Emma Jane Blundell, owner of Britain's most prestigious dressage horse breeding farm Mount St. John in Felixkirk (GBR), married her partner Jonathan Frank on 21 June 2024. The couple married in York Minster and celebrated their union with family and close friends at Mount St. John with a phenomenal two-day wedding party. Emma's husband Johnny Frank is a senior quantity surveyor for Faithful+Gould. He proposed to Emma on 23 June 2023. They met two years earlier at a wedding in their home town.
American dressage rider, trainer and breeder Carter Bass passed away on 9 May 2024. She was 72 years old. Bass was a long-time student of Hilda Gurney and earned the USDF gold medal on the home-bred Gossamer. She became an S-judge. Read more here.
Dressprod reported that French dressage rider Stephanie Delpierre has said goodbye to her career making Grand Prix horse Sino de Almeida, a Lusitano stallion by Lavagante FSA out of Odisseia. The horse competed at international Grand Prix level between 2010 and 2014.Their last show was the CDI Caselle di Sommacampagna in April 2014, which is also Delpierre's last international show in her career so far. Sino de Almeida was 25 years old.
New Zealand's Wendi Williamson reported on social media "the sudden and unexpected passing" of her NZL Small Tour champion Fugato SW (by Foundation x Furst Heinrich x Rohdiamant). The 2013 born Oldenburg was a licensed stallion and imported from Germany by Sheena and Dermot Ross of Sterling Warmbloods Ltd. "As a rider he was unlike anything I had trained before; sensitive, expressive and enthusiastic with infinite energy. His recent reserve PSG/Inter I champion title at Horse of the Year 2024 was a highlight, as was teaching and riding his expressive flying changes. He was so close to Grand Prix," Williamson wrote.
The Thai owned Dutch warmblood gelding Incognito (by Davino VOD x Vivaldi) is not with Spaniard Severo Jurado Lopez but in The Netherlands in training with Jill Bogers. In February 2024 the horse sold to Thai Sahawat family. A former licensed stallion, the bay was finished 10th in the 2017 Pavo Cup Final under Hans Peter Minderhoud and he was fifth in the 2018 KWPN Stallion Competition. In the summer of 2018 he had an accident in the walker and was operated on. The horse came back to full fitness and continued his training with Minderhoud. Read more here. Bogers told Eurodressage that, "I am training him for her (the Thai owner) and am allowed to compete him. Both are great. He's doing super well."
Arnold Hannover, a long-time Oldenburg delegate, registration officer and show announcer, has passed away on 14 June 2024. He spoke at numerous Oldenburg events, such as the elite mare show in Rastede or the Vechta foal market. Appointed delegate in 2011Hannöver was also valued far beyond the borders of his breeding district. His most successful breeding product is the Oldenburg regional champion Donna Deluxe (by Don Deluxe) under Evke Schröder.
by Pikeur/Brokx Sport
St. Georg reported that Otto Gärtner, the breeder of Donnerhall, passed awat at age 97 on 10 July 2024. Gärtner was born on November 29, 1926 and fought in the German army in World War II. He was wounded in 1943. He bred Donnerhall as well as several full brothers, and Certus. He sold Donnerhall as a foal to Otto Schulte-Frohlinde. In recent years, Gärtner, with whom Ulrike Countess Walderdorff-Frohlinde, the daughter of Otto Schulte-Frohlinde, had a friendly relationship, no longer lived on his farm. He continued to follow the horse events via Clipmyhorse. Full story here.