Canadian Michelle Filsinger and Bellmeier Making Headlines in Amateur Division in the U.S.A.

Dressage

Canada

Canadian Michelle Filsinger continues to make headlines as a serial winner in the amateur small tour division in the U.S.A. The 45-year old Filsinger warmed up for her campaign at the 2022 Global Dressage Festival with a double victory in two national Prix St Georges classes on 15 - 16 January 2022, before producing a double second place in the CDI on 27 - 29 January 2021.

Filsinger kicked off her season in Wellington, winning twice with 68.088% and 68.382%. The double whammy was a good start for her to prepare for her 2022 CDI debut at the Global Dressage Fesstival two weekends later, where she rode a 66.382% in the Prix St Georges and 64.206% in the Inter I, twice behind Kyle McIver.

Trail Blazer Bellmeier

Michelle's tall liver chestnut is a familiar horse on the European scene, having made his international debut at the 2016 World Young Horse Champion ships in Ermelo as a trail-blazer for Iran.

The 12-year old Westfalian (by Belissimo M out of Weltmarie (by Weltmeyer) is bred by Friedhelm Gravemeier).

He was presented by Mathieu Beckmann and licensed at the 2012 Westfalian Stallion Licensing in Munster. Bellmeier then went on to do the 30-day stallion performance test in the autumn of 2013 and scored 7.38 for dressage and 7.83 for show jumping to finish on a total of 7.86 points.

He was first lightly competed by Elisabeth Nieheus-Rembeck in 2013, before Nadine Plaster took on the ride in 2015. At the end of the year the stallion moved to Denmark where Andreas Helgstrand piloted him to a 7th place at the 2015 Danish Young Horse Championships.

Bellmeier sold to Austrian based Iranian dressage rider Elahe Ramezani, who wrote history for her country as first rider (and first female) to compete at an international dressage event of such significance as the World Young Horse Championships for Iran. The pair was 22nd in the 6-year old consolation finals in 2016 and returned a year later to finish 27th in the 7-year old consolation finals.

Move to Canada

Elahe Ramezani and Bellmeier at the 2016
World Young Horse Championships

When Rahmezani decided to hang up her tails, her trainer Austrian Florian Zimmermann took over the ride on Bellmeier in 2018, but she then decided to send the stallion to Denmark, where he sold to Michelle Filsinger in May 2019.

"Both my husband and I loved him the moment he came into the arena," Michelle told Eurodressage. "He has so much presence and from the moment I sat on him I knew he was the right horse for me."

Michelle made her show debut on Bellmeier in November 2020 at the CDI Thermal in California, where she lives and scored a double win. In 2021 she competed on the Wellington show circuit in the Amateur small tour CDI's and was highly successful. In her first year showing she recorded seven wins in ten starts. The double win in the national classes last weekend in Wellington was the warm-up for the 2022 campaign.

"This past weekend was a warm up for our CDI season this year," she said. "Bellmeier is going better than ever and although a few mistakes was made it’s dusting off the cobwebs after being away from competition since April of last year."

Learning Curve

Michelle has ridden horses on and off since her childhood, first starting in the hunter world but sticking to dressage since she was 14 years old. Although she's Canadian and originally from Guelph, Ontario, she and her husband Paul have been living in the USA twelve years ago. They call Rancho Santa Fe in California their home.

Michelle Filsinger and Bellmeier after winning
the national amateur PSG in Wellington

"We made the move to the USA in 2010 where I took 7 years off to help my kids adjust and settle our family to a new county," Michelle reminisced. "When i purchased Bellmeier in 2019 I knew i needed help with someone who has lots of experience with stallions, and I heard that Jennifer and Jürgen Hoffmann had moved back to California. I approached them to train with and have learned so much. We manage our horses very similar and their expertise has made it possible for me to grow into the rider I am today to be so successful on Bellmeier."

Michelle is looking forward to the Wellington show season and hopes to shift to the next gear.

"This season I’m planning to jump to the one and three star competitions and we are pondering a European tour this summer," she stated.