Happy 30th Birthday to Brentina, Ridden by Debbie McDonald to 1st American World Cup Champion

4 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Happy 30th Birthday to Brentina, Ridden by Debbie McDonald to 1st American World Cup Champion
Brentina at her retirement home on New Year’s Eve.

Jan. 1, 2021

Brentina is officially 30 years old Friday, living in retirement 17 years after being ridden by Debbie McDonald to become the first American World Cup champion.

Brentina, a Hanoverian mare (Brentano II x Lungau), is retired at In the Irons farm in Santa Barbara, a California Pacific coast city about 90 miles/145 km north of Los Angeles. All internationally competed sport horses in the Northern Hemisphere have their official birthday Jan. 1.

Debbie McDonald, the U.S. team coach, said that some days Brentina has to be told, “Whoa, girl” when she displays some of the fire that took the pair to team bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, team silver at the 2002 World Equestrian Games then bronze at the 2006 WEG.

The pair won the 2003 World Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden, the first American to do so. (Steffen Peters on Ravel in 2009 is the only other U.S. World Cup champion).

License plate that Debbie McDonald has had since Brentina won World Cup in 2003. © 2020 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Debbie and Brentina were ranked No. 2 in the world for a total of eight months during 2003-2005.

Brentina is owned by Peggy Thomas. The mare was bred by Wilhelm Rethorst in Germany.

Debbie McDonald retiring Brentina at the World Cup Final in the Thomas & Mack Arena at Las Vegas in April, 2009. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com