Los Alamos Dressage Center: Dressage at Devon

L.A. Baltic River Rose Wins Young Horse Championship
Dressage At Devon 2000

In spite of the pouring rain and muddy footing, many excellent quality horses once again showed at Dressage At Devon 2000. Among them was the 2 year old Swedish Warmblood filly, L.A. Baltic River Rose (Riverman x L.A. Rose of Sweden by Burggraf) who won her class of 30 plus fillies and went on to be named Champion Filly and then Champion Young Horse of the show.

L.A. Baltic River Rose is bred and owned by Los Alamos Dressage Center, Freehold NJ and she becomes the 5th Champion and 3rd Champion Young Horse since 1984 that Los Alamos Dressage Center has presented at Dressage At Devon. Other Champions include L.A. Unique Case and L.A. Baltic Sun, both Champion Young Horses, as well as L.A. Baltic Sunrise, Champion Stallion and Reserve Champion Mature Horse and L.A. Baltic Inspiration, Champion stallion, Champion Mature Horse and Reserve Grand Champion.

L.A. Baltic River Rose is the daughter of one of the only 2 Premium A Swedish Warmblood mares in North America. The "Premium A" rating is awarded only to mares that have an excellent production record as consistent producers of high quality offspring. Imported by Los Alamos Dressage Center from Sweden as a yearling, L.A. Rose of Sweden has since produced 2 approved stallions in addition to other young high quality performance horses.

As an outcross for its own breeding program, Los Alamos Dressage Center selected Riverman, a Holsteiner stallion who was also once named Grand Champion of Dressage at Devon. He was imported by Hilltop Farm in Md. and possessed many qualities that seemed to be a good match with L.A. Rose of Sweden. The proof of that selection resulted in L.A. Baltic River Rose, a royally bred filly that combined the efforts of 2 breeding farms and 3 countries.

Dressage at Devon 2000 was a very good and interesting show, as usual, with excellent quality horses of many breeds.

The SWB is still a "minority" breed in North America, but also as usual, they certainly held their own.

The SWANA (Swedish WB of North America) trophy for the highest placing SWB of the Open In-Hand classes was won by L.A. Baltic River Rose (Riverman, Hol. X L.A. Rose of Sweden by Burggraf). She is a 2 year old filly bred and owned by Los Alamos Dressage Center in NJ and won the 2 year old filly class, the filly Championship and the Young Horse Championship. Reserve Champion Young Horse was S. Don Atello by Don Primaire, a really lovely yearling Dutch WB colt owned by Copper Fox Farm.

The mature horses took top honors in the Grand Champonships with Juventus, a KWPN stallion owned by Iron Spring Farm being named Grand Champion and Nerrita, a KWPN mare also owned by Iron Spring Farm, Reserve Grand Champion. L.A. Baltic River Rose showed really well and was trotted a couple of times to compare her with Nerrita, but in the end, the older mare won. Anyway, we were very happy with "River" and the excellent representation she made.

Other SWB's of our breeding that pinned in the Open In-Hand division were:

Hestia, a diploma mare by L.A. Baltic Sun, owned by Dr. Oscar Baeza - 9th in 4 yr old and older yeld mares.

L.A. Baltic Destiny by L.A. Baltic Sun, owned by Los Alamos Dressage Center - 10th in yearling colts

L.A. Baltic Memory by L.A. Baltic Sun, owned by Los Alamos Dressage Center - 8th in 2 yr old fillies.

L.A.Baltic Destiny and Memory also placed 6th in the Get of Sire Class for L.A.Baltic Sun and 7th in the Breeders Group for Los Alamos Dressage Center

I also had the pleasure to meet some folks from Sweden, Bertil and Lisbeth Hansson as well as Katri Wäyrynen. They had flown over to see what a big breed show in North America looks like as well as to see how horses they had sold to the USA might do. I was also very interested to learn that Bertil had once ridden Hetty , the dam of our own Premium A mare, L.A. Utrilla, at Flyinge! Small world indeed!!