PSI annual auction in Ankum, Germany

This was a wonderful event to experience. The presentation of horses was skillfully run and the bidding was exciting for all. In the end, PSI brought in over 12 million Euro and sold horses to many of the top countries of equestrian sport.

My very good friend Paula Helm came to visit me during my last week in Germany. We attended the Sat show case presentation of the auction horses Dec 12th and then the live auction the following day. It was truly amazing the prices these animals went for. The least expensive horse was bought for $75,000 Euro and the most expensive was a jumper mare for $800,000 Euro.  We had a blast watching but were very careful to keep our hands low and not make any sudden movements that might be mistaken for a bid.

CDI at Stuttgart 2010

What an incredible weekend. I had the fortunate experience of attending the Stuttgart horse show as a spectator and it was amazing! The show is run and organized to the second and that schedule was posted two weeks in advance. There was an incredible "Vegas style" show Friday evening with the famous Lorenzo "The Flying Frenchman". I took a very short clip on my camera and am posting it here but it did not do him justice. Short clip of Lorenzo at Stuttgart!

 I found a super video online to show that gives you a better understanding of the kind of incredible horse person he is. Here is the link to the video of Lorenzo online. Lorenzo demonstration It is incredible and shows exactly what he can do. Don't miss this one.

I drove to the Bremen airport this past Thursday and took a flight direct to Stuttgart. Upon arrival, a shuttle service provided by the show came and picked up myself and Nick Fyffe, from Australia, who has been working for Catherine the last couple of months. Also in the shuttle was Madeleine Winter-Shulze, sponsor of Isabelle Werth. We drove to the KongressHotel Europe and it was the host hotel for all of the riders. It was so great to see all of the riders, I felt like I was in Hollywood. Edward Gal, Isabelle Werth, Ulla Salsgeber, and Hubertus Schmidt would all be the next table over at breakfast. Catherine had given me a special pass so that I was able to go back into the stabling and into the warm up areas. It was very interesting watching everyone warm their horses up the morning before the test. It was very educational. Thank you Catherine!

Check this out. Upon arrival at Stuttgart!

The jog was on Thursday and the Grand Prix for the Freestyle was on Friday. At this particular CDI 5 star they hold a Grand Prix for those going into the Freestyle and then a Grand Prix for those competing in the Special. There were twelve invited to partake in the Grand Prix for Freestyle held on Friday morning. The results are listed below. Catherine had a really nice solid test and finished 4th. A very good accomplishment!

Click here for the results of the Grand Prix

Watch Catherine Haddad and Winyamaro do their GP test 

Watch Ulla's GP Test here!

The Freestyle's were amazing. The horses were great and the atmosphere was electric. It was a packed house and Winyamaro came in like, "whoo-hoo awards ceremony". He was excited but held it all together. Here are the placings for the freestyle, Winyamaro was 6th.

Results of the Grand Prix Freestyle here

Watch Catherine and W's freestyle here. So fun to watch!

Isabelle Werth's winning ride on Sachmo 82.5%

Watch Isabelle and Sachmo here!

One other thing I had to mention is the driving competition. Very exciting to watch. The warm up for the drivers was intense. You had 6 teams all warming up in a 20 by 40 meter dressage size arena. 

Check out this video of the warm up that Catherine took: Drivers warming up!

Here is the winner of the day! An Australian team, Boyd Excell. Boyd Excell's winning round!

Just for fun here is a clip from WEG that was posted on youtube so you can see how an outdoor course compares. They are quite the atheletes! WEG 2010 Combined Driving Marathon

Side trip to Selden

This past Monday after working the horses I took a little trip south. I went to the town of Selden to see some of Irene's(HW Farm)young stock she has coming up. As you may have seen on the Summervale site Irene and Summervale have been working together to sell some of her fantastic imports from Germany. This was a real treat to get to see some of the next horses that will be coming over. Tanja the owner and trainer of the farm was so wonderful in showing me around. We went to a couple of fields that were close by that were housing some of the up and coming 2 year old colts and fillies. The barn itself at Tanja's held about 20 horses. Most were coming 3 year olds and of course all of the current riding horses. I met Walk on Top and Statesman HW two of the horses listed on Irene's site and they were just as lovely in person. There were also 5 lovely little coming yearlings that were going to be put out to pasture in the next coming week or so to grow up for a while. Very nice!

