King Santacruz, a renowned horse handler in the U.S.A., proposed to his long-time girlfriend Natalie Regel during the Dressage at Devon Breed show. He totally took Natalie by surprise by going down on one knee and asking her to marry him. The couple runs a training and sales facility out of Melanie Pai's farm Bolinvar South in Florida.
Eqwo reported that Alfred Hudler, the managing director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, has been fired. "The supervisory board made this decision following investigations by the public prosecutor's office in connection with improper expense reports," Eqwo wrote. However, in the end those allegations did not constitute the grounds for dismissal—but rather "serious misconduct," which was not specified.
Horses.nl reported that Marijn van Dijk, assistant rider to Marieke van der Putten, at RS2 Dressage in Groesbeek, has decided to leave the yard to start her independent business. Van Dijk joined the barn after Robin van Lierop and Seth Boschman left.
danish Olympian Nanna Skodborg Merrald and her boyfriend, farmer and helicopter pilot Daniel Kristensen, are expecting their first child together. The baby is due in March 2026.
Ridehesten reported that the former World Young Horse Champion, Hesselhoj Down Town, has finally resurfaced after a long period of injury. In September 2022 Kristy Oatley acquired the stallion (by Hesselhoj Donkey Boy x Zack) as a hopeful for her then junior rider daughter, Rose Oatley. The now 11-year old Danish warmblood never competed with Oatley and got returned to sender in 2024. Down Town is now a gelding and made his show come back with Mette Sejgjerg Jensen. They pair competed at the CDN at Finstrupgaard and scored 79% in an MB-test.
American dressage rider Rebecca Cohen acquired the 7-year old Belgian bred Hanoverian Dalton de Prepinson in Sweden. The Don Juan de Hus x Soliman offspring was competed in Germany in 2023 by Helena Bicker, scoring 8.1 in the small finals for 5-year olds at the 2023 Bundeschampionate. The horse then moved to Sweden. Under Jessie Johansson he won the 6-year finals in 2024 and placed second in the 7-year old final in 2025 at the Falsterbo Horse Show. In 2024 he was listed as owned by the breeder Eva Ruggieri-Schiller, in 2025 by Jan Brink.
A big German delegation including Isabell Werth, Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff, Katharina Hemmer, Mattthias Rath, Francois Kasselmann, as well as judges Hans-Christian Matthiesen and Raphael Saleh and FEI's secretary-general Sabrina Ibanez attended the Shanghai International Horse Culture Week to share knowledge and experience for the growing equestrian market in China.
New Zealand dressage rider Hannah Walton has been appointed as new chair of the board of the New Zealand Equestrian Federation. Hannah has been serving as Deputy Chair and brings extensive senior leadership experience to the role. Her background spans operations, technology, product, and driving transformation across diverse sectors including health, telecommunications, air transport, ICT, and financial services. In addition to her governance expertise, Hannah contributes to ESNZ through her roles on the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee and the Remuneration Sub-Committee. Hannah has been involved with Equestrian sports from a young age and currently trains and competes in dressage