A beautiful flower decoration in the shape of the Danish warmblood brand decorates the small arena where the riding horse test and Danish young horse championships are taking place.
On Thursday morning a first presentation of the 4 and 5-year old stallions took place. Praiseworthy is the fact that a renowned international dressage star rider, such as Andreas Helgstrand, still has his two feet on the ground and has not get stuck in dressage star ego-glorification as some international top riders do. He is still handling young stallions at breed shows, doing the presentation and running himself instead of the Blue Hors staff. Here he is holding Blue Hors Leredo, who proved to be a handful.
An interesting 4-year old Danish warmblood stallion is Gagarin, one of the rare few licensed sons by FBW French Kiss, the 2004 World Young Dressage Horse Champion.
On Thursday, most stallions are still being trailered in for the shows and saddle classes. The stable area is the place-to-meet when you arrive at the Licensing in the Messecenter of Herning, Denmark. All owners, breeders and friends assemble there, checking out the new stock and the older stallions. In this picture, American Louise Leatherdale is snuggling up with her stallion His Highness, who is sticking his nose between the bars to cuddle with his "mom".
One of the biggest attractions of the Danish Warmblood Licensing is the Gala Show which is known to be one of the best horse extravaganza's in Europe, with famous stallions being ridden to live music and riders in the funkiest costumes. On Thursday evening, all combinations got the chance to practise their ride with their music and light effects. Here is a combination waiting behind the curtains to enter the main ring.
These two photos feature Rosentanz, a soon to be 5-year old Hanoverian stallion by Rohdiamant x Sao Paulo. His career has been well recorded on Eurodressage.com; from his purchase at the Hanoverian Stallion Licensing in 2003 to his latest public appearance here in Herning.
All photos copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed
