The FEI Dressage Committee has received two bids for hosting the 2014 and 2015 World Young Horse Dressage Championships. The Dutch city of Ermelo is now a candidate alongside the traditional venue in Verden. The Dressage Committee will forward their recommendation to the Bureau.
The 7-year old bay Dutch warmblood mare Anoraline (by Samba Hit I x Amiral) has a new rider. Horses.nl reported that the ride on the mare was transferred from Engie Kwakkel to Dutch Grand Prix team rider Sander Marijnissen. Anoralina was the winner of the 6-year old division at the 2011 Subli Cup for young horses.
While Australian Olympian Hayley Beresford must have been ecstatic about her scores achieved with Belissimo NRW and Simba G at the CDI Wroclaw, the trip to Poland was certainly eventful and not in a positive way. Her road trip to Poland became a financial debacle. "Twenty kilometers from our destination we were stopped by the Polish road patrol," said Beresford. "My driver had neglected to realize he needed a special toll box and registration to drive on the Polish roads (where you cannot exceed 60-70km an hour). 1800 euro on the spot fine and 1 hour and 40 minutes on the side of the road negotiating between my German speaking and very angry driver and the not so friendly Polish speaking patrol men. Oh my goodness, what a great start!!!!!"
Ridehesten reported that the 12-year old Oldenburg licensed stallion Stuntmann af Hvarre (by Stravinsky xx x Aleksander) has been sold as a dressage horse to The Netherlands. The black stallion was competed by Bettina Jæger Jensen at international Grand Prix level.
Joy Albeck's second FEI pony Wimbledon has found a new home in Bavaria, Germany. The 18-year old Holsteiner bred licensed pony stallion (by Waldemar x Patrick) will become the schoolmaster for the 11-year old Eileen Henglein.
Unfortunately on quite a regular basis we read nonsense on stilts on equestrian internet sites. While this week brand new Paardenkrant editor-in-chief Dirk Willem Rosie got quite a slamming from his readers for his editorial on Rath/Totilas and Gal, the apex of non-sensicality this week came from Paul Schockemohle in an interview with the North German tv-station NDR. The reporter asked Schockemohle about his choice to have Totilas trained by Sjef Janssen, a trainer known for using the rollkur/hyperflexion/LDR training method. The German replied: "I know Janssen for a long time and I have seen him train at at least fifteen championships and I have never seen him use the so called rollkur."
Swedish Grand Prix rider Nina Hofmann has decided to make an early move back to Sweden. The rider had been preparing hersself and horse Leo af Magnushoj for their 2012 Olympic campaign at Volker Dusche's stable in Germany but felt that she did not have the proper facilities there to maximaze her endeavour. In an interview with Ridsport, Hofmann said that she "think(s) it's incredibly important to have alternative training available and that the horses can be horses," which Nina finds difficult to find in Germany.
The major crowd favourite of the 2012 CDI-W Neumunster, Uta Gräf on her black Holsteiner stallion Le Noir, has updated her website with tons of articles and photos about her stable, training and horse collection. Check out her updated website here.
On 21 February 2012, legendary dressage trainer Georg Wahl celebrated his 92nd birthday. For many years Wahl head master at the Spanish Riding School and he coached Christine Stuckelberger to Olympic gold.
Ridehesten reported that the Florida based Danish duo Mikala Gundersen/Janne Rumbough have acquired their second Danish horse together. The 9-year old chestnut Handsome Guy (by Hector x Donnerschlag) has been trained to Grand Prix level by Mia Hermansen.