French Team Horse Lights of Londonderry Retired from Sport

Dressage

France

Lights of Londonderry, a French team horse which competed at the 2014 World Equestrian Games and 2019 European Championships, has been retired from sport.

Lights of Londonderry is an 18-year old Hanoverian gelding by Londonderry out of Wie Warina (by Weltmeyer). He is bred by Inge Bulle.

He was originally licensed for breeding at the 2006 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing in Verden, but his breeding career was never developed with no performance test and he was focused on sport.

Jean François Vesin and Alexandre Ayache

The Hanoverian sold to France to Jean François Vesin, who later sold a share to Alexandre Ayache.

Vesin rode the chestnut to a bronze medal at the 2010 French Young Horse Championships in the 6-year old division, after which Ayache took over the ride for FEI level.

They made their international show debut at Grand Prix level at the 2014 CDI Vidauban and were selected on the French team for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, where they were 62nd in the Grand Prix with 66.886%.

In 2015 the pair went full throttle with competition starts in Vidauban, Nice, Hagen, Lipica, Treffen and Brno. After he was not selected to represent France at the 2015 CDIO Nations' Cup in Rotterdam the owners put the horse for sale.

Bernadette Brune

German Bernadette Brune read about the sale of Lights of Londonderry in a French magazine and acquired the stallion, partially swapping him for Trakehner stallion Grand Passion, who Ayache briefly rode after the sale.

Brune and Lights made their debut at the 2016 CDI Nice and she competed him in Stadl Paura, Hagen and Hamburg that year. There were no international shows in 2017 due to an injury, but he returned to the arena in 2018 in Herning, following by Hagen and Aachen.

Charlotte Chalvignac-Vesin

With Brune seeing no possibility for her to achieve German team scores with Lights, she gave the ride to Charlotte Chalvignac, who is married to Jean François Vesin.

Coached by Anthony Astier, the new duo made its international premier at the CDI Saumur in May 2019 and competed at Compiegne and Geesteren. They became the 2019 French Grand Prix Champions in Vierzon at the beginning of July and were selected on the French team for the 2019 European Dressage Championships in Rottermdam, where they were eliminated as the horse was not level.

Chalvignac and Lights at the 2019 CDIO
Compiegne

From the autumn of 2019 till the spring of 2020, Lights competed in a series of national shows and captured bronze at the 2020 French Championships. In October 2020, Chalvignac tried to return to the CDI ring in Le Mans, but got rung out. Since then 16-year old Lights of Londonderry was fully retired from sport.

Retirement

The now 18-year old is spending his days in the field with companions.

"He's doing super well," Charlotte Chalvignac told Eurodressage. "Only the people he likes can go in the field with him, though. He really protects the two mares that are with him. I really wanted to give him a lovely retirement after what he has given me."