Morricone III Joins Simone Pearce's String of Horses

Breeding

Oldenburg

The Oldenburg licensed stallion Morricone III has joined Simone Pearce's training roster at Ritzinger's equestrian centre in Niederaichbach, Germany.

Morricone III is by Millennium out of Hartima (by Rubin Royal x De Niro x Rubinstein). He is bred by Heinrich Vahle.

Premium Licensed Stallion

Morricone II became the third ranked premium stallion at the 2018 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing in Vechta. He was owned by Albert Sprehe at the time.

He became the dressage price highlight of the auction selling for 180,000 euro to the Celle state stud.

Morricone III did his 14-day suitability test in Schlieckau in April 2019 and scored 7,95 for dressage and 7,35 for show jumping. He totalled 7,85 points. Seven months later he did the 50-day performance test in Schlieckau and scored 8,20 points. The stallion was marketed through Hörum and Adelheidsdorf. He has no offspring registered in the German equestrian federation database so far, although several of his foals were on the market in Germany in 2020 and 2021.

The black stallion made his show debut as a 4-year old under Birte Flemming (née Senftleben), who showed him from A-level to L between June 2020 and June 2021.

Sold to Great Britain

At the 2022 Oldenburg Spring elite auction

Celle state stud put Morricone III back up for sale in the 2022 Oldenburg spring elite auction and he sold for 58,000 euro to Great Britain. Former international British pony rider Lavinia Johnson purchased the stallion.

Trained by Jackie Beaven, Lavinia showed Morricone III once in the U.K.at Kelsall Hill equestrian centre in July 2023 at Elementary level. He has been standing at stud in the U.K. since his arrival and has been presented at a stallion show by Louis Cunningham.

Simone Pearce

Simone Pearce has now welcomed Morricone III into her barn for training.

"The plan is to train him and compete him and hopefully build him up to Grand Prix in the coming years," Simone told Eurodressage.

Owner Lavinia Johnson is heading off to university for a demanding medical masters degree.

A Morricone Trio

A former resident rider at Gestut Bonhomme, which owns the full brothers Morricone I and II, Pearce has now ridden all three Morricone's, in addition to having trained the sire Millennium at Gestut Sprehe.

"It’s a real family affair," Simone smiled. "I have to say these 3 are peas in a pod. I would say Morricone 1 and 3 and more similar in terms of type and character, because Morricone 2 is a bit more old fashioned and laid back, but Morricone 1 and 3 are more similar to their dad (Millennium) from the feeling and look with a lot of power and high motivation to work."