Shelley Van den Neste and Ezmarelde Win Big at Wellington Dressage Again

West Palm Beach, FL – After earning High score honors in at the Wellington Classic show in December, Shelley Van den Neste and Ezmarelde La Biladora returned and gave a repeat performance not only winning top honors at the recent Wellington Classic Dressage III Show, but also qualifying for the Regional 3 Championships in Training and First Level. Van den Neste, owner of Sunrise Farms Sport Horses Inc. in Newberry, Florida, competed Ezmarelde for owner Brooke Horan of Vertu Sport Horses in Park City, Utah.

“Ezmarelde has the greatest attitude about everything,” Van den Neste said. “After she was imported she had two foals, the last of which chewed her tail off to the end of the bone and so we had to wait a year after starting her under saddle to show her. Thanks to TailRX it grew out long and healthy and the first time I showed her it was like she was born for the show ring.

Van den Neste said Ezmarelde’s training has consisted of lots of miles of cross training on trails, work over small gymnastics and once a week in the dressage arena. “She never looks twice at anything that would ordinarily spook a green horse,” Van den Neste said. She is a Westfalian out of Ehrentanz and a Florestan dam line. She’s a 16.1 hand plain bay mare, but she has a long, graceful catlike walk and a ground-covering trot. She received two 9’s on her test, one of which was in her stretch down circle which confirms her basic training is correct.”

Van den Neste, a USDF Bronze and Silver medalist and an L graduate who currently competes two horses at the FEI level, is also an accomplished clinician who regularly holds clinics at her Sunrise Farms Sport Horses Inc. Van den Neste holds a variety of clinics including adult dressage retreat weekends where students can bring their horses to her facility and learn to cross train their dressage horses. “This is an intense learning weekend with a group dinner on Saturday night in the ranch house,” Van den Neste said. “I also recently hosted a clinic for the University of Florida Dressage Team to help them prepare for the Intercollegiate Dressage Association National Championships.”

Sunrise Farms Sport Horses Inc., located in Newberry, Florida, offers quality training services and specializes in clinics. They also offer rehab services for show horses that are having problems returning to the show ring. For more information on the farm, contact Van den Neste at srfsporthorses@aol.com.