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.