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World Wide Welsh is Coming |
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After years of working towards our goal of taking our 4-in-hand team to the Royal Welsh, this year we had the opportunity to fulfill our dream, and, boy, did we learn a lot! Let me introduce my family and myself. My wife Marga Knippenborg-Meulman, soul-mate and supporter of our goals in the Welsh world, is the mother of our 3 year old twin boys Gijsbert and Floris, as well as being groom, coach, and best cook in the world for from the one to one hundred Welsh friends that drop in. As for myself, I, Gerwin Knippenborg, started in the Welsh world with two typical homebred Dutch “Welsh Cobs," meaning there were two Welsh Cob x Section A cross mares available at my parents place. Coming from a "horsy" family (my grand-dad used to breed Hackneys), I was brought up with horses from the age of 4. |
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After early years of riding, I became
interested in driving when I was 12, joined a local 4-in-hand Welsh pony
team, and learned the skill of driving in all its aspects. This led to
my being "driven" to have my own 4-in-hand to drive. After I
completed my university training, my wife and I set our goal, developing
our own 4-in-hand team of Welsh Cobs. We chose Welsh Cobs because of
their versatility and their classical abilities in all equestrian
sports. My opinion is that if a horse is not capable of doing a honest
day's work, it’s not worth keeping – and the Welsh Cob can do it
all. Following a thorough search of the Welsh Cob world in the Netherlands and experimenting with our two present horses during 1991 and 1992, we bought our first proper Cob, Vluchthovens Shirley, by Nebo Sportsman, in 1992. We learned that the abilities we sought in the Welsh Cob, the movement and presence necessary for classical dressage, (I hope to return to this aspect later), and a proper foundation for driving, were hard to find in the Netherlands. Therefore, we set off to the Royal Welsh for a summer holiday in 1996. During that trip, between several studs visits and the show itself, we looked at the different types of Cobs and saw the movement we were looking for. One of the loveliest pictures we saw walking up to the main ring was Rotherdale Magic Princes. Marga and I agreed that she was the type of horse we wanted. Returning home, we had the luck to meet with Anja de Vlieger of the Dutch Cobtain stud who pointed out to us directions in the W(orld) W(ide) W(elsh) W(orld), where we acquired the first extension of our "Welsh family." Anja informed us that the type of Cob we wanted would be hard to find but that she would keep on the look out. Because of my background in dressage and classical driving, I had a specific demand for “swinging” rhythm (Schwung) and the quality (purity) of gaits required to achieve “Durchlässigkeit" (through ness), which is necessary for developing correct collection. Through Anja, we met Clare and Nigle Willis-Burton of the Pentrefelin Stud in England. After a 1996 horse hunting trip in the UK, we visited their stud in October 1996, and there she was – Pentrefelin Syndod. Clare was the first to show us her horses in a natural way, and, walking away from me with Syndod, we could judge that lovely swinging backside one wants of a good moving horse. There we made our next connection to the WWWW, and our Welsh family was again extended by the addition of charming new friends. With Shirley and Syndod, we had our PAIR and started to train them as a Tandem, wanting to have the feel of driving a team again. Handling tandem reins is similar to team driving. Although this turned out to be a big misunderstanding of tandem driving (interesting aspect for another article), we pressed on. Since Syndod was in foal by Trevallion Ozbek, we had number THREE under way. During a Dutch Welsh Pony and Cob Society party, I had a chat with Alan and Jan Pierce. Alan transported Syndod to the Netherlands, accomplishing the trip flawlessly. When I made my usual point about “movement,” they suggested we name the foal "Symyd," which, if I’m translating correctly from the Welsh, means “movement”. We didn’t name the foal Symyd but did decide to call our little stud Symyd. Yet another lovely suggestion from Wales to extended our WWWW knowledge. As a companion to Symyd’s Kennard, we bought Cobtain Gwynt, bred much along the same lines as our other horses, from Anja de Vlieger. There we had our FOUR, but what is a 4-in-hand team without a reserve? So in the summer of 2001 and in keeping in our standards for Rhythms and Pace, we added Pentrefelin Polly to our horse family. With team and reserve assembled, we went on with their training, and it was then that the grand Idea of presenting them at the Royal Welsh and the Centenary Show took hold of us. Although we knew the team would be a bit fresh (since training a team takes a least 3 years), doing both shows in one go was a once in a life time chance we could not resist. And there we where July 2002 at the foot of the hill of the Bryncylla holiday cottage let out to us by Gwynted Gritfithes. We did not realize how much our team of grooms, trainer, and family was going to be extended by another lovely team member in the person of Gwynted, the best example of Welsh hospitably and friendliness we have ever met! From there on, our WWWW extended exponentially every day, especially after this trip. We had lovely emails from throughout the WWWW – Australia, Sweden, France, USA, Germany etc. And let us not forget delightful visits from Bob Asworth (USA) and so many others. To conclude this first article, I can say only one thing: if everyone experiences the same lovely extension of their social life with the WORLD WIDE WELSH WORLD as we have, this magazine is definitely going to succeed. With kind regards Gerwin Knippenborg and family PS. Heartfelt apologies to everyone I forgot to mention by name. All your help and contacts were much appreciated. The names mentioned here are just a few examples of the wonderful people we met during our “trip across the WWWW.”
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