there said he should be on the U.S. team as an eventer. I said, ‘But he is my dressage horse!’” To Vicki, eventing was a whole new discipline. Summer sug-
gested that because of his results in the stallion test, Sly could train for the Bundeschampionat in eventing. So in March 2013, Vicki heeded all the advice and flew her horse to Germany. His trainer would be the same trainer as at the stallion test, Doro- thea Feld of Gross Buchwald in Schleswig-Holstein. “Dorothea loves Sly and was quite happy to have him
come to her home in Germany to train with her,” says Vicki. “She had ridden in the Bundeschampionat before and was the only one to actually score a 10 while competing. I felt comfortable sending my horse to her.” “I had no idea what a big goal we were aiming for,” she
continues. “Most Germans will breed their whole life for a horse to qualify for the Bundeschampionat, and we only had six months to prepare. Most of the horses there start at three to train for it.” Like Val, Sly had to qualify by earning minimum scores
of eight—four such scores. Within the six months’ training, Dorothea had qualified the stallion. At the Bundeschampio- nat, he competed against top young German eventers. Vicki reports he scored ninth of 70 starters. “He had a spectacular test. I was so proud that I sat down and cried!” She’s looking forward to her horse’s future as a performer
and sire. “I wish that he could come home and work for our country to get a gold medal. He already has five very nice foals on the ground, so he has shown himself to be a proven sire of fantastic foals. They have his stamp of beauty and his outrageous gaits.”
CINCO DE MAYO: Athletic Bucks to Amazing Piaffe
Fire Farm in Fox Island, Washington. The bay Holsteiner gelding now shows in Grand Prix all over Europe with his owner, Chris- tian Brühe, who lives in Germany and competes for Palestine. Karen tells how she bred him using a leased mare with
L
frozen semen from the Verband. “Later I bragged to Wolf- gang Schade, lead dressage rider at the Verband, what I had bred. He almost fell off Coriander in astonishment saying, ‘You did what?’ My guess is that he thought this was sort of old fashioned breeding.” Coriander (Coriolan x Constant) competed in dressage and
is known for siring both international dressage and jumping horses. (He died in 2011 at age 29.) Cinco’s dam was Ipsa (Al- catraz x Koenigspark xx). Alcatraz is by Aloube Z x Ronald. Foaled in 1999, Karen’s bay colt grew up at Fox Fire
Farm. She recognized him as special right away. “He was a spectacular mover and kinder than his mom, who was so bossy. I held on to Cinco as my dream dressage horse.
ike Val and Sly, Cinco de Mayo (Coriander x Alcatraz) was bred in the western U.S. His breeder is Karen Reid at Fox
Then I was contacted by John Winnett and his wife Roanne. I felt I had found the perfect buyers.” John Winnett had been
on three U.S. Olympic dres- sage teams: 1972, 1976 (al- ternate) and 1980. He and his wife Roanne trained “Cinco,” who was recorded as “Cinnco de Mayo” with the USEF and USDF due to another horse with the same name. And, yes, he was born May fifth! Roanne picks up Cinco’s story. “I watched him on a video
Top: Cinnco de Mayo and Cesar Parra practicing piaffe in Wellington, Flori-
da in 2008. Bottom: Cinnco de Mayo as a coming three- year-old.
that Karen sent us when he was a two-year-old. Then as a three-year-old he was sent to be broken by a cowboy, be- cause he was so difficult.” Despite Cinco’s rambunctiousness, the Winnetts liked him and decided to buy him. Cinco had been already relocated to North Florida five hours from where the Winnetts lived. “They were going to send the horse down to Betsy Steiner who was interested in him,” recalls Roanne. “I intercepted. I talked to Karen and said, ‘Okay, send him to me instead. I’ll take on the horse.’” She describes what attracted her about Cinco. “He had big movements. He had huge, huge gaits. He was very difficult to
Warmbloods Today 21
“We did a lot in hand with him as a youngster in piaffe. He was so enamored by piaffe that we had to stop. Most people need to keep going. Not with him!”
Phelps Photos
Courtesy Karen Reid
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