Liebling II Bought for Canada’s Cheryl Meisner as WEG Hope
15 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Liebling II Bought for Canada’s Cheryl Meisner as WEG Hope
WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 3–Cheryl Meisner has become the rider of Liebling II, European Championship team silver medalist for Great Britain, in her quest to represent Canada at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky later this year.
The 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding, ridden by Carl Hester at the 2009 European Championships, has been sold to Canada.
Cheryl will leave for Holland within the next few days to work with longtime coach Bert Ruttan to prepare for the European circuit with the goal of winning a place on the Canadian team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in September.
The 28-year-old mother of a 16-month-old girl, Scarlet, will take with her the other two Grand Prix horses, Paganini and Tango, also owned by John Risley.
Liebling II, by Lorentin I and owned by Donald McTaggart, was ridden by Carl at Europe’s biggest shows, including the CHIO Aachen, and the 2009 European Championships for the team silver medal in the 18 months the horse was in his barn.
Robert Dover, the coach of the Canadian dressage team, arranged for Cheryl to try the horse at Carl’s facility in England.
“I could tell from the start he was the right type of horse for me,” Cheryl told dressage-news.com of the horse whose barn name is “Lennie.”
“It was just perfect. I rode him for two weeks and started to develop a very good partnership.”
Thanks to Carl and the owner, she said, that allowed her a two-week “trial” period in which every help was provided.
She said she plans to join up with the Canadian squad that will tour Europe after the Florida winter circuit.
“I plan to take it day by day and build a strong partnership with the help of Bert, Carl and Robert, I am very lucky and grateful to have an opportunity to ride such a fantastic horse,” Cheryl said.
She will compete both Liebling and Paganini and try to qualify both for the WEG.
Robert Dover said he was “excited and thrilled” about the acquisition of Liebling to be a part of Canada’s high performance dressage squad along with the 2008 Olympic partnership of Ashley Holzer and Pop Art, Belinda Trussell and Anton, Diane Creech and other Grand Prix combinations.
The European tour planned for Canadian WEG team prospects includes competitions at Wiesbaden and Aachen in Germany and Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
