Lord Carnaby, bay Rheinlander Stallion, by (Lord Loxley / Rocket Star) born in 2007, standing approximately 16.2 hands.

It’s hard when the first test is just so wonderful that everything after it looks ordinary, but that is just what happened in the first go-round of the 6-year-old Dressage Horses at this year’s Bundeschampionate. The Rheinlander stallion, Lord Carnaby (Lord Loxley / Rocket Star) looked so soft and in such wonderful self-carriage. He was ridden with delicate tact by Beatrice Buchwald, who spends part of her time each week working with Isabell Werth, and it shows. The trot work was great and the canter, even better, and three of his four flying changes, were fine.

The stallion is interestingly bred, he is by Lord Loxley, who was himself a young horse star, second at the World Young Dressage Horse Champs and a Bundeschampion in the 5-year-olds back in 2004. Lord Loxley was not a great success when tried in Grand Prix, and is now stationed at the Belgian stud, Gestüt Sonnenhof, just across the border from southern Germany. Lord Loxley is by one of the early Bundeschampionate stars, Lord Sinclair, who won the 3-year-old stallion championship in 1997 and came back the following year to win the 4-year-old championship, after that his career was basically all downhill. Lord Sinclair was a lumpy looking thing, like a fat show hack. He competed with very limited success as an FEI level dressage horse, and when his mare book shrank from 100 plus in his glory years, to a handful, his owner retired him from breeding. Still, like all the super fashionable sires, he attracted more than his share of very good mares, and has produced some nice horses, although Lord Loxley is easily the nicest – perhaps this is because he is out of a Weltmeyer mare, from a very famous Hanoverian family.

I once asked that fount of knowledge of Hanoverian mare lines, Jens Meyer, about Lord Loxley. His reply is instructive:

“When you see Lord Loxley’s pedigree – I rode his dam, Weltlady by Weltmeyer. I rode Weinlady, the mother of Weltlady, and I knew her mother, the Domspatz mare. In the end, Lord Sinclair was a champion, he was a trot horse. This Weltmeyer mare, Weltlady scored over 8 in her performance test, and she was also a trot horse. She won material classes, and she was sold for big money to Belgium. Weinlady by Weingau, she was also a trot horse, she really could move, then comes Domspatz and then Marcio blood. In the end you have a really big chance, that you produce trot. And we need trot for the future.”

Lord Sinclair is also the sire of Birkhof’s Lord Leopold FBW (out of a Sandro Hit mare), who finished 11th in the class, while Lord Loxley is the sire of Lord Wallonia (Rembrandt) who finished 28th.

Lord Carnaby is out of a mare whose pedigree is solidly jumping focused: she is by Rocket Star, who combines Ramiro and Landgraf, out of a mare by the great Westfalien jumping sire, Pilot.

Lord Carnaby scored 9 for his trot, 9.5 for his walk, 9 for his canter, 8.5 for rideability and 9 for general impression and potential – for an overall score of 9. I think if he had appeared later in the day, the scores would have been higher.

In the final, Lord Carnaby produced an even more complete performance, his final flying change was so huge it produced a collective giggle of delight from the crowd, and Beatrice Buchwald once again showed him with grace and style. They were clearly the winners on a score of 9.2 (trot – 9, walk – 9.5, canter – 9, submissiveness – 9, general impression – 9.5) but I thought the judges could have been a might more appreciative of the test. It’s wonderful that we have moved into the new era of softer more natural tests, now the judges have to find the courage to award those big big marks they used to give in the bad old spectacular days, to those fire-breathing trots, and almost out-of-control canters, to the new under-stated style.

Victory in the qualifier for the Burgpokal 2015, Horses And Dreams