Spanish Olympic team rider Morgan Barbançon Mestre has acquired a new Grand Prix horse: the 13-year old Hanoverian mare Heimliche Liebe, which was previously shown by Finnish Emma Kanerva.
Born in 2000, Heimliche Liebe is bred by Ulrich Heitmann and was owned by Hubertus Schmidt. She is by Hohenstein out of Dorina (by Davignon I x Argentan I x Duden II).
As a youngster, Heimliche Liebe was competed between 2003 and 2007 by Anne Lene Holmen, Philip Kloth and Astrid Tillmann.
The mare made her Grand Prix debut in 2010 with Hubertus Schmidt. Since 2012 she has been trained and competed internationally by Schmidt's assistant rider Emma Kanerva. Their last show together was the World Cup Qualifier in Neumunster in February in which they finished 12th.
Barbancon and Heimliche Liebe made their first public appearance during the first week of competition at the 2013 CDI Vidauban the first weekend of March. They were schooling at the show under the supervision of trainer Anky van Grunsven.
The new combination has been invited to compete at the CDI 4* in Doha, Qatar at the end of March. Barbancon has not yet planned a show come back with Painted Black, who got injured after the Olympics. "Painted Black is good but he won't compete until he's 100%," Barbancon told Eurodressage.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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