An Aria o Hop
An aria is, by definition, an elaborate song for just one, or occasionally two, voices. Dressage rider Jill Giese and her mare Aria have proved that they can
create lovely music together, even in the face of a debilitating illness that seemed to end Aria’s competitive career
. BY PAT PAYNE J
i ll Giese is not shy about saying that Dreamcatcher Elite, fondly called Aria, is truly her dream horse. She purchased the then three year old at auction in Verden
in 1999, and says she knew immediately upon trying her before the auction that this mare was a perfect match for her. At the time, Jill was living on a dairy farm in England, pursuing a riding career. It was a long way from her work as a lawyer, which had brought this Canadian native to England, many miles from home, in the first place.
New Directions
Dreamcatcher, whose original name was Daisy Dee (“How could I bring a horse with a name like a cow to a dairy farm?”) is aptly named. She was Jill’s opportunity to build an equine partnership and progress to the next level in dressage, a discipline she had discovered was her passion in life. She gave up legal work to pursue her dream of a dressage career. And her musical nickname is also appropriate, Jill says. “The biggest, most important song—that certainly fits her!” And progress they did. In England,
Jill and Aria worked with British trainer and Olympian Carl Hester. With Carl in the saddle, Aria won the Five-Year-Old FEI Young Horse Championships in 2001 and the Six-Year-Old honors the following year. In 2002, the mare was also named British Warmblood of the Year. Jill also began breeding, using embryo transfer to allow
Aria to continue her competitive career. “She’s never been pregnant for more than seven days at a time!” Jill notes.
IHome to Canada
n 2003, Jill and her British life partner John Dingle decided to relocate to Canada, purchasing a farm in British Columbia. Settling on this former cattle ranch was a life-
changing decision. It was a beautiful location but there was much work to be done to settle in the horses that were returning with them. Those horses included Dreamcatcher, of course, and also “the triplets:” three youngsters close in age, all with Dreamcatcher as their dam, sired by Dimaggio and born by embryo transfer: colts Dreammaster and Dreammaker and filly Dreaming. The farm was named after her mare that helped Jill launch her career into the worlds of competition and breeding: their new home was known as Dreamcatcher Meadows. “We truly built our business around this horse,” she says. Horses and humans settled
into their new location and Jill and Aria continued schooling and training. Soon, the pair began working with another Olympian, California-based Charlotte Bredahl-Baker. By 2010, they were competing at Intermediare. In the same year, Dreamcatcher was named
American Warmblood Society Dam of the Year. (She also has elite status with the Hanoverian
Verband.)
In April 2011, just after Jill had finished filling out the entry form for the pair’s first Grand Prix
Heartbeaking News
competition, disaster struck. “The onset of Dreamcatcher’s laminitis was sudden and severe, resulting in a 16 degree rotation of the coffin bone,” Jill recounts soberly. The mare’s laminitis came as a complete surprise, Jill
says, and is still something of a mystery. “I can’t pinpoint exactly what sparked it. Blood and metabolic issues are often the underlying cause,” she says. Originally, she adds, the veterinarians treating Dreamcatcher thought they were dealing with Cushing’s disease and were very surprised to discover it was actually laminitis.
Above: Jill and Dreamcatcher (Aria) complete an FEI test before her laminitis. Photo by Tracy Eide Warmbloods Today 45
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