ISI & FINO at Lechleite - May 2015

On the first weekend of May our hot-tempered Paso Finos met with the not any less spirited Icelandic Horses for a joined show at Lechleite near the South German city of Augsburg. The weather gods did not mean well with us, apocalyptic rainfalls came down on the grounds of Veronika and Sebastian Frisch's Icelandic Horse Farm.

Thankfully our show management had read the weather report early enough and was able to add a rain coat to the show package of every rider! But the weather was truely the only thing during the whole weekend that left something to be desired.

We were especially delighted about the close cooperation between the two different breeds. A lot of curious questions were answered and Paso Finos as well as Icelandics were "test-ridden" quite a bit in between and after the show classes. Two classes were held together as open breed classes - a ridden trail class and a 3 out of 5 class, where 3 out of 5 possible gaits were presented and judged. Those two classes further emphasized the general feeling of togetherness and brought a lot of joy to the riders and spectators. Much to the surprise of Paso Fino and Icelandic Horse riders alike both classes were won by a Paso Fino. Alexandra Rau and Campino de Rico Arroyo wowed not only the judges but also the audience. During the evening hours on Saturday we saw a few more close head-to-head-races between Paso Fino and Icelandic Horse in our fun classes and the evening ended not any less lively as our judge Ellen Perez started to mix up the party with her very infectious dance interludes.

On Friday - the first day of the show - our youth riders had the opportunity to participate in a special youth training class. We were very happy to see many young Paso Fino enthusiasts grab that chance to get valuable training and showing tips from Ellen and Paso Fino trainer Stan Paul, and many of them later proceeded to participate in regular show classes - and in some cases quite successfully so. We think that this is something that defintely needs to be repeated!

This was also the first show since the rulebook change allows for diagonal Trochadores and Trotones Galoperos to participate in many non-traditional classes alongside the Paso Finos. We were happy to welcome quite a few of these horses. The Reymann family presented their beautiful three-gaited Trotones Galoperos and Alexandra Rau showed us her stallion Tabu de San Carlos, who was imported from Colombia just last winter. This young stallion swept the audience off their feet and won the hearts not only of Paso Fino riders with his stunning charisma and everyone was able to hear the difference in gait as he passed over the sounding board.

We are very happy with this overall successful show and its very friendly atmosphere. Maybe this won't have been the last time our South American horses visited the Lechleite Icelandic Horse Farm.

By Christine Farkas, photos by Yvi Tschischka