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Kimberly Boyer of Hampton Green Farm has announced that Courtney King will take over the reins on Grandioso III, one of Hampton Green Farm’s top breeding and performance stallions. Hampton Green Farm, with locations in Fruitport, MI, and Wellington, FL, specializes in breeding P.R.E. (Pura Raza Españolas – Pure Spanish Horses) for dressage competition in America. Grandioso III (Adelante x Grandiosa) is a 16-hand, nine-year-old, bay P.R.E. stallion imported from Spain by Hampton Green Farm in 2003. Coached by Robert Dover, Grandioso has been competed through Prix St. Georges. The initial contact was made with Lendon Gray, who saw the horse and previewed him for Courtney and then recommended him to Courtney. Since then, Courtney has been riding him and is quite enthusiastic about him!” At the end of March, Grandioso III will travel to King’s base at Gleneden Dressage in Bedford, NY, with her other mounts that are currently in Florida for the winter. King will compete at the 2008 World Cup Dressage Final in s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, with Idocus on March 27-30, and then travel with a group of her horses to California to prepare for the USEF national championships and the Olympic Games Selection Trials. To stay in training, Grandioso will be among the California-bound horses. Boyer noted that Grandioso III is still green at the Prix St. Georges in the show ring, but has been schooling Grand Prix movements. “His show schedule is now up to Courtney. She’s very serious about the relationship-building part,” Boyer said, adding that it may be late 2008 or early 2009 before King and Grandioso III make their show ring debut. “Our business model is that our breeding stallions have to actively be competing, and they are,” Boyer pointed out. Hampton Green Farm’s breeding operation in Michigan is home to 40 head of breeding stock and young horses. “We don’t breed our stallions out. We only breed to our mares. One of the babies that we bred, Idolo Americano, was the top U.S. bred stallion at Devon last year, which was good for the P.R.E. as well,” noted Boyer. Idolo Americano (Idilio II x Escapada III), whose Spanish name translates to “American Idol,” won Devon’s 2007 Born in the USA Breeders Award in the Stallion Division as a four-year-old. Boyer is enthusiastic about Grandioso III’s show ring future with King and the impact it could have on the Pure Spanish Horses. “If Courtney competes in Hong Kong, then it will be the first time that a standing member of the U.S. Equestrian Team has selected a P.R.E. to be a horse for them to compete. It’s a good thing for the breed overall. I am doing what I do because I believe this breed to be very competitive in America. We have been working very hard to get that message out. It will be nice to have Courtney doing a little of our work for us now. It will be an interesting combination.” “I am very excited to have the ride on Grandioso,” said King. “He is such a blast to ride. I believe he has an immense amount of talent for the Grand Prix, so that’s a pretty stellar combination! He is a little powerhouse and he exemplifies what the breed has to offer.”
Release courtesy of Phelps Media Group
