It’s the first day of a bright new year, and normally this is the time we publish our Year in Review report. But now that our website organizes news articles by year, it seems to make more sense to focus on our plans for 2015.
2014 was a great year for us, highlighted by our horses qualifying and competing at the most important championships on both sides of the Atlantic—the North Americans and the World Equestrian Games—and achieving super results and final classifications.[nbsp] But 2014 was also a year of building and planning for a new chapter at HGF, and when a shipment of horses arrived last fall in Wellington the new era started. For the past 4 years, our focus in the show ring has been mainly in Europe. And while Daniel has been campaigning Grandioso, he was also bringing up a number of younger horses, most notably Vaquero HGF—who is familiar to everyone who follows our farm.
In October, Vaquero returned to the States, to be competed by Young Rider Kerrigan Gluch. Kerrigan spent 6 weeks training in Spain with Dani last summer to prepare to take over the ride on Vaquero (2007), who was the most successful PRE in Spain in the 5 and 6 year old Young Horse Divisions in that country. Kerrigan’s plan is to compete this coming year at Young Riders, and she will be riding Vaquero this coming weekend in the Robert Dover Horsemastership Week clinic in Wellington.
Additionally, we brought back Conquero HGF and a new U25 prospect, HGF Brio—both of which are now in training with our young riders under the oversight of Lendon Gray and Maria Lithander. We hope to have lots of news about these pairs this winter during the Wellington season.
We are especially excited to be bringing Grandioso and Bolero back to Wellington to compete at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival during the months of January and February. At this moment, the stallions are in transit and will settle into quarantine in the first few days of January. It has been a long-time dream of ours to compete a PRE in the international Grand Prix in the United States. Following Dani and Grandioso’s successes at three Nations’ Cups in Aachen, the London Olympics, the European Championships, and the World Equestrian Games, the last challenge is making the long trip back to the US for a Florida winter tour. The plan for now is to compete Grandioso in the CDI-W Jan.22-25, and in the 5* the first weekend of February, and for Bolero to do his first Grand Prix during the coming weeks.[nbsp]
HGF’s commitment to the youth programs is year-long, starting with our annual “voluntary fundraiser” on January 6 benefitting Dressage4Kids and the Emerging Dressage Athlete Program. This year it’s a Rockin’ the 80s party, sure to horrify all of the young people when they see their parents and mentors in our full 80s glory! We are also proud to host the 2015 Winter Intensive Training program, led by Lendon Gray, which brings 14 riders to Wellington for a winter of education and high-level instruction by Gray and others. Again this year we will be donating 4 stalls to the winners of the Florida International Youth Dressage Championships, held in mid-March. And this coming summer, HGF will sponsor our fourth Lendon Youth Dressage Festival and EDAP clinic in June at the Michigan farm.
Our breeding program continues, with 5 foals expected in the spring by sires Grandioso and Faralay II. In 2015 HGF will have a number of young horses in training that will be ready to be sold. These horses range in age from 4-6 and several may be seen this winter at the Wellington location.
We know it’s bad luck in horses to plan too far in advance, but other possible destinations for our horses and riders are the USEF Championships at Lamplight in August, the North Americans in KY in July, CDIs in Spain and Germany and with good luck the European Championships in Aachen in August and Spanish Young Horse finals in September!
We have a big year ahead and are ready for the challenge. 2015 is already here and we can’t wait to see what it brings. We appreciate the support of all of our friends, and wish you every success in your life and loves!
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Hampton Green farm - Sponsored Program
