Giulia Schwab's WCYH Team Horse Fabergé EP Passed Away

Dressage

Austria

Giulia Schwab's 5-year old stallion Faberge EP, who was selected to compete at the 2020 World Young Horse Championships in Verden, has been euthanized on 31 December 2020.

Faberge EP was a 2015 born Austrian warmblood stallion by For Romance out of Timba (by Literat x Balfour xx). He was bred and owned by Schwab.

Austrian Young Horse Winner

As a 3-year old the stallion became the champion of the 2018 Austrian Warmblood Stallion Licensing and was carefully produced by Schwab.

He was the reserve champion at the 2018 Austrian Warmblood Young Horse Championships and in 2019 he did his 14-day performance test in Stadl Paura, where he scored a final note of 9.03. They finished the year placing fifth at the 2019 Austrian Warmblood Young Horse Championships .

In 2020 Schwab aimed to fulfil a life-long dream, to ride at the World Young Horse Championships, and with Faberge EP finally had the horse power to do so. She competed in the young horse classes at the CDI Achleiten in the summer, scoring 81.20 and 78.60. She was nominated on the Austrian Team.

Stall Accident

On 24 November 2020, Faberge EP was found in his box with a hind hoof caught between the bars. The horse was on the ground and in a panic pulled so hard to free himself that he ended up tearing the tendons in his hock.

Giulia and Fabergé at the 2020 CDI Achleiten

"I found him maybe 10 minutes after it happened," Schwab told Eurodressage. "Nobody saw it how happened, so it's just a guess. It was hard to get him out, because he slipped down and his hoof was stuck very tightly. We couldn't open the door because he was hanging in the door. It took four people to free him. When he got out he jumped up and didn't even try to stand on his leg."

His condition made it impossible for him to be transported to the equine clinic, so he was treated on the spot.

"We had him in a cast for little over four weeks and hoped the joint would get stiff, so he could hopefully spend his life on the grass paddock, but he was making so little progress," a saddened Giulia explained.

Their withdrawal from Verden was announced the day after the accident and two weeks before the WCYH in Verden were cancelled due to corona.

Unfortunately, Faberge's injury did not heal as hoped for and it was decided in the best interest of the horse to put him to sleep.

"He would have had a very, very long road ahead of him and the question was if the cast wouldn't be the bigger problem," said Schwab with a realistic perspective on the prognosis. "He would probably get skin wounds under the cast. I would have done anything possible to save him, but what kind of life would it have been standing there for months as laying down wasn't an option because of the cast. The prognosis after that wasn't that promising. He had a very short life, but I think he had a good one."

Future with Fabergé Offspring

Schwab is a certified veterinarian herself, graduating in 2016 from vet school at the University of Vienna. However, instead of becoming a practising vet, she decided to ride full time.

"I love my job now, but the joy and the disappointment is very close in that business," she confessed. "I knew Fabergé since day one and now he is gone. I was so excited because this year we reached so much together. The qualification for the World YH Championship.. It was a dream of mine to ride there once and so much more. I miss him already and I will never forget him."

For the past two years Schwab has been riding for Austrian breeder Hedwig Eder. Giulia has no further offspring out of the mare Timba herself, but is now riding Eder's talented young horses

"I hope one day maybe I will qualify one more for the World YH Championships," she said. "Hedwig actually has a yearling by Faberge so I hope he will stay and maybe become like his father one day."