Dressage News Notes - Brought to You by Back On Track

Sandro Hit: A jewel of modern dressage horse breeding, breeding donated to the Palm beach Derby Equestrian Aid Fundraiser

This week's News Notes is brought to you by Back on Track Products - State-of-the-Art Therapeutic Products, Clinically Proven to Reduce Pain and Chronic Inflammation. The Equestrian Aid Foundation's 5th Annual auction will be held at the upcoming 30th Anniversary of the Palm Beach Dressage Derby at the end of the month. New items are being added and a strong highlight of the event will be a breeding to Sandro Hit! New headgear requirments are about to go into effect - check out what this means for you. Barefoot trimming seems to be gaining more of a positive light as more people are seeing the benefits to some horses even at the high performance level. In Euro news - Isabelle Werth is in the hot seat as an investigation is under way after El Santo tested positive for an ulcer medication and Edward Gal's Grand Prix mount Sisther de Jeu has been retired from comptition. Racing's Wonderwoman - Rachael Alexander foaled her second offspring but had to undergo emergency sujury a day later - follow her progress as she recovers.

This weekend seems to be showing signs that warm weather has started and a few more places are braving the late winter to have some fun in the show ring! Florida, of course, continues to have fun in the sun with the Welcome Back to White Fences I in Loxahatchee, the Florida Dressage Concours I and II in Venice and the Twice as Nice Dressage II in Newberry. Elsewhere in the southern region  we have the Low Country Dressage Classic in Johns County, SC and the The First Dance in Folsom, LA. A little futher in the southwest Texas will have the Cowtown Dressage I and II in Irving and California rounds out the weekend with the CDI-3* Mid Winter Dressage Fair in Burbank!

The Equestrian Aid Foundation will hold its fifth annual auction at the 30th Anniversary of one of the most established dressage shows in South Florida - The Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI-W! Mary Phelps will be hosting the event with many exciting auction items being offered including a breeding the Performance Sales International's Star stallion - Sandro Hit! Dresage lessons of "Olympic" preportions as well as celebrity and sports items (just to give you a sample) are some of the things offered at the prestigious event! Check out the details on DressageDaily.com!

New headgear requirments are going into effect on April 1, 2013. The rul amendment requires all riders, whether competing or not, while on competition show grounds be required to have apporved protective headgear on at all time while mounted. Please be sure to check in and see what the full effect of the new rules will be...

Love it or hate it Shannon Peters is pioneering the way for taking high performance dressage horses barefoot, yes barefoot! Seems she had an FEI horse plauged with soundness issues and noticed that when the shoes came off, the issues went away. She then decided to seek out a qualified barefoot farrier to see what they could do for a long term solution. After the success with the FEI mount, Shannon has taken 12 horses barefoot, some client horses, and sees no reason to return any of them to shoes. Read more on her success and learn more about the methods of barefoot trimming at Eurodressage.com.

Isabelle Werth has found herself in the hot seat when her Grand Prix horse, El Santo tested positive to the "prohibited medication" cimetidine which is used to help control stomach ulcers. The pair were showing at the 2012 Rhinelander Regional Championships in Langenfeld on 21 - 24 June 2012 which is a German national show. The FEI allows the use of cimetidine with certain rules to be upheld. The matter is being looked into by the German FN and hopefully it will work out in Isabelle's favor. If found guilty she could be a "repeat offender" and banned for at least one year. Check out the full story here.

Edward Gal's Grand Prix mare Sisther de Jeu (Gribaldi out of Esther (by Amor x Irco Polo) has been retired from competition to begin a career as a broodmare. It was a mutaul decision between Gal and trainer Nicole Werner along with her owner Emmy de Jeu to retire her. Sisther was plauged in the earlier years with tension in the show arena but came on after the sale of Totilas and achieved team success under Gal for the Netherlands. The owner said she was shedding "tears of happiness.." and was grateful for the care and expertise she recieved whil in training with Edward. Read the full story at here!

Racing's Wonderwoman - Rachel Alexander the 2009 Horse of the Year - foaled a beautiful, large filly by Bernardini but had to undergo surjury the following day due to a bruised small colon. Seems large is the problem....the colt weighed in at approximatley 140 pounds where the weight of an average foal is usually 90-120 so damage was caused during the foaling! The mare is considered in "serious" condition at Rood and Riddle in Kentucky. This is Rachel Alexander's second foal and we wish her a speedy recovery! Follow her progress here!

 

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