Had a great training week. Wistar is settling into his new German lifestyle. Love him and his forever accepting attitude. What a temperament this horse has. Always accommodating and just does his best. What more can you ask for?

On a side note I am getting many calls on potential clients looking for horses for sale ranging from talented young horses to top of the line FEI horses. If you have a quality horse for sale please don't hesitate to contact me. Also I will be accepting horses in for consignment January 1st.

Chat soon.

Thursday Nov 4th

It is my 13th day here in Germany and I am having a great time. I have learned my way around the autobahn and what 160 kilometers an hour feels like(that was just keeping with the flow of traffic). I also put 10 gallons of gas into the car and paid an amazing $85.... for just 10 gallons. Yikes. I walk every morning from Catherine's house about a mile to the barn. It is very beautiful with all of the trees changing for fall and creating a lovely landscape. Catherine and I and her Uber cute dog Gizzy all go for a 45 minute walk around the forest on our way back to the house in the afternoon. This is great since I am now riding 2 to 3 horses a day down from my normal 8 to 10. Definitely love the exercise.

Wistar is doing great. I am learning some super new tools and Catherine and her staff have been lovely. It is a great operation and I am learning so much everyday. I will get some new video posted soon.

My assistants Paula, Tasha, and groom Alesha are all holding down the fort at Summervale while I am away. We still have some super sale horses in and available. Check out the website for the latest details.

Flight To Amsterdam Footage

Well I thought it would be fun to show you what is involved with the flying of a horse to Germany. I have a small little flip video camera that was super easy to pull out and shoot. (Thanks Alex!) It is a bit shaky during take off...dont worry it wasn't nearly as bad as it looks from my video skills. The horses were unsure for about 2 minutes and then all was calm again. Enjoy! Will post again soon! If link doesn't work please copy and paste into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA1LbeqfJng

2010 Grant to Germany. Our trip through Vechta begins!

Hello all,

It has been a while since my last post. I am currently in Vechta, Germany on a training grant that I received from the Dressage Foundation this past January. On Wed October 20th my good friend Johnna Stevens and I drove the 24 hour drive down to LAX where Wistar was to fly out on that Friday. We made great time getting up at 3 am on Wed, arriving in Red Bluff Wed about 4:30 and resting for the evening. The next day we were up again at 2 am for the 12 hour second day drive to LAX where the company, Jet Pets, is located. They were coordinating my 10 hour flight to Amsterdam and then on to Vechta, Germany where another 5 hour transport by truck awaited.





Wistar traveled like the trooper that he is and was bright eyed upon arrival into Catherine Haddad's stable Sat evening the 23rd around 7:00pm. The barn is lovely. The footing and indoor incredible. It has been very informative to watch Catherine work her horses and as of today I received my second lesson. Sunday was a day for some light stretching and yesterday Monday we began with work to lighten the aids for the more cadenced trot and the changes. It was evident that tension was creeping in during the one tempi's and we worked to be able to change the neck before and after the series. This morning Tue we worked together at 6:30 am before Catherine was to depart for a CDI in Lyon, France on her darling horse Winyamaro. Today she had a look at my Piaffe/Passage and we are going to work to get the connection more honest in those movements. I must try to get Wistar to stay up more from the withers and to stay light in the contact without me micro managing so much in the hand. To constantly push the hand forward and see that he seeks the contact and steps further under from behind. Catherine has an incredible eye and was instantly able to key into a plan for us. I hope to post video as we go along so that you can follow in our progress.

Young Horse Championship Finals

HS Wrevolution, ridden by Jennifer Williams finished in 12th position with a 72.1% in this years USEF/Markel FEI 5 year old Young Horse Championships. The pair were among the nations top 15 to qualify and be selected for this years competition held in Wayne, IL this past July.