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A European judge's take on Canadian horses.

One of the foremost sport horse experts in the world came to judge the Cup classes and the Canadian Sport Horse show at the 2010 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Paul Hendrix of the Netherlands, the visiting judge, and his brother Emil are world renowned for their riding, training and breeding accomplishments. Hendrix is on the governing board of the KWPN. As well as breeding his own sport horses, he has selected horses for top international riders including Laura Kraut, Jessica Kurten, Markus Fuchs and Ian Millar.

Overall, Hendrix was pleased with the quality of horses presented. While the Cup classes have traditionally been viewed as hunter-type competitions, Hendrix said he judged the classes exactly as he would in Europe where the hunter discipline is non-existent. He and co-judge Carlton Brooks (renowned U.S. hunter rider/coach/trainer) chose the same winner for both Cup classes: Cheryl Coulter Preziuso's gelding Centre Stage, by Canadian Sport Horse Silver Premium stallion, the hunter superstar Popeye K, out of the thoroughbred mare Sarah Nicole.

"In conformation and movement, he was number one for both of us," said Hendrix.

In the CSH line classes, Hendrix was most impressed by the young horses.

“In some of the classes, I expected a little more quality,” he said. “But a lot of the horses in the yearling, two and three-year-old classes could compete in Europe.”

He had high praise for Grand Champion Aritzia, Four Leaf Farms’ yearling filly by the European Hanoverian stallion Abke out of Licorne, an imported Hanoverian mare: “She is beautiful with great lightness, has unbelievable movement and is very correct.”

“The champion (Aritzia) and reserve champion (the filly Cabaletta W by the imported Holsteiner stallion Cabardino out of Viva’s Paradise W) could compete at any place in Europe,” claimed Hendrix. “There was really good quality of mares, especially the yearlings. I liked the quality of the fillies.”

He did have some words of advice to offer Canadian breeders: “I’d like to see a little bit more power from behind in movement. That’s a bit of a weakness. I also prefer lightness. Modern sport horses need lightness.”

Those who feared Hendrix might not be partial to North American Thoroughbreds, given his background in breeding and selecting warmbloods, would be pleasantly surprised. (He also judged the Thoroughbred line classes).

“I was really pleased with the two Thoroughbreds (junior colt/gelding Grand Champion Simply Decadent and reserve champion A Little Decorum, both owned by Treena McClelland) I saw today,” said Hendrix. “I would be happy to have them in Europe.”

CSHA president Paul Morgan wasn’t surprised by Hendrix’s enthusiasm for the Thoroughbreds: “I don’t think people realize how important Thoroughbred blood is to European breeders. They are looking for blood all the time.”

In Canada, we must do the opposite here, said Morgan by continuing to incorporate top European bloodlines into our breeding programs.

“In Canada, we have the quality here, but you can’t deny the European influence and what we need is a mix of North American and European bloodlines,” said Morgan.

Aritzia continues winning ways

At the 8th annual Swallow Creek Farm Breeder's Show on July 17 , it was back to the winning ways for Aritzia (Abke x Licorne). Owned and bred by Danielle Gregoire and Ed Stewart at Four Leaf Farms, Aritzia was the Canadian Sport Horse Grand Champion at the 2009 Royal Winter Fair. Now as a yearling, she was this show's CSH Grand Champion and Show Champion as judged by Eileen Gilbert.

Top broodmare/yeld mare was Licorne (Lemon Park x Woodessa), also owned by Four Leaf Farms. Winning foal was Amazeya WF (Asher x Fantasia), owned and bred by Donna Jones; Artizia as the winning yearling and Junior Champion. Top two and three year old respectively were Cabaletta (Cabardino x Viva's Paradise W) owned by Bob and Pia Thomas, bred by Augustin Walsh and Tuscany (Roman K x Any Witch Way) owned and bred by Mary Pappone. Cabeletta was the Senior Champion and Reserve CSH Champion.

