Matthias Alexander Rath married his longtime girlfriend Franziska Eisenmann on 6 July 2013. The wedding was announced to be at the end of August but as Rath has not been out competing for more than one year, there was plenty of time in his schedule to plan the glorious wedding
sooner. Eisenmann wore a Jenny Packham wedding gown.
Gijs Bartels, son of Joep and Tineke Bartels and organizer of Horse Event and the Global Dressage Forum, also married his long-time girlfriend and mother of his children Esther Tacken on 6 July. Congratulations to all the newly weds.
Raymond Withages, husband to Belgian O-judge Mariette Withages-Dieltjens and alumni of the Spanish Riding School, celebrated his 90th birthday with a lavish party at Axel Vervoordt's castle in 's Gravenwezel, Belgium, on 6 July 2013.
Danish FEI rider Pernille Orum has sold her 11-year old Grand Prix horse Overgaards Lawell (by Weltjunge x May Sherif) to Danish young rider Julie Dankau. Trained by Michael Sogaard, Dankau wants to make the transition to the U25 category aboard this bright bay gelding, which competed for Denmark at the World Young Horse Championships in Verden as a 6-year old. Several years ago Dankau discovered the Danish riding pony Dornick Son in Germany and brought it to Denmark to compete. The pony has been one of Denmark's most successful FEI team ponies in the past few years.
Zuchterforum reported that Anna Sophie Fiebelkorn has lost the ride on the Hanoverian licensed stallion Benetton Dream (by Brentano II x Rotspon). Hamburg based company Kanganya GmbH acquired the now 10-year old stallion in April 2012 and gave the ride decisively to Fiebelkorn, who became a Bundeschampion on the dark bay stallion. For the past seven weeks, Benetton Dream has now been ridden by Juliane Brunkhorst who plans on showing him in the Louisdor Cup circuit.
The 19-year old Thoroughbred stallion Esteban xx (by Prince Mab xx x Tumble Wind xx x Sir Gaylord xx) has passed away following a colic attack. The Danish bred race horse stood at stud in Holstein for a while and became the most used TB stallion in the area. He sired 5 licensed sons and 15 State Premium Mares. Most of his offspring has been successful in eventing.
The KWPN licensed stallion Bodyguard has been sold to Lara Dyson in Great Britain. Dysen and Bodyguard will be trained by Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin. The now 7-year old Bodyguard (by Gribaldi x Negro x Cocktail) was originally bought by Ad Valk and Stable van de Sande in partnership with Cees and Tosca Visser (former owners of Totilas) as a follow-up horse for Edward Gal but the black was quickly discarded from Gal's stables in Harskamp. He ended up in the ownership of Matthijs Brouwer and Joop van Uytert. The stallion made his show debut in the KWPN Stallion Competition in 2010 but failed to appear on numerous occasions. He was a no show though entered with such riders as Lennart Bos and Kim Koolen. In 2012 he was extensively shown by Astrid Langeberg in the Stallion Competition, but most of the time finished at the bottom of the ranking. Lara Dyson bought the licensed stallion Cadans M in The Netherlands a year ago.
Veterinarian Dr. Anton Fürst has resigned from his position as Swiss Dressage Team veterinarian following disagreements in philosophy with the Swiss Dressage Director. Fürst was the Swiss dressage team vet for the past 17 years.