Historically there have already been all-U.S. bred Olympic teams in the early days of equestrian sports in this country, when all of the team riders were military officers. The final all-military team from the U.S.A. competed in the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The early team horses were products of Thoroughbred race breeding and U.S. Army Cavalry re-mount programs. But, by the 2012 London Olympics our U.S. riders in all three disciplines were mounted on horses bred in other countries. The last two U.S.-bred dressage horses were Hilda Gurney’s Thoroughbred gelding Keen (Money Broker – Mabel Victory) who competed in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics and Gwen Stockebrand’s Bao, a Morgan-Tennessee Walker gelding who competed in the 1980 Alternate Olympics.

Valhalla Farm – Jean Brinkman

Valhalla Farm’s web site flashes a quote that has been their mantra for the last 38 years, “The better the breeding, the easier the training.” Jean Brinkman and husband Roy founded Valhalla Farm in Wellborn, Florida, in the early 1970’s with the goal of breeding horses with the gaits and quality for FEI-level dressage. Their herd consists mainly of Swedish Warmblood and Trakehner horses. Over the years they have purchased or leased five or six stallions bred by other farms, mostly from Europe, and have produced at least six home-bred stallions that were approved for breeding.

An accomplished rider having earned her USDF bronze, silver and gold medals, Jean, who is now 73, used her time in the saddle to refine their mare herd based on selecting mares who were rideable and who produced foals waith good rideability. She also campaigned their stallions Martini *Pg*E*(Coktail – Tannenberg) , Hailo *Pg*E* (Anduc – Thor) and Stiletto *Ps* (Martini *Pg*E* – Abdullah *Pg*E*) through the FEI-Levels. Martini was the top USDF stallion in the country from 1998 to 2001. Since the USEF started keeping statistics on dressage breeding, Valhalla Farm has been among the top 12 dressage producers in the country each year, taking the number one or two spot from 2005 to 2009.

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