What's Happening: October 2020 - Part I

Wedding bells keep ringing and the first corona babies will be born soon.

German Grand Prix rider Beatrice Buchwald (31) married her partner, Jens Hoffrogge (35), on 3 October 2020. German stallion owner and eventing rider Jens Hoffrogge proposed to Beatrice on Christmas Eve 24 December 2019. The couple runs their own stallion and training yard together and are expecting their first child in January. 

Dutch Grand Prix rider Jenny Schreven and her partner Alain Broft got married on 29 September 2020. Schreven (35) was a successful Dutch youth team rider on Kennet W and made the transition to international Grand Prix level with Krawall. He was retired from sport in 2012. Schreven briefly returned to the CDI ring with Wings H at small tour level in 2014 and once in 2017. She is a national dressage judge up to Grand Prix level now and coaching at the moment. 

Broft (33) and Schreven had a church wedding in the Oude Willibrorduskerk in Waalre, the Netherlands. The couple is expecting their first child. Broft is a design engineer and logistics consultant.

Carina Bachmann and her partner Fabian Scholz tied the knot the on 2 October 2020. The couple has been working together since 2014 and became romantically connected along the way. They are expecting a baby girl in January. 

Two renowned Oldenburg horse breeders passed away recently. Heinrich Vahle passed on 21 July at age 88. He was the breeder of the licensed stallions Morricone I, II and III. His foundation mare was Halloway (by Rubinstein), which produced the S-level dressage horse and licensed stallion Wintec O (by Welt As). 

Diedrich Wiggers passed on 20 July at age 77. His breeding programme was based on that of his father-in-law Fritz Horstmann with the foundation mare Salana (by Kronprinz xx x Makuba xx). Wiggers' breeding highlight was Destiny OLD (by Desperados x Sandro Hit x Argentinus), which is now competing at international Grand Prix level with Olympian Kristina Bröring-Sprehe. 

German young professional and Grand Prix rider Bianca Nowag as well as her two students, Elisabeth and Paulina von Wulffen, have relocated from the DOKR training center in Warendorf to Daniel Ramseier's yard Sportpferde Im Brook in Ibbenbüren, Germany. The Von Wulffens are originally from the Munich area, but have chosen to base themselves in the Munsterland area to be more closely connected to their training and horse sport. 

French Olympian Morgan Barbançon has expanded her string of horses with the 5-year old KWPN mare Karishma (by Zack x Diamond Hit). The bay mare hasn't been very long under saddle but was in training with the Dutch based Spaniard Luis Closas Perez. Fellow Spaniard Antonia Laiz Zandio tipped off Barbançon about the horse.

Mary Phelps, equestrian photographer and journalist gone World Championship pony carriage driver, has been appointed  to the Florida Horse Park Board by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. Phelps, who has been a mentor to Eurodressage's ceo Astrid Appels in the late 1990s-early 2000s, will provide knowledge and expertise to the Florida Horse Park. Eurodressage and Mary's Horsesdaily.com were both founded in 1997 and have been one of  longest continually operating websites on equestrian sport worldwide.