Yvonne Osterholm and Bellagio, Stellar at Swedish Championship

Focus

Eurodressage F.O.C.U.S.

Sometimes you meet horses that set your imagination galloping rather than canter. Let´s get straight to it. This is easily the best 3-year old I´ve seen in my life. Simple as that.

At the Swedish Young Horse Championships at Flyinge Johan Ifverson's Bellagio won the three year old dressage horse class. Yet, the way this stallion does the canter, and just floats, hoovers in mid-air at the trot, with absolutely no effort, and completely enjoys the work the way a really well trained 5 or 6-year old would, I think this lad will be at the Olympics. More than once.

I´ve seen a well balanced 3-year olds before, but not a complete package like this. All the gaits. All the angles. All the proportions. And a mind as open as a blue autumn sky. He already has the proportions and flexibility and cool and friendly attitude towards life, not to mention that magic stage-presence of a star. And yes, he definitely is self-aware and photogenic.

His rider Yvonne Österholm, joint stable manager at Jan Brink's Tullstorp dressage stable, says she attributes his fine character and good development to having spent most of his life in freedom 24 hours a day in a big pasture with other young stallions. I think she may very well be right, but I´d attribute some of Bellagio´s development also to the recent fine work of Yvonne Österholm herself and the team led by Jan Brink at Tullstorp.

Yvonne says in the pasture with fellow young stallions Bellagio is the kind of stallion that will never pick a fight with another horse, never push another horse around, never kick unless someone kicks him first. On the other hand any horse looking for trouble just has to go over to Bellagio and start it to get a lesson in good manners, stallion style.

When Bellagio first arrived at Tullstorp a few months ago he was "a little cocky," says Yvonne. He was making a few too many "I´m a Stallion"-sounds.

So they just went by the Tullstorp Standard Operating Procedure for newly arrived stallions. That is they put Bellagio in the box next to retired super-star sire Martini (pictured left at age 25), the undisputed king of the stallions at Tullstorp and just watched.

Bellagio went up to the bars separating the boxes and bellowed a challenge. Once. Martini responded with a blood-freezing sound from the Underworld. Once.

And that was it. From that moment on Bellagio has been a very cooperative and pleasant fellow around the stable.

At Flyinge, when we first met up close, Bellagio looked me in the eye and said: "hey there, let´s be friends". (Ok, I´m sure this charm of a horse does that to everyone, but I´m entitled to feel good about it anyway.)

So what did the judges at the Swedish Young Horse Championship have to say?

Head of the judges' panel, Dr. Dieter Schüle (Germany) said:

"Good morning also from the judges table. We look for the talent of the horses, for the paces, and if the horses are supple, relaxed and accept the aids of the rider. Our first two horses, both very nice, very elegant horses and both were performing very well, they were submissive, they were relaxed and showed no restrictions, no problems," Schüle said.

"Our second horse Bellagio is a very elegant horse by United, a stallion from Holland, with an outstanding canter. The canter was good, uphill, very light feeted, a clear rhythm and the hind legs were coming under the rider. We discussed and believe that later on it will not be a problem to collect this canter. If we look in the future, if you look very far away, good pirouettes and good changes. But it is a wonderful canter, light-feeted, good from the ground, engaged, really good. But also the trot is very good. It´s a good natural cadence. It's well out of the shoulder, well engaged from behind, and also this trot is of a very, very high quality."

The judges did have a few small critiques on the walk. "The walk could be more over-stepping, it is in a clear rhythm, but from the ground cover it could be a little more, and I think, in the training the rider has to watch this walk, maybe he could improve it a little by going out in the field and going up the hills and down the hills, I think he can improve it a little, the good thing it's in a clear rhythm and without problems. Also this horse has good contact, a very good pull. And the general impression, and the talent of this horse is really good and it is a horse we enjoyed very much. "

At the prize giving ceremony, Dr. Schüle summarized the 3-year old division: "I think we have seen a really good class. All ten horses were good. And it was a hard decision to make a break between the fifth and the sixth, it was a hardest decision. We had a very good winner.. He did a perfect trot, with wonderful canter, wonderful trot. And I want to congratulate the rider for this good horse and for the really good performance, but also congratulations to the other riders - they showed their horses in a very good way with nice paces, good performances. And I think we´ve all had a lot of fun with this class. Thank you very much."

Bellagio also won the Best In Show award, which is given to the best 3-year old from the show jumping and dressage division combined.