Friday the 13th of March proved to be a fantastic night in Southern Sweden at Flyinge. In the cold spring weather walking through candlelight, the famous dressage stallion Lingh entered the main arena in Flyinge once again reunited with his former rider Edward Gal.
For Edward the moment was filled with emotions. After all, it is Lingh that was the horse for his high rise to the top of the world as a dressage rider. He trained the horse since 4 years old for a period over 10 years. Lingh looked absolutely gorgeous together again with Edward. The Dutch team of Edward’s could not hold the tears in their eyes when watching this majestic horse perfoming once again. A lot of people cried.
Lingh looked like he had to rethink again how Dutch was spoken, after 2 and a half years of American english with his owner and rider Karin Offield. Also more recently now all the swedish spoken from his team in Flyinge. But very quickly he seemed relaxed and obviously very satisfied to realize he knew what was asked of him. All the tricks of GP dressage looked as easy as they could and Lingh showed his amazing qualities especially in his changes on every stride and his piaffe and passage. His pirouettes were spot-on !
The dark evening, with all the stallions of Flyinge being warmed up and prepared for their performances in the main arena, was full of atmosphere and a little bit of magic. There is something very special about these imposing father animals when they are all together in a chilly arena and smelling the spring in the air. The nature obviously is letting them know that a new season is starting, but their modern life is still controlled by the stallion masters, riders and grooms. The Flyinge staff dressed up in19th century traditional clothing gave the stallion show the extra element of a theater performance and a full hall of spectators could once again see what Flyinge has to offer for the breeding season of 2009.
The CEO of Flyinge, Johan Bredberg and the breeding director Karl Henrik-Heimdahl, both addressed Lingh in their speeches and are extremely happy to have gotten this world class stallion to Flyinge. Karin Reid Offield was also very happy to see how her decision to place Lingh into Sweden and Flyinge has proved to be very successful. Lingh is in fantastic condition and enjoying his Swedish life. Now it it time to breed!
Edward told us after his afternoon ride on Lingh that for him this was a strange feeling. He knows this horse so well and yet a period of time has gone and in some ways Lingh feels like a new horse. As Edward has developed himself as a rider, Lingh too has matured. The possibility for Edward to be able to ride him again was very appreciated and he thanked many times Karin for inviting him to do this. Edward also genuinely thanked the Swedish audience for surrounding him on this moment and he promised to be back in Sweden soon!
