro Boy (by Sandro Hit x Argentinus) with which Patrik made a winning small tour debut at the CDI Lingen. Sandro Boy was previously owned by Dutch horse dealer Eugene Reesink.
The Dutch warmblood gelding Stradivarius (by Krack C x Contango) has passed away. The huge bay gelding was trained by Leida Collins-Strijk and Edward Gal and only recently sold to the a Moscow based Russian sponsor for Ukrainian Sergey Puzko to ride. The pair competed at the CDI Zhashkov for instance. Stradivarius got severely injured to a hind leg which it got blocked in the bars of the stall at night at a competition. He was very injured and could not be saved.
The Dutch warmblood stallion Prestige VDL (by Silvano N x Goodtimes) has been sold to Sheridyn Ashwood from Queensland, Australia. New Zealand owner Lisa Blackbourn sold to bay stallion, who was previously trained by Edward Gal, to Ashwood who will be campaigning him at FEI level in the future. Prestige was located in New Zealand since 2007.
U.S. Dressage rider Kenn Acebal was arrested on June 8 and is being charged with methamphetamine possession and indecent exposure. Acebal, who owned Robert Dover's 1999 World Cup Finals' dressage horse Lennox, was also arrested in April on attempted child molestation charges. Read more here
Dr. Peter Cronau, former head of the FEI Veterinary Committee, has got involved in the major reining scandal caused by warm up footage released by Epona.TV. Read Dr. Peter Cronau's reaction to the riding in Malmo.
Mr "Fritz in Heat" (Fritz Rossigkeit) was suffering from some excessive phlegm when he wrote his biting accusation that Paul Schockemöhle is pulling all the strings he got to get his stallions in the German team for the World Young Horse Championships at the cost of several better, independent riders. The anonimous author, who seems to suffer from his heat cycle, defends reserve horse Franz Joseph (by Florencio x Coriograf) to great extent while he illogically breaks down other horses by saying that the horses' best gaits were actually worst of the day. Oh well.. If you care for a breakfast of negativity go here.
Horse and Hound reported that 29-year old Italian Grand Prix rider and eventer Susanna Bordone had to undergo emergency facial reconstructive surgery after a freak accident at Luhmühlen Horse Trials. Susanna was putting an extra rug on her CIC*** ride Amacuzzi during late-night stables when he snapped at her, badly biting her face. She was due to have her first operation at the end of this week.
Yesterday, British Olympian Carl Hester celebrated his 44th birthday. "It's been a perfect week," Hester said. "Best pressie was Uthopia's 80 per cent of course ! I'm now off to watch grunting ladies at Wimbledon"
AD Sportwereld interviewed Adelinde Cornelissen who said that for no money in the world she would sell Parzival. When asked if she could beat Totilas at the 2012 Olympic Games, Cornelissen replied, "I've beaten him once at the Europeans in Windsor in 2009. If I did it once, I could do it again." While Totilas sold to Germany for a rumoured 10 million euro, Cornelissen would never consider a sale. "He's mine and I'm never selling, not even for 15 million euro. I owe everything to Parzival. If I hadn't had him, I would still be standing in front of a class room, which I also liked doing. I've got people interested from all over the globe, willing to pay enormous amounts of money. But you don't sell such a horse. Yes it's true love. I wouldn't sell my friend either, would I?!"
Imke Schellekens-Bartels has received the ride on the 9-year old Dutch warmblood Valentino (by Florestan x Michelangelo) which is owned by Jacques Maree and Tim Coomans. Schellekens has been riding the big bay gelding for a couple of weeks now. The horse was previously shown by junior rider Claire Maree. The trio Bartels-Maree-Coomans has worked together in the past on horses such as Lancet, Aachen and Ziesto.
The 37-year old Sandra Wiedmer has been elected new director of the Swiss Equestrian Federation and will take up the position as of 1 October 2011.
The Dutch Paardenkrant released a top three of best earning breeding stallions in The Netherlands. This "Fortune 500" list has Indoctro (by Capitol I) at the top. He was bred to 267 mares and earned 534,000 euro in stud fee. Cardento (by Capitol I) is number 2 with 481,250 euro for 275 breedings. Jazz (by Cocktail) and Totilas (by Gribaldi) share spot three with 462,000 euro. Jazz was bred to 220 mares, Totilas to only 84!
DIXIT
We loved the following quote of Isabell Werth on her choice in bitting horses in the June 2011 edition of ST. Georg :
"I'm not a bit fetishist. People start to experiment when the throughness is not there. But I would first work on that. In principle we always use a double jointed for young horses because they lie better in the mouth. Very sensitive horses which start to play with the tongue I ride with a nathe bit, also as a curb. We get the horses used to the curbs when they are six or seven. When horses are through on a snaffle, the curb normally never poses a problem. I never experienced it otherwise. The experienced horses, like Satchmo and Warum Nicht, I always ride in a snaffle at home. We only pull the curb out of the closet three to four days before a show."