“You buy somebody else’s horse that they’ve ridden for six years, and you don’t just sling a leg across the horse and expect to punch the buttons and go.

You get to learn to ride all over again,” said Lynn McEnespy.

But she seems to be finding the buttons quite well, as at Golden State Warm Up I & Warm Up Cool Down, McEnespy rode Waterford to win classes at fourth level, test 1 (65.81%), and adult amateur third level, test 3 (65.58%). She also showed Waterford in-hand to win the mature stallion championship with scores of 75.35 percent and 72.75 percent in the breed show portion of the competition, Aug. 3-5 in Elk Grove, Calif.

“The horse was just a trouper,” said McEnespy. “He went in there and showed off his stuff and did really well.”

McEnespy purchased Waterford, 11, a year ago from the Hanoverian state stud at Celle, Germany, where he was a breeding stallion. He won the 2-year-old stallion licensing and his stallion testing as a 3-year-old in Adelheidsdorf, Germany. Waterford is a Hanoverian (Wolkenstein II—Matcho AA mare).

“Wolkenstein II is still breeding, and [Wolken-stein II’s sire] Weltmeyer is still breeding, and Waterford has more than 400 foals in Germany, so they didn’t need him anymore,” said McEnespy. “I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to purchase him.”

She and Waterford received a 9 on the collected canter circle from judge Dinah Babcock.

“This horse is known for his ability to collect and sit like that,” said McEnespy. “He’s smart and he listens and he doesn’t really anticipate, which is perfect for a dressage horse. He’s not so hot to the point that you can’t control him, but he is sensitive, which is perfect for me because I am an amateur rider. When I started showing him I rode him in a snaffle with no whip and no spurs. I didn’t need them.”

Waterford didn’t compete at dressage shows in Germany but was exhibited with the other stallions.

“He has good piaffe and passage,” said McEnespy. “His lateral work is terrific. I’m working on the flying changes to get them solid, and then he’ll be ready for Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I next year.”

McEnespy has ridden all her life. She rode western and competed in eventing and jumpers, but later switched to dressage. McEnespy works full-time as the information systems director for her hometown of Chico, Calif.

“I’d retire except that I have horses,” McEnespy said with a laugh.

Arts Takes Over
Waterford’s mature stallion championship was the only breed show title that Willy Arts of DG Bar Ranch didn’t win. And it probably was because he didn’t have an entry in the class.

Arts, of Hanford, Calif., showed Woodwind, a wonderful, 4-year-old Dutch Warmblood, to the mature mare championship with scores of 79.35 percent and 78.50 percent. Last fall she won the U.S. Dressage Federation Region 7 filly championship.

This year, Arts is also showing Woodwind under saddle in the FEI 4-year-old tests and hopes to qualify her for the USEF/Markel Young Dressage Horse Finals in Kentucky in September.

DG Bar co-owns Woodwind with her breeder, Natalie Bryant of Little Creek Farm (Mont.). Bryant purchased her dam, Muziek (Uniform—Wirona, Rechter) from DG Bar Ranch as a young filly.

Before her death, Muziek produced four colts (now geldings): Ragtime, by Jazz, who won the FEI 5-year-old test at Devon (Pa.) with owner Susanna Wesson and was shown in the FEI young rider division; Silverstone by Ferro, who is currently showing at fourth level with amateur-owner Lisa Morrow; Tibet, by Idocus, who is winning at third and fourth level with his junior rider and owner Brianna Dutton; and a 00 Seven gelding not yet under saddle.

Woodwind, by the Holsteiner stallion Contester, is the only filly out of Muziek.

Arts and Bryant also collaborated to produce the colt champion, the 2-year-old Artesian. They co-own the Dutch Warmblood stallion (Judgement—Shannondoah).

Aterma DG (Thatcher—Erma), another offspring of a proven dam, won the filly championship for DG Bar Ranch. Arts bought Erma (Sultan—Joost mare)—now 22—in Georgia as a yearling.

Arts competed with Erma through Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I. Arts likes to show his mares so he can judge their rideability and so that the mares can make a name for themselves in the show ring.

Yearlings On Top
Saturday was the ‘B’ horses’ day to win, with the DG Bar yearlings picking up the championship ribbons.
The filly Bolimbria DG (Sandro Hit—Columbria) and the colt Borencio DG (Florencio—Polimbria) are related through their dam line. The 24-year-old mare Columbria (Doruto—Ibria, Amor) is the dam of Polimbria (by Farrington).

“You would think that [Bolimbria DG] would be really hot,” said Arts, of the Sandro Hit daughter. “She has a lot of ‘go,’ but she is very straightforward and is a good-natured horse.”

Arts seldom breeds his mares back to the same stallion. “A lot of times you get a combination [of a stallion and mare] where you get a really nice foal,” Arts explained. “Then that is as nice as it’s going to get. If you breed back the second foal usually isn’t going to be as nice. The other way is if you have a combination that you think is a really nice combination but it doesn’t turn out. Then you breed back and the second foal is usually better. Once you have that feeling and the combination turns out to be really good then don’t
do it again. You’re better off trying to find another combination.

“You up your chances of a better foal much more by trying to find another stallion that you think matches well with your mare,” Arts continued. “You are going to get many more good foals that way than staying with the same stallion. If it was that easy, to do the same combination all the time, then everyone would have good foals all of the time.”

Arts only breeds four or five mares a year now. He knows his mares, which stallions they cross well with, and what they can produce.

“It gets better all of the time because I know the older mares so well; I kind of know how the offspring are going to produce. You get more and more information, and your reliability becomes higher the more you know,” he said.

Sheri Scott