By Sally Reid
Photography: Cornege Photography
Although Covid-19 caused the cancellation of some competitions – Horse of the Year Show for one – the New Zealand jumping season has still been a busy one, with the ESNZ jumping series concluding, the rankings finalized, and the winners announced.
Although was no Horse of the Year Show in New Zealand this season, we certainly crowned a mare of the year: the beautiful German-bred La Quinara (Ludger G - Queenie x Quality). Not only did she win the VDL-Equibreed Top Mare for 2021, she also won ESNZ’s most prestigious jumping series, the Premier League, by a full 15 points.
Premier League: German jumping queen
La Quinara, who is known at home as Queenie, has been in New Zealand since 2018, but really burst into prominence this season, with two wins and a second in the World Cup series, and a string of GP wins and placings.
She was born in Husum in 2008 at the stud of Ute and Friederich Goslar, and competed in Europe in young-horse classes with Manuel Feldman, then later at CSI2* with Michael Heckman. She arrived in New Zealand as a 10-year-old, after Annabel Francis competed her once or twice in Europe before importing her.
Her bloodlines are certainly that of a jumper as her Oldenburg dam Queenie (Quality - Two Faces x Longford) has the immortal Ladykiller xx on both sides of her pedigree, with Quidam de Revel on the sire’s side, and Landor S in the maternal lines. La Quinara herself is by Ludger G, who is by Landor S, a son of El.St. Fureida II from Oldenburger Stamm 107.
Second with 138 points was the Holsteiner gelding Windermere Cappuccino (Corofino II - Vespa x Voltaire II) who is now 11 years old. He has been a superb campaigner for the Park family of Windermere Farm, who bred and own him, and his rider Tegan Fitzsimon. He won the World Cup NZ League in both 2019 and 2020, and every one of his age-group series as a young horse. Like La Quinara, he has European champions on both sides of his pedigree. His damsire Voltaire II (Voltaire - Daydyne ster prest x Nimmerdor), was bred by H.J. van der Wal of Groningen in the Netherlands, and his progeny here include top jumpers, eventers, and dressage horses. One of them, Vancouver, was sold to the USA and had notable successes with Katie Dinan and McLain Ward. Voltaire II is also the sire of two very good stallion sons, Double J Repicharge and Craighaven Leviosa.
Third in the series went to another European-bred horse owned and ridden by Annabel Francis, the Holsteiner gelding Carado GPH (Caretino - Only You V x Corrado I), who is the current NZL World Cup champion. Carado was bred by Bernd Fritsch in Germany, and was brought to the Southern Hemisphere by Olivia Hamood of Australia, who had plenty of success with him. He is from Holsteiner Stamm730B, and has Cor de la Bryère and Caletto II on both sides of his pedigree, as well as a double cross of Capitol I on his mother’s side. Carado scored 127 points in the series.
Graffiti MH (Graf Top - Elodie x Earl), a magnificent Hanoverian mare who has a great many admirers, was fourth with 88. She has had consistently high placings in the major series for the past few years. She was bred by Judith Matthews of Matthews Hanoverians, is owned by Angela Miller, and ridden by Melody Matheson – the same connections as the season’s top five-year-old, Giulia MH (see below)... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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