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California Riding Magazine • March, 2010 Eurosport Horses: |
Newly set-up with the only private arena and a freshly built-out barn at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, young show jumping professional Justin Resnik is bringing the best of European horsemanship to California clients. With a solid reputation for developing young horses and making the most of any mount, Resnik has earned a great reputation in Europe, where he worked and competed for seven years, and here in the States, to which he returned in 2006. His business, Eurosport Horses is thriving with a string of hot shot jumpers at various levels, and a growing clientele of students with high level competitive ambitions. Sales are another big part of his business thanks to the contacts he developed during his tenure in Europe. Raised in Laguna Beach, where he chose riding horses over surfboards at an early age, Resnik turned professional at age 16, breaking stallions that were sold to the Oaks Holsteiner breeding business. He continued training horses and competing for several high-profile owners until moving to Germany in 1999 to be a working rider under the German regime at the prestigious sales yard and training facility of Paul Schockemohle in Muhlen. Resnik’s career and aspirations continued to flourish. He was hired to be the Grand Prix rider for a family in Hamburg, which allowed him to compete in Italy, Austria, Holland, France and Belgium over the next six years. He had many placings in CSI Three and Four Star competitions and won a German National Grand Prix on his Having fallen in love with the Holsteiner horses in Northern Germany, he established a name for himself in the Springpferde (jumping horse) industry and established his own business buying, selling and training top quality horses. Thus, Eurosport Horses was born in 2002. In just a few short years, Resnik sold over 100 horses to Americans before coming home to California in 2006. Superstar String Justin saved a few horses to train and bring home for himself. His favorite horse, Copius, a 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding, with scope, great temperament and a good mind for competition, has been a winning ride for Resnik. The horse is also the ultimate testament to the rider’s superb, instinctual and unique process as a masterful trainer. The ease and freedom of movement he commands in both riding and training is testimony to his complete faith in the bond that is possible between man and horse, a bond he innately understood as a young child. Resnik’s equestrian education began with western gymkhanas and evolved through arena polo and then to jumping. Here, Resnik’s life assumed a singleness of purpose: the world of riding and training horses. Being athletic and fearless himself, Resnik learned first-hand that the art of training horses was about allowing a horse’s individuality to shine through. “If a horse is not allowed to be himself, he will never be his best,” Resnik observes. It was a defining lesson and the philosophical arc that characterizes his ongoing training at Eurosport Horses today. Resnik bought Copius as an unbroken 3-year-old in Germany after only watching him free-jump and knowing he was superbly bred (Calido I, Caletto I). In 2009, Copius had eight Grand Prix placings including the Del Mar National, where he was 10th out of a large field in the $100,000 Grand Prix. His other competition horses include Lycos (Landor S/Zeus), a 12- year-old approved Oldenburg stallion who had two Grand Prix placings in 2009; Quantum Leap, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Quinar/Cassini I); and a 7-year-old Holsteiner gelding named Cash, by Cash and Carry. Soon to be in the show ring will be Citoki (Catoki/Chambertin), a 4-year-old Holsteiner stallion and Contact Em (Contact Me/Calando I), a 5-year-old Holsteiner stallion. Recently, Resnik imported Contact Me, a 10-year-old Holsteiner stallion (Carthago/Acord I). Contact Me covered over 200 mares in Germany last year and will be showing later this spring with Resnik. Resnik’s new base at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank is ideal for his focused training and for clients who prefer a private setting, coupled with the convenience of being based at a popular show location. He regularly imports horses from Germany to train and sell as well as accepts horses from around the world for initial training, or to be re-trained in a manner where the horse and rider can reach their maximum potential. The trainer credits his deep industry experience in Europe, along with the multitude of horses he has ridden and trained, with giving him a unique training philosophy that allows him to work with horses to not only perform well, but to love what they do.
For more information on Justin Resnik and Eurosport Horses, visit www.eurosporthorses.com. |
