Horse trades in Europe: mounts move between top riders

One of the notable examples of this in recent days has been Douglas Lindelöw’s loss of the horse who helped him win a Team silver medal at the 2017 Longines FEI European Championships in Gothenburg, Zacramento (pictured). A few days ago, the powerful brown bay’s owner announced the end of her collaboration with the Swedish rider. “Douglas and his team have done a fantastic job with Zacramento,” she told the Hippson web site. “It exceeded everyone’s expectations. However, some aspects of our collaboration didn’t work out. So I decided to bring the horse back home to my stables and figure out the best possible solution for his future.” Already in the lead-up to September’s FEI Tryon World Equestrian Games, the horse’s owner had ruled out the 14-year-old gelding’s participation, citing the travel time required to get to North Carolina.

For Lindelöw, the loss is significant as the young Swede does not presently have other horses the calibre of Zacramento. In October, the pair won the first Longines FEI World Cup Jumping qualifier of the 2018–19 qualfying season, in Oslo. But with only those 20 points in the standings and just two more qualifiers to go, it will be a long shot for the rider to secure a place in the World Cup Final in April, on home soil in Gothenburg .

Denis Lynch has also experienced the departure of one of his most consistent horses, The Sinner. While the 11-year-old bay gelding had only been with the Irishman for a few months, the brown bay has now joined the stables of red-hot Swiss rider Martin Fuchs. The runner-up at the Tryon World Championships has thus had his string of horses further strengthened, with the arriving mount ready to support his two other lead horses: the superb Clooney 51, and a Chaplin returning from injury.

Still in Switzerland, Werner Muff has bid farewell to his own lead horse. Forced to recover after an operation in mid-December, Daimler has left the rider’s stables. The horse, whom Muff has competed with at the highest level for two seasons –including winning the CSIO5* Grand Prix in Dublin in 2017 – has joined the string of his compatriot Alain Jufer. Jufer will now have an experienced partner with whom he can take part in 5* Grand Prix more frequently.

Finally, Psg Final, a nine-year-old gelding trained by Max Kühner, joined the stables of Edwina Tops-Alexander in early December, but left the Australian rider’s home base of Valkenswaard in the Netherlands soon after, direction Ireland. In the wake of impressive results recently – including a clear round in the Longines FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona and second place in the Grand Prix at the Longines World Cup in Stuttgart – the bay gelding was rapidly resold to Karlswood stables, and will be ridden by Irishman Cian O’Connor. The European bronze medallist in Göteborg has thus found a possible candidate to back up his lead horse Good Luck at major competitions in 2019.