Biggles to be Retired from Competition Sport

Dressage

Sweden

The 20-year old Swedish Grand Prix horse Biggles will be retired from competition sport after his final show at the Stockholm Horse Show on 29 November - 2 December 2018.

Biggles is a 1998 born Swedish warmlood by Briar out of Susanna (by Krevad x Falstaff). He is bred and owned by Ingrid Lundberg-Persson.

Biggles was the Stallion Performance Test winner and under Jan Brink he won the Scandinavian Open and the Breeders Trophy. He competed at the 2003 World Young Horse Championships in Verden and the pair went on to win the 7-year old dressage horse championships in Falsterbo. Brink also rode the 7-year old in the small tour at the 2005 CDIO Aachen.

In 2010 Kristian von Krusenstierna took over the ride from Brink and competed the bay stallion at numerous interntional competitions between 2010 and 2015. A second place in the Grand Prix Special at the 2012 CDI Radzionkow and 2014 CDI Wiesbaden were their career highlights. Kristian last showed Biggles at the 2015 World Cup qualifier in Stockholm in November.

In 2016, Biggles became a schoolmaster for Swedish young rider Lina Dolk and the pair made its Under 25 CDI show debut in Ypaja in July 2016. They went on to show in the Under 25 classes in Aachen, Aalborg, Gothenburg, Uggerhalne and Flyinge. They won five international classes out of sixteen starts and placed in the top three twelve times.

"After a magical year with Biggles, my trainer, my sister, Biggles' owner and I have decided that the competition in the Friends Arena (in Stockholm) will be Biggles' last show," Dolk stated on Instagram. "I will be with tears in my eyes the entire ride for sure, not only because I can do it with him, but also for this sorrow I have never experienced before. Biggles will be 21 and he has been at the top for so many years. (...) A huge thank you to Ingrid for retaining this stallion all this time, as a breeder and owner for almost 21 years, and for letting me as a youngster learn from this professor."