Susanne Hamilton traveled to Germany last summer with very specific instructions about what kind of horse her amateur client Bettina Hinckley was looking for—“a dainty, elegant black mare that’s easy to sit.”

So Hinckley was a bit surprised when Hamilton sent her a photo of Lutz, a stocky, creamy palomino Haflinger gelding.

“Well I think the only thing I came home with that fit the profile was the ‘nice to sit,’ because I came home with Lutz!” said Hamilton.

“When she showed me a picture of him, I said, ‘Well, he’s a little stocky don’t you think?’ But when she got over there, she said, ‘You won’t believe this horse, he can do everything. And if you get him you can always sell him because he’s such a great horse,’” said Hinckley.

In August Hinckley welcomed home her new partner, and it was love at first sight. Lutz made his U.S. showing debut in two national Prix St. Georges classes at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, Jan. 16-17 in Wellington, Fla., scoring a 68.22 percent and a 68.02 percent with Hamilton aboard.

And this weekend, the diminutive gelding bested two huge divisions full of warmbloods at the GAIG/U.S. Dressage Federation Region 8 Championships in Saugerties, N.Y., taking home the open Intermediaire I championship (73.68%) and the open Prix St. Georges championship (71.11%).

Video by Richard’s Equine Video

“We’ve had more fun with this little horse,” said Hamilton. “He’s just kind and wonderful and honest. He’s a horse—he can have his opinion on things sometimes, but Tina wouldn’t be happy with a boring horse. She’s ridden all her life, and she doesn’t want anything that’s dead. He’s a very active, beautiful mover. He has wonderful gaits and a beautiful hind leg. He is just a really cool horse to ride.

“It was just a piece of cake,” she said of her rides. “It was easy, and I think it looked easy. We just worked through that test like it was nothing. It sort of took all of NEDA [New England Dressage Association] by storm! He had the biggest fan club by the end of it. More people showed up for his awards…it was something else.”

The 13-year-old, 15.2-hand gelding (Argument—Mandy, Navis Van De Wellenhoff) was trained to Grand Prix in Germany by owner Lucy Van Husen, who’d had him since he was 3 and she was a child. After she grew up to be 6 feet tall, she reluctantly put him up for sale, but only to a forever home.

At 74, Hinckley had recently lost her Intermediaire I partner and was looking for a horse to continue learning on.

“It’s kind of neat because I have more to learn now,” she said. “It’s nice to have a horse who can do it and you know you can have goals with. Goals are good, especially when you get a little older! I didn’t want a push around, kick around horse. I wanted a little bit of a challenge.”

Susanne Hamilton and Lutz showing at the GAIG/U.S. Dressage Federation Region 8 Championships. Photo by Carien Schippers/imaequine.com

When Lutz first arrived, Hinckley took a few lessons with Hamilton at her Crystal Spring Farm in South Montville, Maine, then brought the gelding to her own summer base an hour and a half away in Southwest Harbor, Maine. She trail rode and got to know him for the rest of the year until December when Hamilton brought him down to her Loxahatchee, Fla., winter base.

“He’s been such a joy,” said Hamilton. “Tina is a very capable and independent rider. She’s not the kind of person who just wants a horse in full training all the time. It was so nice to find a horse that could be imported, and I could just say, ‘OK, you take him home, you ride him.’ She’s pretty much exclusively riding this horse.”

Hamilton had ridden Haflingers here and there growing up in southern Germany, but never to a high level in dressage.

“For me, you’re training all your rides according to biomechanics—your horse’s conformation,” she explained. “For a horse like this, that is this short-coupled, the challenge may be that this horse may have a harder time bending around your inside leg, but with the active hind leg, he can certainly collect and come underneath himself, and that’s a strong point.

“He’s got the best work ethic,” she continued. “He tries his ever-loving little heart out every day. We work basics, basics, basics—throughness, suppleness. When he’s through and over the back and his hind leg’s moving and he’s into the bridle, then there aren’t a lot of tricks you can’t do with him.”

Hamilton gives Lutz’s former owner much of the credit for his training and good attitude in the ring.

After the Florida circuit, the gelding went home to Hinckley’s farm for the summer for her to ride and compete, and Hamilton hopped on him occasionally.

When Hinckley broke her arm two months ago, Lutz returned to Hamilton, and she worked on polishing up his work at Intermediaire I. She also worked on the core fitness needed for the FEI levels.

They won their last four competitions at Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I to earn their ticket to the championships.

“He wins. He’s so steady in the connection and so strong behind and so flexible. For a little Haflinger he’s got amazing impulsion,” said Hamilton. “That horse has absolutely no idea he’s a Haflinger. I think if he saw another Haflinger he’d say, ‘Who’s that?’ He thinks he’s big and black—I think he thinks he’s a warmblood.”

Hinckley, who spends her winters in Wellington, took Lutz home after the championships, and she’ll ride him again this winter. She says he’s got a home for life and hopes Lutz will make a good partner for her daughter and granddaughter some day.

“You never know—we may or may not decide to pop him into a CDI. Or we may just opt out, and Tina may decide it’s her turn to show him and then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll just go with the flow,” said Hamilton. “I want to be sure she’s going to have the time of her life. Like so many people, she’s paid her dues on more difficult horses. This is her horse to have fun with. It’s her turn.”

Want more about winners of the GAIG/USDF Regional Dressage Championships? We featured amateurs on a Lipizzaner and a half-Arabian in the story about Region 4 in our Olympic Analysis Sept. 26 & Oct. 3 issue, which is out now. We’ll be featuring Regions 1 and 5 in the Oct. 10 issue; Regions 6 and 8 in the Oct. 17 issue; and Regions 3 and 9 in the Nov. 7 issue.