Dutch Olympian Imke Schellekens-Bartels is pregnant with her first child. The 38-year old and her husband Joep Schellekens are ecstatic about the pregnancy.
Imke is almost four months pregnant. "You can't plan being pregnant," Imke told De Hoefslag. "Toots is going great again, but also something like that you can't plan ahead. Now all the good news is coming together at once, which is great. I'm just going to enjoy riding horses as long as I can."
French team rider Ludovic Henry's Bavarian bred 12-year old After You (by Abanos x Raggazzo) won the popularity vote by the readers of the leading French equestrian magazine L'Eperon and was named French Dressage Horse of the Year 2015. After You received more than 50% of the votes to win the title.
Henry sold his second Grand Prix horse Westwind to The Netherlands. The 12-year old Dutch warmblood will be Valentijn van Weeren's schoolmaster. Westwind is by Jazz x Zeoliet x Zuidhorn and was originally named Wise Guy RS. He was first competed internationally by Italian Anna Paprocka Campanella, at one show by Polish Michal Rapcewicz, then briefly by Italian young riders Leonardo Tiozzo and Carlotta Marconi before selling to Henry's sponsor and friend Christophe Binnendijk.
New Zealand equestrian photographer Libby Law injured herself severely while roller blading. Law crashed while coming off a Melbourne overpass bike trail and fell on the back of her head. She lost much blood and cracked and spiral fractured her skull at the back below the impact site. A cyclist found her quite unconscious and carried her to a cab. She was taken to the nearest hospital (Melbourne Royal) where she was told she had to wait three hours. Law's brother decided to move her to St. Vincents straight away, where she was treated immediately. She was diagnosed with a damaged skull and high pressure in her brain. Fortunately the doctors quickly found the balance for pain meds and antibiotics and Law is now on the road to recovery. Get well soon!
Spanish junior rider Juan Matute Guimon has been awarded a special trophy for Outstanding Achievement by the Spanish Federation for the Promotion of Equestrian Sport on Friday 20 November 2015. Matute Guimon and his Hanoverian gelding Dhannie became the kur gold medal winners at the 2015 European Junior Riders Championships. They received the Outstanding Achievement Award from Her Royal Highness Infanta Elena at the Royal Theatre in Madrid, Spain.
One of Germany's biggest horse dealers and stallion owners Heinrich Ramsbrock is facing multiple legal action. Swiss Samuel Schatzmann acquired the stallion Voyageur (by Vitalis) at the 2014 Westfalian licensing for 420,000 euro but never received the ownership documents from Ramsbrock. Those documents were in fact still held by Voyageur's breeder Josef Platte because he refused to hand them to Ramsbrock who still owed Platte a five-figure amount the dealer never paid. After legal action and the publication of the lawsuit on Zuchterforum the case was settled with Schatzmann. However when Schatzmann wanted to picked up another horse he had bought and paid for at Ramsbrock in 2013, a colt by First Selection, the horse had been sold to an Austrian client. Dressage judge and lawyer Dr. Dietrich Plewa represents Schatzmann and other clients who are pressing charges against Ramsbrock
DIXIT
In his column in Horse and Hound, Carl Hester expressed his opinion on the new rule change for dressage riders going off course. Carl stated: "I do wonder whether anyone on the FEI Dressage Committee really likes or cares about dressage."
Hester explained it as following: "the proposal to subtract 2% for a first error and a second resulting in elimination was not one I'd support (...). The problem is that this rule would put crazy pressure on the judges. What if someone turned two metres before B in passage? Is that an error of course? an eight-metre circle more like six or 19? You can just imagine if one person did something that resulted in elimination and then another did the same but it wasn't noticed. I don't believe in elimination - dressage is harmony and training, not a "beat the course" challenge."