Hof Kasselmann as Presenting Sponsor for California Dreaming Productions Show Series
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Hof Kasselmann, the partner with Paul Schockemöhle in Performance Sales International, has become the presenting sponsor of the newly created California Dreaming Productions series of three CDIs and discussions are underway for the German horse sales powerhouse to extend support to the Wellington, Florida winter competitions.
Hof Kasselmann, which stages on its property at Hagen, Germany the annual Horses & Dreams 4* dressage and jumping competitions as well as other shows, added the California events to its global network of sponsorships for 2014.
Francois, the son of Ullrich and Bianca Kasselmann and fully involved in the horse training and sales business, said the sponsorship deal covers the first year of the California Dreaming Productions shows.
The competitions organized by Glenda McElroy’s Cornerstone Management and David and Alisa Wilson, are the World Cup qualifiers at the Mid-Winter Dressage Fair in Burbank Feb. 20-23 and Capistrano Dressage International in San Juan Capistrano Mar. 22-24 and the Festival of the Horse in San Juan Capistrano Mar. 28-30.
“We are discussing doing something here at the Global Dressage Festival and the Winter Equestrian Festival,” he said while visiting Wellington, Florida during the Dutta Corp. CDI4*.
The California shows are the prime focus for Hof Kasselmann in the United States this year.
“We have had a long partnership with W Farm of David and Alisa,” Francois told dressage-news.com, “and we are happy to support the sport on the West Coast when we were asked.
“We make our living from horses. If there are no horse shows we cannot sell horses so this is important for our business.”
The Hagen competition was started in 1997 with pony shows that eventually grew to the top level of dressage and jumping that now draws 65,000 spectators for the Horses & Dreams series.
The Kasselmann operation along with Paul Schockemöhle is perhaps best known for the PSI auction of premier dressage and jumper horses every December. The auction is a showcase as the farm’s 220 stalls are full year round with horses in training and for sale.
Among the most famous horses from Hof Kasselmann currently competing in the United States is Legolas that was bought by Akiko Yamazaki for Steffen Peters to ride as a successor to Ravel that set a new standard for American dressage in two Olympics, a World Equestrian Games and the World Cup as well as the World Equestrian Festival CDIO in Aachen, Germany.
Legolas was in the PSI auction as a four-year-old in 2005 with the description that the Westfalen gelding “has talent for piaffe and passage, a must for a top rider.”
In 2013, Legolas was the U.S. Grand Prix champion… piaffe and passage the most outstanding gaits, all the more important with the new assignment of marks for the 2014 version of the Grand Prix.
Francois said that although he grew up in the horse business he had thought about pursuing other interests but, “I love the sport. There are so many interesting people in it.”
Brazil, host of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, will be the featured nation at April’s Hagen show that is Europe’s first major outdoor competition of the year.
“We want to give the countries the opportunity for them to show off their culture, food, what’s interesting,” he said.
