Over the Labour Day weekend, Canada had a pair of exciting wins in the Aachen arena with the talented young mare Newberry Balia NL, who became the Sparkassen Youngster Cup Champion. Equally as wonderful is the intertwined history of all the Canadian connections of this talented young horse.
Just five weeks ago, long-time friend Eric Lamaze contacted Muffie Guthrie about an interesting new horse in his sales barn that he thought would be a good fit for her husband, Jeff Brandmaier. Newberry looked and rode like Brandmaier’s current horse, Jenny Van Het Waterblok, who has been such a great mount for Brandmaier.
Guthrie has a long history with Lamaze dating back to the ’80’s when Lamaze rode hunters for Guthrie’s mother, Lorna, before he started selling her jumpers a few years later. One of the first horses he sold to her mother was Hook, a gelding that Lamaze rode on the Canadian team and later Muffie rode to High Amateur Champion at The Royal Winter Fair. Lamaze also sold Damiro van Ter Notelaere to Brandmaier, who rode to the win of the 2011 Seven and Eight-Year-Old division of the Jump Canada Young Horse Series and is now competed by Muffie in the Canadian Hunter Derby series. The list of winning horses goes on.