News & Horses:
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News Articles
November 22-29, 2009
This week several of us are traveling to Sevilla, Spain to attend SICAB--the annual National Breed Show for the PRE horse sponsored by ANCCE. We are traveling as part of a group hosted in Spain by the United States PRE Association (USPRE)--including Alexander Zilo, Courtney and Jason (King) Dye, and Lendon Gray. We will be sure to update our readers on everything we've seen as soon as we return.In the meantime, for our friends in the US, have a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful weekend with family and friends!HGF Staff
HGF Tops the National Boards at Wellington Classic Spring Challenge CDI
Ana Gilmour/camaron Fourth Level, Test of Choice 65.00% First Place Fourth Level Test Two 68.40% First Place Fourth Level, Test Three 67.56% Second Place María Lithander/Bolero First Level, Test Four 75.50% Second Place Courtney Dye/Grandioso Intermediate II 68.40% First Place Test of Choice (Inter. II) 67.89% Third Place
Courtney Dye suffered an accident
On Wednesday, March 3, Courtney Dye suffered an accident with a young horse at her training barn in Loxahatchee, Florida. She sustained a skull fracture and TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. She is stable and resting at a hospital in Palm Beach County, surrounded by her family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with you always, Courtney. You are loved. Get well soon!
Robert Dover Finds His FIERO at Hampton Green Farm
Hampton Green Farm is proud to announce that Robert Dover, six-time United States Olympian for Dressage and current Technical Advisor and Coach for the Canadian National Dressage Team, has recently purchased an outstanding 2008 son of Grandioso III. For several years, HGF has worked with Robert in the training of some of our top horses, including Grandioso, and we have always been aware of his respect and admiration for the PRE breed. During those years, Robert expressed his interest in finding a young PRE of a certain type that would meet his standards for athleticism and temperament. Conversations with Robert began earlier this summer following his announcement on DoversWorld.com that he was looking for an international prospect for himself, which eventually culminated in his selection of FIERO HGF (Grandioso III x Ibiza). FIERO is a virtual replica of his sire, Grandioso III--trained and competed by Courtney Dye--a stallion with whom Robert has had much interaction and influence. Robert was immediately attracted to the son who, in his words, "has 3 exceptional paces and an extremely uphill expression already as well as a lot of scope." At Hampton Green Farm, we have been aware of this colt's exceptional potential and we are happy to know that he will go to one of the world's top trainers and the sport's greatest showman, and we are happy that FIERO HGF will be trained, like his sire, with the hope of joining the United States Dressage Team in the future!
Courtney Dye Visits HGF and Grandioso
We were thrilled to have a visit from Courtney and her husband Jason last weekend at the Michigan farm. Courtney had spent the morning with the US Team as they made final preparations for WEG, and then flew into Grand Rapids on Friday evening. She had not been to the farm for a year, and more importantly she had not seen Grandioso since her riding accident in March. Her visit was intended to be low-key and more of a show-and-tell than a formal clinic, but Courtney asked for the microphone during the first ride of one of our young horses and began to teach just as she has done so many times before at HGF. Maria Lithander rode four horses for her on Saturday, and three rides on Sunday. Additionally we worked several of the colts and fillies whose progress Courtney has followed since they were weanlings. Courtney's first priority was to see Grandioso and his work with Maria, who has been keeping him tuned since the horse came back to us from Courtney's barn in mid-March. She coached Maria through all of the Grand Prix work, and she was very happy to see that the horse had not lost anything in the time she has been off of him, and that he was relaxed and happy in all his work under the interim rider. Grandioso also appeared extremely pleased to see Courtney again--in a stallion kind of way--and we had to make sure that he didn't knock her off her feet with affection!Courtney has informed us of her plans to go to Wellington this winter, to assist Jen Marchand with the training of all of the horses in Courtney's program and also with the hopes of starting to ride again at some point over the winter. She also will be overseeing the training of Grandioso until the point that she can take the reins again herself. But her main occupation will remain her road to recovery, and she is fortunate to have Jason to keep her on-track and focused with all the distraction of her enthusiasm for getting back around the horses!On another note, it's WEG week and we are there! If you are unable to attend, find the Hampton Green Forum on Facebook and follow along with us as we post our experiences and impressions. And as much as we love and support our US Team, we are also fans of the wonderful Spanish horses who are coming--Fuego, Norte and Gnidium--and we'll be watching them and wishing them all good luck in the games!
Season of Change
Hampton Green Farm would like to thank Maria Lithander for over two years of training and competing for Hampton Green. When Maria came on in 2008, she took on the responsibility of starting three young stallions and also the job of reworking parts of Idilio's training to make him competitive again at the FEI levels. All of this Maria accomplished beautifully, bringing Adelante, Idolo Americano and Bolero up to third level with consistent scores above 70% in Wellington, a Region II Reserve Championship (Idolo), several USDF All Breeds awards, and scores up to 72% for Idilio in the Small Tour. Last March, she agreed to take on Olympian Courtney Dye's mount Grandioso III while Courtney recovered from a head injury in a fall, a task she approached with great care. Last month Courtney visited Grandioso for the first time and was thrilled with his condition, attitude and the freshness of his work, all thanks to Maria's careful schooling over the past six months. Now the young horses are moving on to the next phase in their training. Spanish rider Daniel Martin will take over the reins of Idolo Americano and Adelante beginning in November, and long-time Lendon Gray student Mica Mabragana will begin to work with the others once they are settled in Wellington for the winter. Our thanks to Maria for everything and we continue to consider Maria part of the HGF family for her outstanding work with PRE horses.