DressageDaily: Don Davidoff and Nector van het Carelshof Sold to England

Sunday December 22, 2002

Don Davidoff and Nector van het Carelshof Sold to England

Two important dressage horses have been sold to England this week. The most important sale involves Ingrid Klimke's Grand Prix dressage horse Nector van het Carelshof who has been purchased by the British Fiona Bigwood. Nector's Australian owner Christine Doan was forced to sell the horse to stay financially afloat. "I tried everything to keep the horse with Ingrid," Doan commented. "We negotiated with the German Equestrian Federation and even tried creating a syndicate in order to keep the horse, but we just couldn't raise the money."

Ingrid Klimke made her break through with the Belgian warmblood Nector van het Carelshof (by Randel Z) in 2001 and booked her most important victories at the 2002 CDI-W Berlin and CDI Stuttgart. According to Doan, Ingrid made no efforts whatsoever to financially secure the horse for herself. Fiona Bigwood will be training Nector at Dressage Stable Romerhof in Germany, owned by her personal trainer Dieter Laugks.

Another top dressage horse is moving to England. Don Davidoff, the 2000 Oldenburg Licensing Champion and 2002 Young Horse World Champion in the five-year old division, is now property of British Wilfried Bechtolsheimer. The German native millionaire purchased the stallion from Paul Schockemoele and Karl Heinz Ehlen for his young rider daughter Laura Bechtolsheimer.

Don Davidoff gained fame in the dressage world by winning the German Young Horse Championships in the 3-year old division under Heinz Jorg Wachter. Ann Kathrin Ehlen, daughter of Karl Heinz Ehlen and former rider of the Trakehner stallion Peron, presented the black stallion at the 2000 Oldenburg Licensing where Paul Schockemole bought a share in the stallion. From then on, Don Davidoff was ridden by Dr Ulf Moller who showed him at the World Championships and German Young Horse Championships (winner 5-year old class).

Text by Astrid Appels of Eurodressage.com