Laura Tomlinson's Rosalie B, Schoolmaster for Sophie Wallace

Dressage

Great Britain

Laura Tomlinson's internationally competed Rosalie B has moved on to a new rider, British aspiring junior rider Sophie Wallace.

Rosalie B is a 15-year old Westfalian mare by Rubin Royal out of Nordmaid (by Newcastle). She is bred by Klaus Balkenhol.

Balkenhol - Bechtolsheimer

Born and raised at Balkenhol's yard, Rosalie B was ridden by British Sarah Rogers as a youngsters, who worked for the Balkenhols as an assistant rider.

The mare was first competed by Vera Nass before Anabel Balkenhol began showing her. She did her first Grand Prix at the 2015 CDI Perl-Borg before selling to Ursula and Wilfried Bechtolsheimer for Laura to ride.

They new duo made its show debut on Rosalie B at the CDI Wellington in February 2016. Laura and Rosalie B did a full season in 2016 with multiple starts in Wellington, Hagen, Compiegne, Rotterdam, Deauville, Oldenburg and London. In June 2017 they represented Britain in the Nations Cup in Rotterdam The national show at Wellington in October 2017 was Laura's last before an injury sidelined the mare.

Sarah Rogers

Rosalie B recovered fully but in 2018 Laura handed over the ride to Sarah Rogers, who stayed at Bechtolsheimer's yard with Lara Butler-Griffith, while Laura and her husband Mark Tomlinson moved to their own stable twenty minutes down the road.

Rosalie B was the perfect schoolmaster to Rogers to fine-tune her skills at Grand Prix. They made their national show debut in February 2019 at Summerhouse Equestrian and competed several more times in national Grand Prix tests through 2021.

Sophie Wallace

Laura and Rosalie B at the 2016 CDI Hagen

Two months ago, British show jumping rider Sophie Wallace took over the reins.

" I was teaching Sophie on her young horse and she was looking for a horse that she can do a bit more with with a view to junior level," Laura told Eurodressage. "Rosie was doing some national GPs with Sarah, but she wasn't so comfortable at that level anymore so after i have Sophie a few lessons on Rosie i spoke with mum and then Sophie's dad and we agreed to give Sophie the ride."

The 15-year old has a versatile test for horse sport, starting her international career as a show jumper in the children division in 2019. She jumped the 12-year old AES registered Louisiana (by Argento x Lux Z) and 14-year old Holsteiner mare Countess II (by Caretio x Acadius). Between 2019 and 2020 she rode in 1 and 3* jumping events in Cheptow, Lier, and Vilamouran with the 15-year old SBS mare A L'Amour de Longpre (by Heartbreajer x Galoubet A) added to her string.

Wallace has now made the switch to dressage with Rosalie B and performed in their debut show.

"I'm so excited to have been given the opportunity to ride this amazing horse," said Wallace five weeks ago. "Wery pleased with our first show, we scored 70.5% in the advanced medium, lots to improve but very pleased considering I’ve only been riding her for two weeks."

"Never Imagined This"

The connection between Wallace and Tomlinson was established when Sophie began taking lessons with Laura half a year ago.

"I had mainly been doing showjumping and was shortly starting to get really interested in dressage training and one day Laura asked me if I would like a lesson on one of her Grand Prix horses so I could have a feel of the movements," Wallace told Eurodressage. "With a big smile on my face I said yes please and there she was at our next lesson, Rosalie B. I loved every minute of our lesson and the following week, never imagining this, Mrs Bechtolsheimer and Laura Tomlinson asked if I would like to ride, train and compete on Rosalie B on a regular basis."

Sophie has been getting to know Rosalie under the tutelage of trainer Carl Cuypers.

"Over the last two months, since Laura has been busy with her new baby, I have been riding under the amazing watchful eye of Carl," Sophie explained. "Our goal for 2022 is to compete internationally at Junior level with the chance to join Laura at some of her competitions and hopefully achieving scores worthy for team selection. I am so excited for 2022 and so grateful for the opportunity Mrs Bechtolsheimer and Laura Tomlinson have given me with the amazing Rosalie B."

Laura added, "Rosie lives at my yard. We are super excited to help them on their journey next season. Sophie is talented and dedicated and a pleasure to work with and Rosie seems delighted with her new job."