By Britt Carlsen / DWB
Photography: Ridehesten.com
Kurt Gosmer, the breeder of Isabell Werth’s Paris 2024 Olympic team gold and individual silver medal winning Danish Warmblood mare Wendy, has been awarded the Danish Warmblood Medal of Merit.
At the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Danish Warmblood mare Wendy de Fontaine (formerly Queenparks Wendy) was on the gold-winning German team, and together with Isabell Werth, the mare achieved an individual silver medal. The now 10-year-old mare was bred by Kurt Gosmer, who lived in Dronninglund at the time the stunning black mare was born. Dronninglund translates to Queenpark. Today the mare is owned by Bolette Wandt, Chateau de Fontaine and Isabell Werth’s sponsor and patron Madeleine Winter-Schultze.
Wendy De Fontaine was sired by three-time Young Horse Championship winner, Sezuan, with the Sandro Hit son Blue Hors Soprano as her grandsire. Her dam is Skovens Vanilla bred by Jens Lund Pedersen and Kirsten Bjerregaard Hansen, and the damline has produced several elite mares and sport horses.
Kurt Gosmer is no longer an active breeder. Horse breeding has been his passion for many years, but failing health has meant that he has sold the horses and, since 2016, Wendy de Fontaine’s mother, Skovens Vanilla, has been owned by another breeder. “After the Olympics, I got several emails from riders who wish to buy siblings of Wendy,” Kurt says with a smile. “It was exciting to follow the competitions,” he said, and remembers Wendy as being a very special foal from the moment she was born.
Medal of Merit for Wendy
Jan Pedersen, president of the Danish Warmblood society, and Wendy’s former owner and rider Andreas Helgstrand, went to the northern part of Jutland to visit Kurt in his home and to offer their congratulations. At the same time, Jan Pedersen presented Kurt with the Danish Warmblood Medal of Merit in gold. “Wendy was something special,” Kurt explains. “As a foal she refused to wear a halter and managed to remove it constantly. If there was something she did not want to do, you couldn’t persuade her to do it. A lady with a very definite attitude about what she wanted and did not want to be part of,” Kurt Gosmer recalls. “It was my daughter who found Wendy’s mother on the internet. She was put up for sale and I exchanged her with a colt and a bunch of money on top,” Kurt explained... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY LOGGING IN AND RETURNING TO THIS PAGE
