Wednesday September 15, 2004

Royal Prince Reigns Supreme at the 2004 USEF/Markel Young Horse Dressage National Championships

By Amber Heintzberger

In the USEF/Markel Championships for Five-Year-Old horses held September 12 in Lexington, KY, Hilltop Farm's Royal Prince was untouchable.  His overall score of 9.14 was never approached by the other contestants, despite a downpour of rain that cleared shortly after his test.  Even second placed Dorie Addie-Crow, riding Iron Spring Farm's Sir Sinclair, was nearly a full point behind with her nevertheless impressive score of 8.26.

Royal Prince, by Rohdiamant out of the Prince Thatch xx mare Piri Piri, is the rising star of Hilltop's stallion collection, having already proved himself by narrowly missing third place at the World Championships in Verden, Germany over the summer.  As a three-year-old, owned by Bernhard Schaefer of Germany, he was reserve champion at the German Bundeschampionat (National Championships) and repeated that honor as a four-year-old.

Bloodlines that complement the breeding program at Hilltop were only one reason that Royal Prince now resides in the US.  Resident trainer and breeding manager Susanne Hassler, whose husband Scott also rides and trains at Hilltop Farm, needed a horse of her own to compete.

Susanne has been riding Royal Prince since January and will now focus on preparing him for the FEI tests for six-year-old horses.  "His attitude is 100 per cent all of the time," she said.  He likes to do his job."