Espe, European Junior and Young Riders Champion, Sold to Australia

Dressage

Australia

Espe, the Westfalian mare with whom British Annabella Pidgley won the 2022 and 2023 European Junior/Young Riders Championships, has been sold to Australia.

Espe is an 11-year old Westfalian mare by Escolar x Dimaggio. She is bred by Walter and Hedda Droege.

Droege and Möller

Breeder Hedda Droege first presented the mare shows in the Westfalian area as a 3-year old. She competed her lightly and rode the mare last in an L-level class in Lienen in May 2019.

Droege sold her to Andreas Helgstrand and business partner Stutteri EVO and the ride was allocated to Eva Möller. In June 2019 Espe won the Bundeschampionate qualifier in Hagen and got selected to represent Germany at the 2019 World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo, The Netherlands. The pair won a place in the finals by winning the consolation class and ended up ranking 11th with 8.68 points, after earning 8 for walk, 8.9 for trot, 9 for canter, 8.3 for submission and 9.2 for general impression. At the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf she was 7th in the Finals.

In November Espe moved from Eva Möller's base in Hagen, Germany, to Helgstrand Dressage in Denmark to be sold.

Annabella Pidgley

With Eva Möller at the 2019 WCYH in Ermelo

Severo Jurado Lopez rode her in the sales video and the mare sold soon afterwards to Tony and Sarah Pidgley, parents of then 15-year old Annabella Pidgley, who was making the transition from ponies to junior level.

The mare was first put in training with Cathrine Dufour in Denmark, with whom the Pidgleys collaborated until the end of 2022. Dufour showed Espe first in September 2020 in the 6-year old tests. A year later, in September 2021 she returned to the national show ring with the bay for a first Prix St Georges test (74.868%) and ended up riding her in one more PSG in September. Three months later, on 29 December 2021, Dufour rode her in an Inter I to a 78.816% score. After that the mare was sent to Great Britain for Annabella to take over the reins.

In 2021 Sultan des Paluds was Annabella's numer one junior rider's horse, winning her medals at the 2021 European Junior Championships and the British Junior Champion's title, but as of 2022 Espe took over the baton as the number one in the barn.

The pair made its show debut straight away at the international show in Keysoe in March 2022 at junior level, placing second in the team test and winning the individual and kur. From there they went to the CDIO-JR Hagen where they scored a hattrick and at the 2022 European Junior Riders Championships in Hartpury, the pair wrote history by claiming team bronze as well as bronze in the individual test and silver in the kur. They were trained by Charlotte Dujardin at the time. The duo concluded the year with the 2022 British Junior Champion's title.

At the 2023 European Young Riders Championships

In 2023 they moved to Young Riders level and followed a similar path: starting with the CDI Keysie, where they were again second and twice first, followed by a series of non-stop victories at the CDI's in Addington, Le Mans, Wellington Heckfield, and Aachen. At the 2023 European Young Riders Championships in Pilisjaszfalu they won team bronze and individual and kur gold. They finished the year by winning the 2023 British Young Riders Champion's title as welll as the 2023 British PSG Kur Champion's title.

Their last CDI show as a pair was a year ago, at the 2024 CDI Hickstead, where they won two senior small tour classes. That year Pidgley focused on competing Grand Prix horses Gio and Vamos Amigos. The horse's last show was at the national show in Wellington on 4 June 2024, where they were second in the Prix St Georges.

Australia

Instead of producing the mare to Grand Prix level as her own big tour horse, Pidgley silently put Espe on the market. She has now found a new owner in the Weel family from Australia.

"The time has come for Espe to find a new home and to teach another young girl with big dreams just how she did with me," Annabella stated. "I couldn’t be happier to know she has gone to the best home with Abby Weel in Australia. (...) Espe was a once in a lifetime horse for me and to be able to share this with another young rider makes my heart happy. "

The Weel family has close ties with Helgstrand, where they have sourced several horses in the recent years. They acquired Santiago-H, Lord Extra, For Real, and licensed stallion So Perfect as a breeding and sport horse, but So Perfect ended up being gelded.

Abby Weel trains with former Australian team rider Matthew Dowsley.