Irish Grand Prix team rider Sorrell Klatzko married her long-time partner Alex Kinsella on 27 September 2024. The couple has been together for 19 years and have three children together. In the presence of their family and close friends the couple celebrated their union at Virginia Park Lodge in Co Cavan, for which Michelin star-chef Richard Corrigan provided the catering.
Sad news from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna as its team rider Christopher Egger passed away suddenly. The 32-year old was promoted to "Bereiter" in 2018. He also worked for Equiliber Reitzentrum. Christopher was a great animal lover and was engaged to dressage rider and psychotherapist Nadine Hauswirth.
Endel Ots has sold his 8-year old Belgian warmblood gelding Lion King (by Grand Galaxy Win x Quaterback) to a client of Australian Grand Prix rider Hayley Beresford. The chestnut is originally named Qadansky van het Bloemenhof and bred in Belgium by Isolde Tuypens), but Ots changed his name upon importing him to the U.S.A. where mainly his partner Caroline Hoerdum competed him. South Korean clients of Beresford purchased the horse at Henri Ruoste's yard in Germany.
Zuchterforum reported that former Celle State Stud station manager and head rider, Jürgen Winter, has passed away at age 95. A former dressage judge from 1964 till 2009 and iconic Celle state stud figure, Winter began working in Celle right after World War II in 1946. He managed the stud branches in Altenbruch and Hänigsen, where Hanoverian legends such as Gotthard, Graphit, Werther and Calypso II stood at stud. In 1994 he led the station in Schillerslage. Winter was know as the captain of the Celle dressage quadrille, which featured 24 sires.
Danish Rose Bang Henriksen has given birth to her first child, a boy named Erik. Rose was 2017 Danish Young Rider champion on the gold medal Danish warmblood mare Donna Silver and is daughter of Danish stallion owner and breeder Lone Boegh Henriksen (owner of Furstenball, Vitalis and Total Hope). She got married to Lukas Hartmann Bonde in August 2022.
Heinrich Bottermann has pulled himself out of the race for the presidency of the German Equestrian Federation. This leaves Hans-Jürgen Meyer and Martin Richenhagen in the running. The Sports Advisory Board will propose one candidate for election to the general meeting in November.
Ellen McCarthy sold her 13-year old Oldenburg gelding Beaulissimo (by Belissimo x Sandro Hit) to Japan. McCarthy bought him as a newly licensed young stallion and trained him up to small tour level. He was gelded and she competed him twice internationally at CDI's in Grote Brogek and Keysoe in 2020.
In Texas the court of law found equine veterinarian Ashlee Watts guilty of animal cruelty related to an incident where she repeatedly used an electric cattle prod on a horse she was treating. The Chronicle of the Horse reported that, "It took jurors less than a hour of deliberation on Wednesday to find Watts, formerly employed by Texas A&M University, guilty, according to Kelly Brown, a spokesperson for the university." In 2021 Watts won the Prix St. Georges Adult Amateur Championship at the USDF Dressage Finals.