It's like Germany is getting rid of all their stallions. An incredible amount of sires has crossed the Atlantic to breed in the United States. Some of them are leased, most of them have been sold. Of course the news that the Hanoverian Welcome (World Cup x Grande) will be at GW Ranch for at least a year was a big scoop. Also, Klatte sold his two top stars Ruiz Soler (to a hunter rider named Stewart, though not Don Stewart of Ocala, FL) and Granulit to South Africa.
More stallions have been relocated to the North American continent. Interesting to know is that Johann Hinnemann's Westfalian stallion Diamo is currently in California. The 12-year old chestnut licensed Diamo (by Diamantino out of Ferrari by Feuerfunke) was owned by Ari van Baalen and Johan Hinnemann and bred for a couple of years at the Westfalian State Stud before being used as a competition horse. Dutch riders Nathalie Smeets and Marlies van Baalen briefly trained and competed the chestnut. Diamo has been gelded in the summer.
The Westfalian show jumping sire Pablo has also found a new home in the U.S. The 1988 born bay stallion was Reserve Champion in his Stallion Performance Test with 136.22 points. Pablo (Pilot out of Monic (by Matrox) is bred by Aloys Lohre from Steinheim, Germany, owned by Anton Bockmann and was standing in Sweden at Per Pileryd's station. Pablo has several licensed sons: Pablos Glück, Pocahontas, Presley, Pablo Picasso, Prinz Pablo and standing in the U.S. are Pablito and Papparazzo.
Our Danish connection let us know that the Danish Equestrian Federation (DRF) is suing Lone Jorgenssen for having sold FBW Kennedy. Lone had a contract with the DRF to compete Kennedy at least until after the Olympics. Jorgenssen received a large sum of money from "Team Denmark" to keep Kennedy for the Danish Dressage Team. As she sold her horse, Jorgenssen is being sued. She will have to reimburse 275.000 Danish Kroner (37,000 Euro) which had been paid to her for Kennedy.
More people arguing: Elke von Lingelsheim and Monica Theodorescu have parted in disagreement with each other. Von Lingelsheim, who is the owner of the Trakehner mare Renaissance Fleur, feels she has been misinformed about Fleur's injury. If she had known that the fracture was so severe (the mare will never return to competition and is supposedly still in pain nine months after the injury), she would have decided to put her down. The Theodorescu's claims that the breeder kept her alive to make money with her. So, there has been going on a lot of bad talk between these two persons, who are both at heart the biggest horse lovers one can imagine. The full story on this dispute (with sources) is featured in this month's St Georg magazine.
Remember Isabell Werth's wonderful Bundeschampionate Champion (1996 - 5-year olds) mare Ferrara S? Werth purchased the bay mare by Florestan I from Dr. Uwe Schulten Baumer. Ferrara was trained and competed at Intermediaire I level (in 1999) but she was retired from competition due to an injury. Since then, the mare has switched careers: she's now a brood mare. Ferrari S gave birth to a Breitling W (Bismarck x Maat I) colt this year and has been bred again to this stallion, who is being ridden by her trainer Wolfram Wittig. Werth already tried to link Ferrara to Donnerhall but that didn't work.
Images by Arnd Bronkhorst and Dirk Caremans