The top 8-year-old stallion Sandronnerhall has been purchased by a newly formed syndicate of leading U.S. owners for Olympian Adrienne Lyle as a prospect to compete in the Olympics, FEI World Equestrian Games and other international shows as part of Team USA.
After a careful search for the right high performance dressage prospect, Lyle and her coach, Debbie McDonald, chose the dark bay stallion Sandronnerhall by Sandro Hit in Spain, where he earned scores in the 80s in FEI Young Horse classes at CDIs.
It was only last month at the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas that Lyle officially retired her former mount, Wizard, with whom she had competed for the United States at the London Olympics in 2012 and the World Games in Normandy, France, in 2014.
“I am so excited about the potential of this talented horse, plus so grateful that these owners have come together to support me and the U.S. Dressage Team,” said Lyle, 30.
Akiko Yamazaki and her Four Winds Farm, the owner of top horses ridden by Steffen Peters over the past decade, led the effort to acquire Sandronnerhall.
“Although I continue to be 100 percent committed to supporting Steffen and Team Legolas and Team Rosie, I realized that it was imperative to support other potential members of the U.S. team in order for Team USA to step back up on the medal podium,” said Yamazaki. “Adrienne was a natural choice as she has demonstrated to be a valuable team member and was also in need of a mount to succeed Wizard. The fact that she works closely with Debbie McDonald was also a big factor in our choice. Steffen has been supportive of this effort that we hope will strengthen Team USA in the near future.”
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Other partners include: Betsy Juliano of Gates Mill, Ohio, and Wellington, Fla., who is an active supporter of dressage and is currently secretary of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation; Elma Garcia-Cannavino and Jim Cannavino of Thermal, Calif., and Hailey, Idaho, also longtime sponsors of dressage; and Bruce and Jen Hlavacek, owners of Weltino’s Magic that won individual and team gold medals with Peters at the Pan American Games (Mexico) in 2011. They currently support Shannon Peters on Weltino’s Magic.
The Hlavaceks also formed Dressage Dreams LLC to manage the Sandronnerhall Partners LLC, as well as future high performance dressage syndicates.
The young stallion was located by Jochen Arl, the Belgian-based horse dealer who had previously arranged the sale to Yamazaki of Rosamunde (Rosie), an 8-year-old mare who’s currently ranked No. 3 in the U.S. Grand Prix standings in her first year competing at that level, as well as Chopin R and Donavan, Yamazaki’s personal mounts.
Sandronnerhall was previously owned by Susana Vazquez Mostaza. He was trained and competed by Antonio Diaz Porras of Madrid in the young horse CDI divisions.
Bruce Hlavacek, chairman of the USEF Dressage Owner’s Task Force, stated that: “The partnership was formed by independent owners in an effort to strengthen the U.S. Dressage Team that will be competing in international events and also to model how effective pooling owners’ resources can be in the purchase of world class dressage horses.”
