Just to give you an idea of how bad conditions were at the 2011 European Pony Championships in Jaszkowo, Poland, we show you this photo. This was glass picked from the warm up arena and 10-minute ring by a Danish team member.
The Danes actually worked together and skimmed both arenas picking out stones and glass in order to protect their ponies from injury. Yes, this was an FEI endorsed European Championship!
Michael Eilberg had a close encounter with the law enforcement at the 2011 World Young Horse Championships. After celebrating his world champion's title in the evening, he was pulled over by the cops for driving a moped without a license plate in between the stables and where the lorries are parked. In Germany you could lose your driver's license for that, but after much pleading (and begging) Eilberg was allowed to keep his license. Phew, close call.
Wilfried Bechtolsheimer has joined the Xenophon society which supports classical dressage. 'I'm happy to belong to Xenophon now. Like so often in the past, dressage has come to a crossroads. During the past years we could observe a dangerous development. "Express training", aggressive riding in order to take the fast road to success, seemed to gain the upper hand, turning the interests of the horse into something marginal. There hardly was time for solid basics and sensitive riding. Horse-friendly schooling by the classical principles became a rare thing to see. We need to stop this trend. Supporting Xenophon's work for the welfare of the horse and the preservation of our beautiful dressage sport is an important concern for us," said Wilfried Bechtolsheimer
Monica Theodorescu and her life partner Burkhard Ernst got married in a small, private ceremony in Monica's home town Sassenberg. Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, who owns Theodorescu's Grand Prix horse Whisper, and her husband Klaus Martin Rath joined the best man and maid of honour at the wedding ceremony.
Siobhan Lapthorne, Equestrian Federation New Zealand's Coach Development Manager, has stepped down from her senior staff role at ESNZ after 3 years based at the National Office in Wellington. During her time in the Coaching hot seat, Siobhan has completely re-written ESNZ’s coaching programme and more importantly introduced a fundamentally different philosophy into the scheme. ESNZ Coach is now built on a foundation of ‘athlete-centred’ coaching where the traditional pupil-teacher relationship is broken down to a more questioning approach by which knowledge (rather than information) is transferred from coach to rider. ESNZ Coach focuses on ‘coaching the coaches’ and furnishing them with appropriate skills to pursue their coaching career, whether professionally or as a volunteer. "Siobhan is moving back to her native Sydney to take up an exciting position with Surf Life Saving Australia, so a foray into the world of speedos rather than jodphurs!," the EFNZ press officer wrote.
Swedish Grand Prix rider Nina Hofmann has switched trainers. She said goodbye to her long-time coach Nuno Palma e Santos is now getting trained by German based Canadian Leonie Bramall.
Isabell Werth has spiced up her website with a beautiful, extensive photo gallery of pictures of her with her different horses throughout the years. Eurodressage Barbara Schnell provided these wonderful competition and behind the scene snap shots of Isabell. Check it out.
The Dutch team silver medal winning pony riders celebrated their victory by going to the amusement park Bobbejaanland in Belgium. Sanne Vos, Febe van Zwambagt, Sanne Gilbers and kur gold medalist Dana van Lierop had a day of fun on the rollercoaster rides on Wednesday 3 August 2011.
French young rider Camille Judet-Cheret's Grand Prix schoolmaster Warkantos (by Warkant) passed away at age21 on Sunday 10 July 2011. Warkantos was also competed by Norbert van Laak and American William Coester. Surprisingly Warkantos passed away on the exact same day as his sire, Warkant. "It made me feel slightly better in my great sadness to know two great stallion would meet somewhere, somehow," Judet-Cheret told Eurodressage.
Inspired by our editorial "A Slip of the Tongue" equestrian graphic artist Michelle Guillot made a parody on the bleeding mouth issue. Her solution to stuck out and bitten tongues is very simply: the NO BLEED BRUZZLE. "This is part of my series of activists posters," Guillot told Eurodressage. "I will soon distribute it more broadly along with French and German translations. Your excellent editorial A Slip of the Tongue was the inspiration for this piece."
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