Fabienne Lutkemeier's Sole Mio Passed Away

Dressage

Germany

Fabienne Lutkemeier's internationally competed Grand Prix mare Sole Mio has passed away on 19 September 2023. She was 19 years old.

Sole Mio was a 2004 born Westfalian mare by Show Star out of Loredana (by Lamoureux II x Florestan). She was bred by Ferdinand Borkenfeld.

Fabienne Lutkemeier

The Lutkemeier family discovered "Mia" at the 2008 Munster Spring Elite Auction where she became the price highlight selling for 195,000 euro.

"She wasn't an easy horse, but she had enormous presence and expression. One couldn't but look at her when she was around," Fabienne reminisced. "She was the first horse I trained to Grand Prix myself, and for that reason she holds a special place. As rider you had to get her on your side and only then she would fight for you."

Fabienne competed her only very lightly throughout her career. She began competing her as a 5-year old in 2009 and rode the Bundeschampionate qualifiers in Duisburg, Munster and Oer-Erkenschwick and in 2010 rode the M-level test at the CDI Cappeln.

Their international show debut followed at the 2011 CDI Vidauban, where they won the Prix St Georges. They competed on the 2011 Nurnberger Burgpokal circuit in Hagen, Lingen, Balve, and Verden. In 2012 the mare got further established at small tour level and they were back on the Burgpokal circuit. In 2013 they competed in the CDI in Hagen.

They made the transition to Grand Prix level in 2014 and showed in the CDN Developing Grand Prix horse tests held at the CDI Dortmund, for instance. They qualified for the 2014 Lousidor Cup Finals, but pulled out of starting in Frankfurt. "She had a lot of bad luck. For instance, she qualified for the Louisdor Finals but couldn't compete there because she fractured her jaw."

Their big international break through at Grand Prix level was in 2015 when they showed at the CDI's in Perl, Oldenburg and Frankfurt, scoring in the mid sixties. Their high score was 70.353% in the Special at the CDI Oldenburg.

Broodmare

The 2015 CDI Frankfurt was the mare's last international. Almost a year later she did one more national Short Grand Prix at the CDN Ankum in October 2016 after which she slowly glided into retirement.

The Lutkemeier family tried to get her in foal for a long time and only succeeded this year. A filly by Vitalis was born four months ago.

"Because she was so head strong we decided for Vitalis. The Vitalis offspring are known for being always very co-operative and I thought it would be a good match," Fabienne explained. "We are happy that we at least got one foal out of her. Mia was at station Holkenbrink, here she was bred, gave borth and was rearing the foal. They took great care of her."

Untimely Passing

In the Louisdor Cup Qualifier in Hagen 2014

On Saturday 19 September 2023, Sole Mio unfortunately developed serious health issues and was put to sleep.

"She had multiple organ failure and we don't know where it came from," Lutkemeier explained. "Mia's foal we brought home to Paderborn so that we could take care of it around the clock with small meals and bottles in between. We also could introduce her company straight away with which she'll grow up. The little one doesn't have a name yet, as we can't make a decision, but she'll join some older broodmares in the field with us and another foal my father owns. Both are already playing together so it's working out well."