The show, presented by Maura Watson and hosted by Sarah and Dan Mayo of Swallow Creek Farm had an excellent turnout of entries. it's always a pleasure to host this event, said Sarah Mayo, is the first show of the season, competitors and spectators are keen to see the new crop of foals and last year's winners. And, as usual, there was no disappointment in the quality of both.

OTTAWA-Just seven months old, Aritzia captures the best-in-show prize at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Scott Nowoselski reports.

Imagine if the Miss Universe crown was won by a pre-pubescent girl.
Believe it or not, it happened last weekend, except that the girl was a seven-month-old horse.

On Saturday, Aritzia, from Four Leaf Farms horse breeding farm just outside of Richmond, claimed the Grand Champion Canadian Sport Horse award at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, taking the best-in-show prize in a field that included dozens of older horses and full-grown stallions.

Aritzia, who tips the scales at about 400 pounds and stands about 14 hands high, won’t even be fit for riding for another three years, but she makes up in attitude for what she lacks in stature, owner Danielle Gregoire said.

“She’s a real princess,” Gregoire says. “When she gets into the ring, she wants people to look and notice her.  It’s really ‘all about me’ when she’s out there.”

Gregoire and husband, Ed Stewart, run the Four Leafs stable, which has a dozen horses, including Aritzia and her mother, Licorne.

Coming from a small town in Eastern Ontario, Stewart said they never expected to take the top honour in North American horse breeding.

“We’d never even been to the Fair before,” Stewart said. “We had high hopes heading in, but we never even imagined we’d win it all.”

Along with the award, Stewart and Gregoire received an underwhelming prize of $85, much less than the more than $1,000 they spent just to transport Aritzia to the weekend competition, but Gregorie maintains she wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.

“You’re not in this for the money,” she said. “Horse breeding isn’t going to make you a millionaire. You’re in it because you love horses.”

To help pay the bills, Gregorie works in the Ottawa airport’s payroll department, while her husband holds things down at the farm. The couple hope that Aritzia’s big win will draw attention to the genetic strength of her mother and stir up business at their breeding operation.

The farm might not be known to most of the outside world, but showman Ron Davidson maintains he saw potential in Aritzia and Four Leaf Farms more than three months ago.
Davidson, who has been presenting horses at the Royal Winter Fair for almost 40 years, said even then he could see Aritzia was destined for greatness.

“She’s like a beautiful woman,” he said. “When she enters the room, you have to turn and look.”

Davidson has won numerous Grand Champion titles, but says this latest triumph is one of the most special.

“I’ve done an awful lot at the Fair,” he said. “I thought I’d won just about everything there was to win, but this is something else.

“To see a baby win this award, it’s amazing. This is truly an amazing horse.”

To cap off what has been a crazy week, Gregoire will celebrate her 36th birthday today.

“This is definitely an amazing birthday gift,” she said with a laugh.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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Gemstone gets Reserve Champion!

What a pair! Kaitlyn Dalcourt guides Gemstone to bigger heights, challenging her through twists and turns, up hills and down banks, in the Child/Adult Jumpers at the June Ashland Silver Show, placing them overall with a well deserved Reserve Champion title.

Congrats Kait and Gem! Stellar Performance!

Our Oldenburg jumper mare, Gemstone, competed in her first jumper show.

Aritzia won her yearling class and then went on to win GRAND CHAMPION, and Licorne won the brood mare class and was RESERVE CHAMPION.

Gemstone competes in her first jumper show

Our Oldenburg jumper mare, Gemstone, competed in her first jumper show (Hopeful Jumpers) with Kaitlyn Dalcourt at the NNEP in May, after three years off as a broodmare while recovering from an injury. They completed the courses beautifully, but this team is so efficient, they had speed penalties which put them in 5th place.

Spectacular effort for her first time back out in so long!

Meet Abba!

Our Hanoverian mare, Licorne, blessed us on Easter day with a beautiful baby girl by the Hanoverian Stallion Abke. This good sized filly is extremely well put together and shows effortless movement like she's dancing on a cloud. Her personality has stolen the hearts of everyone who visits her. Look for her at the local Breed Shows with handler Ronnie Davidso