A New Career for Laura Tomlinson's Rose of Bavaria

Dressage

Great Britain

Laura Tomlinson's number one Grand Prix horse, Rose of Bavaria, is beginning a new career. She has been retired from high performance competition sport and turned into a broodmare.

Rose of Bavaria is a 14-year old Bavarian mare by Bordeaux out of Rhapsodie (by Florestan x Sir Schölling x Ramiroff). She is bred by Rainer and Heidi Heuschmann.

Kerstin Kronaus and Rudolf Widmann

She was started as a 3-year old by Kerstin Kronaus who presented her in the riding horse tests for two years. The pair finished 16th in the 4-year old warm up round at the 2014 Bundeschampionate.

Rudolf Widmann took over in 2015 and produced her to small tour level. They were 12th in the consolation finals at the 2015 Bundeschampionate and 13th in the consolation finals at the 2016 Bundeschampionate. He showed her last at S-level in November 2017.

Laura Tomlinson

Rose of Bavaria sold to the Bechtolsheimer family in August 2018 for Laura Tomlinson (née Bechtolsheimer) to ride.

Laura and Rose of Bavaria at the 2021 CDIO Compiegne

The pair took a slow start as Laura was pregnant with her third child at the time. They premiered internationally in November 2019 at the CDI Oldenburg where they were fifth in the Grand Prix (70.891%) and third in the Special (71.404%). In 2020 they competed in Le Mans, Donaueschingen and Hagen and finished fifth at the 2020 British Grand Prix Championships.

In 2021 they rode for a spot on the British team and competed in Compiegne, Herzlake, and Deauville. At the CDI DOnaueschingen they scored their first double international victory as a pair (74.152% in the GP, 77.277% in the GP Special) and were named first reserves for the British team for the 2021 European Championships in Hagen.

A one-year break from competition sport followed as Laura gave birth to her fourth child and “Betty” required surgery for a joint issue. In November 2022 she rode the mare to a double win at the CDN Hartpury and they returned to the international arena after an almost two-year absence, at the 2023 CDI Hickstead, where they were second tiwce. From there they went to Wellington Heckfield and the CDIO Aachen, which turned out to be Rose of Bavaria's last international show.

A New Career

Laura told Eurodressage that Rose of Bavaria, aka "Betty", has been pulled from competition sport following an injury. She is now a broodmare, in foal to Viva Gold.

"She did recover but it was delicate and is now going to be a mummy," Laura explained. "I decided to let her have a foal before she was too old to have a first."

A British team gold and individual bronze medal winning rider in 2012, Layra has been focusing on competing her home bred youngsters Full Moon II (by Furstenball x Gribaldi) and Forest Hill (by Fursten-Look x United) at CDI Small tour level. Her second GP horse Fallantijn has some time off.

"Fallatjin has a bone bruise and is rehabbing. This season wasn’t meant to be for me," Laura admitted. "It’s ok, I have my hands full at home (with her children doing pony club) and am loving bringing on my younger horses that are coming up."