Following a beautiful fall day full of top level competition across the Breed Division at Dressage at Devon, Iron Spring Farm Inc.’s Love Dance and Quinnten Alston were awarded the pinnacle DaD Grand Championship award, brought to you by the Best In Breed Conservation Group. Love Dance is a 2017 Oldenburg mare – Vitalis x Fürst Romancier. Owned by Iron Spring Farm, Inc. Bred by Jürgen Fetzer. In addition to the overall Grand Championship, she also was awarded Mature horse Champion and Mare Champion.

Photo – 2023 Dressage at Devon Grand Champion, Mature Horse Champion, & Mare Champion – Love Dance & Quinnten Alston (Olivia Airhart, Mane Source Media LLC, For Phelps Media Group)

For nearly 50 years, Dressage at Devon has made countless valuable contributions to the sport of dressage – from breeding to performance and all the many levels in between, DaD has been, and will continue to be there to support and promote the evolution of the sport, and the love of the horse. This year, DaD is proud to welcome the Best in Breed Conservation Group for their inaugural sponsorship year.

The Best in Breed Conservation Group

Founded by Melanie Pai, the Best In Breed Conservation Group is comprised of ten breeders committed not only to the conservation of breeding for dressage, but also to the continued evolution of the sport through quality breeding. The Best in Breed Conservation Group is comprised of ten breeders that have come together to offer funds exclusively to help preserve and expand the historic event that is the Breed Division at Dressage at Devon. DaD would like to thank the 2023 group’s founding members: Melanie Pai, Jim Welsh, Anne Sparks, Lauren Dearlove, Melanie Peterson Ramey, Terry Smith, Janet Rae, Stacy Brass, Klaus Schengber, and Judy Yancey.

Avid Dressage at Devon competitors, the founding breeders of the group have come to compete at DaD for many years, for most, they have been in attendance for decades. Dressage at Devon gave them a place to take their elite breeding stock and helped to place each of the prominent breeding programs on the map. The Best in Breed Conservation Group plans to perpetually give back to the show that has given the greater dressage breeding community in North America so much for so many years.

Purpose and Goals

Best in Breed Conservation Group founder Melanie Pai, shared how the syndicate got started, its purpose, and its goals for the future:

Speaking into how it all began, “Karen Ramsey, who is a very good friend of mine, came to Florida and said what can we come up with to support Dressage at Devon, they have been so good to us over the years,” Pai said, “I came up to see Christa Schute-Perry, and I had this idea of forming syndicate. I consider myself a small breeder, and I thought ‘how can we help small breeders?’ I put together the idea of putting ten people together, each would contribute $1,000, for a total of $10,000 to go towards Dressage at Devon. I found ten committed people and together, we formed this breeder’s syndicate, the Best in Breed Conservation Group, to support Dressage at Devon. I am hoping that the syndicate will continue to grow, and that next year we will have another 5-10 additional breeders that want to participate in supporting DaD. In addition to benefiting DaD, participation in the syndicate also benefits small breeders as it gives them a voice and people would start to recognize the names – my hope is that it will help participating breeder’s really increase their business as well. The USA small breeders desperately need help because everyone tends to go to Europe these days. There are some exceptional breeder’s here in the USA, but nobody really knows where they are. We are trying to find a way for Americans in this big country, to find the amazing small breeders that are here on US soil. The Best in Breed Syndicate is our first effort in achieving that mission.