What's Happening: April 2022

German dressage rider Christiane "Jany" Schuarte has married her partner, Dutchman Patrick van Rulo, after a five year courtship. Schuarte, who competes internationally for Bosnia and Herzegovina and often attends shows as a scribe, said yes to Van Rulo on Saturday 2 April 2022 in Asten, The Netherlands. The couple tied the knot in the presence of their closest family and friends. A bigger wedding celebration with 50 friends is scheduled at Casa Munich in Ibiza for 22 April 2022. 

Dutch-Spanish dressage rider Andrea Villaverde Zweegers is pregnant with her first child. The Belgian based dressage rider is expecting a baby boy who is due in September 2022. Father is show jumping competition organizer Kurt van Velthoven, with whom Andrea has been together for two years. Villaverde competed at the 2001 and 2002 European Pony Championships on Condor and rode junior/young riders with Anyway (by Alabaster). She switched to the Spanish nationality in 2011 and runs her own training yard, Cepo Stables, in Belgium.

Canadian dressage rider Danielle Gallagher and Ellen Lazarus have acquired the 10-year old Lusitano bred Come Back de Massa (by Galopin de la Font x Quixote). Under Renaud Ramadier buckskin made its international show debut in May 2021 in Ornago in the small tour. Dressprod reported that nationally this pair was fifth at the 2016 French Young Horse Championships for 5-year olds and bronze in the M-level division in 2020.

Former international youth rider Louisa Lüttgen and her long-time partner, Sascha, got married. The couple already has a baby boy together, Valentin, who was born on 30 May 2020. After an almost two year break from showing between 2019 and the summer of 2021, Luttgen most recently competed Bon Jolie (by Bon Coeur x Longton) at L-level in Troisdorf in July 2021.

Sarah Runge has acquired the 9-year old Oldenburg stallion Zonik One (by Zonik x Depardieu x Le Matin x Classiker). He is bred by American Ann Kitchel in Germany. He was owned by the estate of the late Katja Willers. Runge also left her base at Rothenberger's Gestut Erlenhof and moved her horses to Holga Finken in Hagen, Germany. 

French young horse rider and 2012 Olympian Jessica Michel-Botton and her husband Gilles are expecting their second child. The couple will welcome a new baby to their family in July. They are already parents to a 6-year old son, Tom.

British Grand Prix rider Amy Woodhead and her partner, James Snape, are expecting their first child, a baby girl, in September 2022. Woodhead, who was the principle assistant trainer at Carl Hester's yard until 2017. She now runs her own dressage training business and is now the main rider of Mount St. John horses after Charlotte Dujardin (KOM Fairy Tale, Valencia, Diamonds are Forever, Top Secret, etc.). "We are all super excited," Woodhead took to Instagram. "A lot of thanks to all my owners, close friends and family for been so supportive. Excited for this next chapter."

Belgian Under 25 rider Nico Nyssen had only just established his own sales and training business in Peer, Belgium, or he got head-hunted by Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud to join their Glock stable in The Netherlands as their new young horse jockey. 

British para dressage rider Natasha Baker got married to Marc Jaconelli on 26 March 2022 at North Cadbury Court in Somerset. The 2012 London Paralympic double gold medal winner met Jaconelli at the London 2012 Paralympic Ball and he proposed to her while skiing in Switzerland in January 2020. The wedding was featured with a large photo spread in the British tabloid magazine Hello. 

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges was unanimously elected President of the International Horse Sports Confederation (IHSC) at the organisation’s General Assembly on 22 April 2022, which was conducted online again this year due to the ongoing pandemic. The IHSC was created in 2013, when the Fédération Equestre International (FEI) and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) joined forces to create the first formal vehicle for cooperation between the world’s leading bodies for equestrian sport. The Presidency of the IHSC rotates between the founding members.