New Spring Farm: Baron Verdi update, 2006

See Baron Verdi Update 2007
Baron Verdi Update 2006

Ups and Oopsies marked Baron's 2006 Summer

Baron Verdi and Jim Koford at the 2006 USEF/Markel Five-Year-Old Young Dressage Horse national championships in
Lexington, Ky.
Photo (c) 2006, Pam Norton.

The idea was to prepare him for a possible shot at the USEF/Markel Five-Year-Old Young Dressage Horse national championships. Jim Koford kept sending more and more excited e-mails and phone calls, telling us that "all the pros" at shows were ogling him. Somehow he did not exactly set the judges aflame at the series YDH shows he attended and he missed showing at the regional qualifiers, but got scores at other shows high enough to be invited to the national championships in Lexington on Sept. 8-10, 2006. Jim felt he was ready and primed. To understand what happened there and why you will not find his score anywhere, let me give you some details.

Things were going fine. Baron dislikes foals. They imply the presence of mares bred by rival stallions presumably, and the sight of them gets his hormones all worked up, a natural stallion behavior, and he is a very natural stallion. There was no choice of route from warmup ring to competition ring at the KHP on the preliminary test day, only right past a whole paddock full of foals. He snorted. He reared. He spun. He made that very scarey sound of hooves scraping on asphalt. Jim did not fall off, but that is the best he can say for the situation. About one minute later he was in the arena and soon after that the bell rang.

Needless to say, Baron came into the ring breathing fire and lookin' GOOD! Unfortunately, he halted at X and then took exactly six perfect straight walk steps - - backwards. Then he proceeded at trot to C, turned right, and caprioled right smack out of the ring, continuing down the long side in a lovely rhythmic gait, but on the entirely wrong side of the rail. Not good. The rules for the YDH test specifically allow for misbehaviors, but the three judges felt that this particular sin was a bit over the top, so they eliminated him from the competition, allowing him, however, to re-enter and ride the test, which he did. "Would have been one of the top three," commented one judge afterward. The lower twelve of the 20 horses rode the final test the next day for consolation, with the top two moving up to the championship group, but poor old Baron only got to ride that final test hors concours on Saturday. Nevertheless he was scored just as formally as the others and his score in the mid 8s would have placed him second in the national championship, if only.......! The judges' collected remarks were delivered publicly after each test and his were given by Axel Steiner. They were glowing, no negatives at all. He urged us to bring him back as a six-year-old, and we just might.

Baron Verdi and Jim Koford at the 2006 USEF/Markel Five-Year-Old Young Dressage Horse national championships in
Lexington, Ky.
Photo (c) 2006, Pam Norton.

Then since he was already entered at Devon, we decided to have Jim show him there in the breeding show in 4-year-old and older mature stallions. There are three classes, one under saddle, and Baron won them all! He beat that famous imported Hanoverian breeding stallion, Harvard, not once but thrice. In the final stallion championship he was reserve champ. Of course for the grand championship class there were broodmares in the ring with their 2006 foals by their sides, so guess how he handled that one? Yep, broke loose from a hired professional German handler, galloped around like mad, not-so-subtly offered to breed the mare who ultimately became Grand Champion of Devon, and when she declined he quieted down and left in disgrace. Okee-dokee, so much for the Boy from Missouri making it big on the East Coast. Almost no mention of Baron Verdi is found in articles about Devon, despite his impressive "showing" there. And by the way, for some reason they also later had a class of the FEI YDH test another day at Devon, and in it he placed second, beaten only by the horse that had won the national championship at Lexington. More confirmation, but still not aggrandizing.

The final straw of the season came three weeks later, when we calculated his USDF HOY All-Breeds median score from his rides over the 2005-2006 competition season (ridden by Cheryl, Darren, and Jim at different times) and realized his median was over 72%, making him 14th in the nation at First Level, as a five-year-old. Only problem: One of those riders kind of forgot to pay the necessary personal USDF dues and so all those rides were invalid. Too late. Not enough scores to qualify for HOYmedian score. OOPS! So you won't see him on the ATA HOY lists anywhere either.

Better luck next year, Baron lad.

On a more serious note, we do not much gnash our teeth about all these little mini-disasters, because we learned what we wanted to find out. He actually IS the real deal, a likely FEI prospect, maybe even with greatness in his future, and it won't be until he gets "there" that he needs to knuckle down for real. The most difficult of dilemmas faces us in 2007. We are of the general opinion that the FEI 6 y.o. young dressage horse test is putting way too much emphasis on excessive collection for that age, at least if one hopes to win. Scott Hassler has written the right story - there are not many horses with the natural talent to do this competition, and to push one into it is to ruin an otherwise good horse. But those who ARE that talented can do it safely and with great benefit. So our plan is to forego any thoughts of the Worlds in Verden and aim very tentatively for the nationals, which will be in August instead of September in 2007. As we prepare, we are very much ready to stop the process if at any point Jim feels or we feel he is resisting. This is gonna be fun for Baron Verdi or he is not going to do it. Simple. So far, he is still on the path. If he leaves it, we will just proceed with his development up through the USDF levels and be glad to do so.

For his breeding career we are satisfied to have those fine foals from 2006 and just a few this year from our own mareband. We are not advertising Baron for breeding much this season, and expect not to have many mares come knocking. Those few with a special interest in him will be gladly accommodated. We think there will come a day when his foals will be very actively sought out. Time will tell.

See Baron Verdi Update 2007

Tim and Cheryl Holekamp
New Spring Farm
7901 Highway 63 South
Columbia, MO 65201
Sales horses: newspringt@aol.com
Breeding to Windfall: holekamp@aol.com