Prince de la Mare with Carlos Lopez, St. Topez 2015
The first significant Olympic deadline of the year, January 15th, 2016, was marked by a flurry of horse sales, purchases and ownership transfers.
Per the FEI Sports Forum in April 2013, a horse entered for the equestrian events at the Rio Olympic Games must have been registered with the FEI as property of the owners of the same nationality as the athlete by January 15, 2016. “This was voted in at the 2013 FEI general assembly,” said a spokesman for the FEI. “The reason for changing the date to 15 January from 31 December is to take account of office closures over the Christmas and New Year period for all associated organisations.” More information here.
Whether or not the new matches will make it to Rio, the increase in high profile sales and transfers has lit up the Internet this week. In summary:
Colombian rider Carlos Lopez’ top horse Prince de la Mare (pictured above) has been sold to The Ukraine team headed by Oleksandr Onishchenko. It’s not been announced who will get the ride on this internationally successful mount.
In turn, Lopez has purchased the 11-year-old KWPN gelding Admara 2, formerly ridden by Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano. Guadiano recently won the World Cup Qualifier at Olympia with Admara 2, and is ranked at the top of Olympic Individual qualifying lists, in no small part from results earned aboard the gelding.
French star Roger Yves Bost’s grand prix mount Quartz de la Lande has been sold to Yuri Mansur of Brazil, who intends to take a shot at qualifying with the horse for Rio.
Sans Souci Z, ridden in 2015 by Ireland’s Darragh Kenny, goes to the stable of Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa, but retains the same American owner in Caroline Lloyd. Pessoa, who has built a strong string for the coming season ahead, recently welcomed former mount Citizenguard Cadjanine Z back to his stable.
Despite the loss of Sans Souci Z, Kenny isn’t lacking in a full string of horses; in addition to his longtime mount Picolo, he now has the former five-star ride of Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya, Red Star d’Argent, in his barn, and Kenny also purchased a 9-yeear-old, Bolero III, from Alvarez Moya.
Canadian rider Ben Asselin’s Attache Stables now has Veyron, the former mount of Ljubov Kutchetova’s of Russia.The 10-year-old Oldenburg stallion was a consistent mount at the 3 and 4* level for Kutchetova.