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California Riding Magazine • April, 2010 On Course With Zazou by Zazou Hoffman |
In this moribund economy resourceful riders can no longer rely on the requisite shopping trip to Europe for their competition horses. For two decades entrepreneurial Americans have been breeding with frozen semen from top proven stallions such as those from VDL stud in Holland. USET show jumping chef d’equipe George Morris raised this issue in the two Horsemastership Sessions in which I participated. Two of my homebred, home trained horses, Balthus and Andy Warhol, are a direct result of Olympian Hilda Gurney’s efforts to establish a breeding program. She mentored dressage rider Kathleen Raine, who in turn imported Avontuur from Holland. My two horses were sired by frozen semen from the get of Avontuur. As I enter the next phase of my riding as a young professional I have turned my attention to jumper prospects and to this end I visited Kimberlee Farms located in the orange groves and eucalyptus stands of Ventura County’s Somis.
Mike and Kim von Disterlo of Kimberlee Farms with Zazou. Combining their years of working in the business world with a vision to produce high quality horses, Mike and Kim von Disterlo run a successful European style breeding and sales barn. Their breeding philosophy is based on quality, not quantity. Kim carefully selects European sires to cross with her well-bred mares to produce versatile sporthorses with excellent temperaments, athleticism and movement. Drawing on experience in the hunter/jumper ring, they have built a top-notch equestrian training and breeding facility. Kim’s life-long dream prompted her to file for the business name of Kimberlee Farms when she was 17 years old. When I visited the von Disterlos, I rode their very lovely Indoctro youngster. He is a super talent and I hope to ride him more in the future. You can watch my ride on YouTube, under Brando & Zazou Hoffman. More than anything it was fun to go home and apply my renewed interest in breeding to studying the results of the Nations Cup and the WEG qualifiers. Horse show managers do the public a great service by reporting the winning horses’ breeding in the published competition results and press releases. It allows all of us to track patterns and familiarize ourselves with the top sires. One look at the Grand Prix Winnaars VDL results page on www.vdlstud.com and you see some familiar names.
Many of these horses compete in the U.S. with American owners and riders. There is no reason that the same progeny cannot be created here in the States. Whether we can train them properly and get them show miles on a reasonable budget is a topic for another column.
After a junior career capped by her win of the 2009 ASPCA Maclay Medal, Zazou Hoffman is now riding and teaching as a professional. She is available for lessons, clinics and private consultation, as well as Grand Prix sponsorship. Based in the Los Angeles area, she can be reached at zazouhoffman@gmail.com. |
