Hilltop News
April 20, 1999 – January 20, 2015
“Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” ~ William Shakespeare
It is with a broken heart that we share the news of Royal Prince’s passing this week. Late in the afternoon of January 20th Royal Prince presented an acute colic and was immediately taken to New Bolton Center. Unfortunately due to complications discovered during surgery, the only humane choice was to euthanize him.
Royal Prince had a significant impact at Hilltop Farm. In 2004 with Susanne Hassler, he placed fourth at the FEI World Championships for Young Horses – the highest American finish at the Championships to this day. Royal Prince later helped Michael Bragdell earn his USDF Bronze and Silver Medals and he showed at Prix St. Georges with Chris Hickey. Royal Prince developed into one of our most prominent stallions including winning the USEF Dressage Breeding Sire of the Year Award for five consecutive years. His offspring have been consistent winners at breed shows and inspections. To date he has eight Elite Mare/Elite Mare Candidate daughters with the American Hanoverian Society and seven Premium Mares with ISR/Oldenburg. His offspring have earned USDF Horse of the Year titles, Regional Championships, and USDF All-Breeds Awards.
Most importantly, Prince was part of our family. The barn feels a bit empty without him here and while we are grateful for the years we had with him, we can’t help but feel his time here was cut far too short. For those of you with a Royal Prince offspring – go out and give them a hug. We hope they bring as much joy to your lives as Prince has brought to ours and we’ll look to them to carry on Royal Prince’s legacy for years to come.
Stallion News
Hilltop Archives
Riverman (Redfort – Landego) has been a cornerstone of the Hilltop Farm stallion line up for many years. Though is career focus was in the dressage arena, we see Riverman offspring excelling in the upper levels of almost every sport including dressage, eventing, combined driving, and most recently Riverman offspring are shining in show jumping...
It was an absolute perfect finish to our Florida show season when Chris and Witness were invited to be on Team USA for the first ever CDIO3* Nations Cup competition in Wellington, Florida. Chris and Witness started the weekend out strong with a 2nd place finish in Friday’s Prix St. Georges, but they really shone in the Freestyle under the lights on Saturday night.
Hilltop Articles & Interviews
A Sport Horse Handler, whether at a show, inspection or exhibition, constantly strives for that 'magical moment' as he guides a horse in hand around the arena, often negotiating a large triangle formed from flower pots and jump poles. Together the two lift off and eat up the ground, matching stride for stride -- the horse seeming to float, to collect and extend on his own, all in perfect rhythm. The handler is as discreet as possible so that all attention focuses on the horse looking his best.
In the second day of competition at the 2008 Markel/United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) National Young Horse Dressage Championships presented by Collecting Gaits Farm, claiming the title in the four-year-old division was Michael Bragdell and Selten HW besting 19 other horses to win with a score of 8.56.
