New Spring Farm: Baron Verdi update, 2006

Baron Verdi Update 2007
See Baron Verdi Update 2006

Baron Verdi and Jim Koford at the Paxton Farm CDI, 2007.

As amazing to us as Baron’s accomplishments were in 2006, we looked forward to this season with considerable trepidation, based on what we knew and had observed of the FEI Six Year-Old Young Dressage Horse test and series of competitions. At the end of the Five Year-Old finals last year, the three judge panel was so complimentary of Baron and so earnestly encouraged us publicly to prepare him for this year’s test, that we decided to let it go forward and later pull the plug if at some point it wasn’t going well.

Distance and other activities prevented us from monitoring his training most of the winter. At the Paxton CDI we did watch him perform well at Second Level (Second test 1 -68.42%, Second test 4 - 65.23% and 65.00%), but after doing okay in the first YDH test with a 7.12, the next day he was resistant and scored poorly. In retrospect we should have done as we planned at that point, but were persuaded that he had a sore back that day. At the regional qualifier, the Raleigh CDI, he again won the warm-up test with a 7.52, but the second day we were quite distressed to watch him “just say no” and decided enough was enough.

Home he came, bred some mares, and has been very quietly and slowly coming back into proper work ethic. He actually loves to jump out in the open and goes eagerly to all the obstacles on our farm for fun and relaxation. We are kind of ashamed of ourselves for making him do the YDH six year old program at all. He is paying the price and it is our fault.

Baron Verd's son Hermann, shown here at age two months.

Meanwhile his breeding career is “lookin’ GOOD,” as the saying goes. His foals are all turning out very nicely, as we have previously reported. For fun, and to give Baron something to be proud of, we exhibited his five-month-old son Hermann (out of Havelle by Windfall) at the recent ATA mare inspection we held here on our farm and the chairman of the Inspection Committee, Brad Kerbs, scored him 9/9/9, which appears to be the best Trakehner foal score given so far in 2007.

See Baron Verdi Update 2006

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