"He’s been a pleasure," said Hickey, who said that he had worked on a breeding farm with studs before, but never had a breeding stallion in his barn as a show horse. "He is an angel in the barn. You would never know he’s a stallion. He doesn’t talk to the other horses. He is turned out next to the other horses with no problem."

Hickey said Werbellin does flying changes and half pass and will stay with him to train to Grand Prix. He hasn’t started piaffe or passage. Hickey predicts that Werbellin will be ready for Prix St. Georges next winter. The pair will spend summers in Massachusetts and winters in Florida. "He’ll stay with me," said Hickey. "He’s a horse for me to train and show."

In training, Hickey describes Werbellin as a good worker. "He doesn’t spook and doesn’t do anything bad. I can hack him down Southfields Road [to the show grounds]. He’s quiet. He trailers and is a perfect gentleman." When Conrad Schumacher was in Wellington early this winter for a trainer’s conference at Walter and Mary Anne McPhail’s Horse Park at Equestrian Estates in Loxahatchee, he worked with Hickey and Werbellin every day. "I had only had him about a month, so we worked on half pass, but not ‘cranking’ because we were just getting to know each other."

Werbellin has already started his breeding career and has foals on the ground. On his way to Florida this year, he stopped at Hilltop Farm in Colora, Maryland, for a month where he was collected so that potential mare owners will have access to his frozen semen while he is competing. He will be leaving Florida ahead of Hickey to be collected for two weeks at Greengate Hanoverian Sporthorses.

At the shows Werbellin is an attention-getter and and a show-stopper – even U.S. Dressage Coach Klaus Balkenhol stopped to ask ‘who is that horse?’ Hickey agrees that Werbellin is a new star on the dressage scene. "He’ll be one to watch."

Mary Hilton for DressageDaily.com