Ekkehard Rönnefarth has become the new manager of Gestut Webelsgrund. With the departure of Ralf Hartmann, Gestut Webelsgrund was without a manager and urgently sought someone to lead the stallion station again. Ekkehard Rönnefarth will be managing the station which has breeding stallions Michelangelo, Plaisir d'Amour and Le Duc up for stud. Rönnefarth started out as "Pferdewirtschafstmeister" at Gestut Tannenhof and moved in the spring of 2001 to Kempke Hof. In 2004, he has taken a new course in life again by moving to Webelsgrund in Springe, Germany.
Italian dressage rider Laura Conz has been appointed Technical Delegate of theItalian Dressage Team. Conz, who is herself a Grand Prix dressage rider, is succeeding Gerard Bagdahn.
Nadine Capellmann will be making her come back with Farbenfroh at the World Cup Finals/CDI in Dortmund, Germany, in April 2004. Her world champion horse Farbenfroh (Freudentanzer x Aarstein) got injured after the WEG and has been resting for more than a year. However, he is back in training now with Klaus Balkehol.
Because the German Equestrian Federation gave Ulla Salzgeber a two months' suspension from competition, it will be unlikely that she will compete Rusty at the 2004 World Cup Finals and defend her title. Because of the FEI and FN verdict, Salzgeber has not ridden any qualifiers so far, and unless she gets a wild card from the organization, we won't see her and Rusty at the Finals in Dusseldorf. To English magazine Horse and Hound, Salzgeber commented the following: "I don't think it is fair that I can be punished twice for the same offence. I don't think the German Federation should have the jurisdiction to act on this." Ulla is currently considering whether to appeal and is hopeful that the German National Olympic Committee (NOK) will allow her to represent German at the Athens Olympics. Under German National Olympic Committee (NOK) rules any candidate involved in a doping case is not normally eligible for a place on the Olympic squad, but Ulla's case may be an exception because the FEI found that Ulla had played no part in Rusty's positive test.
The dark bay Trakehner stallion Liebestraum has been put down because of an untreatable hock injury. Liebestraum, by Saint Cloud xx Sokrates, was treated three years for this injury but his condition worsened. It was in the best interest that this famous stallion was put down. Liebestraum was a highly successful dressage stallion under Dorothee Schneider. He qualified twice for the Bundeschampionate, but his career came to an abrupt stop due to this hock injury. Schneider's Gesut St. Stephan still has stallions Van Deyk and Ursprung up for stud.
Sidelines reported that Robert Dover took one of his clients on a horse shopping spree in Germany. We can't wait to hear what horses they bought to fill up Dover's Romance Farm in Wellington, Florida.