Alison Sader-Larson and Noble Bach

Rare and impressive are the appearances of dressage ponies on the American dressage scene. Sport pony dressage is a not yet discovered field of dressage on the North American continent and it really needs to catch up with Europe on this interesting and even lucrative domain of dressage and breeding. While in Europe, pony dressage is a well anchored segment in the program of a dressage show, the appearance of one sport pony in an American dressage competition is considered "cute"or "nice" or even "hey, look at that."

But some people are craving for more seriousnesses concerning sport pony dressage and one of those persons is Alison Sader-Larson. On one of her visits to Germany she spotted a young palomino dressage pony at the 1997 Westfalian Elite auction in Munster, Germany. He was then named Nobelino and Sader-Larson purchased the Navajo II x Nowak x Leopold get for a fair amount of money. She believed that in the United States there would be a market for this kind of ponies which have large expressive moments like horses but stand 14.2 hands high.

But she was wrong. In the United States, the dogma of "everything big" is so embedded into society, that a small palomino pony can hardly make a big impression on the scene. Wrong again. When she couldn't really sell Nobelino, Sader-Larson decided to train the Westfalian gelding, bred by L. Haerkotter from Emsdetten, Germany, herself and in four years time she transformed the young Nobelino into Noble Bach, a winning fourth level dressage pony.

At 2001 Dressage at Devon, Sader-Larson ranked fifth in class 1A Fourth Level test 2 with 64.250% and in class 2A Fourth Level Test 2 she even came in second with 64.250%, beating respected riders like Catherine Morelli and Bent Jensen. And more is in store. Check her out in the Gold Ring, Sunday September 30, in fourth level test 3 at Dressage at Devon.

Text by Astrid Appels

Related Links
Back to the 2001 Dressage at Devon Index
Scores: Class 1A Fourth Level Test 2 A
Scores: Class 2A Fourth Level Test 2 A