Belinda Trussell's 2018 WEG Team Ride Tattoo Retired from Sport

Dressage

Canada

Canadian Olympian Belinda Trussell has retired her 2018 WEG team horse Tattoo from sport. The decision was already made in 2019 as Tattoo struggled staying sound.

Tattoo is a 17-year old Westfalian gelding by the Trakehner stallion Tuareg out of Monica Theodorescu's Grand Prix mare Renaissance (by Ramiro's Son x Paradox x Dorado).

Trained to Grand Prix by Monica Theoorescu

Born in 2003, Tattoo was bred by the legendary trainer George Theodorescu and born at their Lindenhof stud in Füchtorf near Warendorf, Germany.

The black gelding with his funny white eye was a character from the start. The sensitive half Trakehner was quietly trained at home by Monica Theodorescu. By 2012 he was schooling the Grand Prix work.

At the time Monica was fully focusing on the competition career of Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff's Whisper, with whom she competed on the German team at the 2009 European Championships in Windsor and placed second at the 2009 World Cup Finals. She also signed on as Germany's team trainer, which meant that she was no longer allowed - to compete internationally.

Tattoo was shown only a handful of times. He made his show debut in 2010 under Australian Briana Burgess, who at the time was a working student at her stable. Theodorescu competed the gelding herself at international small tour level in 2012 with starts in Hagen, Munich and Aachen.

Tattoo Travels Canada

In the spring of 2013, Canadian Olympian and trainer Christilot Boylen scouted Tattoo for her student Belinda Trussell and the horse sold to Canada as a successor for Belinda's number one Grand Prix horse Anton, who retired after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Monica and Tattoo at the 2012 CDIO Aachen

Buying Tattoo meant that Trussell and her husband had to sell their house in the city (Toronto) and move back to the farm in Stouffville, ON.

Tattoo's arrival in Canada was not smooth sailing with the horse feeling "homesick" for Germany. Three months after arriving he required major colic surgery.

"Tattoo is an emotional and sensitive horse and he can be quite dramatic! When I bought him he was 10 years old and had lived with his owner, in Germany, his whole life. When he came to me, in Canada, he was in shock. The stress of a new place and the loss of his old owner caused him to colic and he had to have surgery and then he developed allergies," Trussell said in an interview. "We have worked through all of that now. I just love this horse and he brings me joy every single day. Tattoo is a horse that will be concerned if the sky is a different color but I have developed a very deep connection with him and we have formed the best partnership now."

The Road to the Top is not a Straight Line

Belinda Schooling Tattoo in Wellington in 2014

Because of his allergies and coughing, Tattoo had to be on hay cubes and special bedding and turned out for most of the day, often 14 hours a day. This led to him developing sore feet.

Finally with the horse being in full work, the pair struggled to get all fifteen one tempi changes, with Tattoo giving up after seven. Belinda kept believing in the horse and after three years of setbacks, they found their mojo.

Belinda and Tattoo made their international show debut at small tour level in June 2014 and moved up to medium tour level by October 2015. They did their first international Grand Prix at the CDI Tryon in April 2017. They won the CDI Ottawa, Cedar Valley and Saugerties in the following months. Their hard work culminated in 2018 with Canadian team selection for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, where they were 39th in the Grand Prix with 68.634%. It was Tattoo's last international.

Retired in 2019

Tattoo was retired from sport in February 2019.

"Tattoo has a degenerate joint in his pastern," Trussell told Eurodressage. "The year of WEG 2018 I knew it was only a matter of time before it started to bother him. He was incredible at WEG, and he stayed sound for about six months after WEG. In February of 2019 I had to retire him. I still have him in the field with his friends. He is very happy."

Belinda and Tattoo at the 2018 World Equestrian Games

Trussell regrets that their career was cut short by Tattoo's deteriorating health.

"I just wish I had more time with him, I really only had one good year of Grand Prix before he needed to be retired," said.

Belinda will now continue her Grand Prix career with a new rising start, the 9-year Danish warmblood gelding Touch Me Mårsø (by Temptation x Solos Landtinus) which she co-owns with Danish trainer and horse dealer Hasse Hoffmann. The bay gelding arrived in Wellington, Florida, in January where Belinda spends the winters training her horses and clients and coaching Canadian team rider Megan Lane. Trussell and Lane both parted ways with Boylen.