Three questions, three answers – René as a public prosecutor in Budapest:
• René, you’re basically everything rolled into one: breeder, rearer, stallion owner, and now a licensing commissioner in Budapest. Do these different roles help you?
René: Yes, absolutely! Especially as a rearer, you learn an incredible amount; you develop a quicker eye for judging horses. And you gain a better feel for it when you’ve raised many horses yourself and watched them grow up.
• Which of your four ‘jobs’ is the most fun, and which is the most difficult?
René: That’s hard to say, but raising stallions is definitely a lot of fun. It’s always exciting to watch the young horses develop. Setting up the stallion station was certainly the most difficult. You really need patience to get it off the ground, but with the success and the fantastic feedback from our breeders, like we experienced again just two weeks ago at our stallion show, that’s really enjoyable too!
• How does a stallion licensing process work in Budapest – similar to Germany?
René: All in all, the judging isn’t quite as strict, but the criteria are, of course, very similar. There are some really good show jumpers here now, many with German bloodlines. For example, I saw a Diamant de Semilly offspring during the trial free jumping – very good!
René will fly directly from Budapest to the five-star Global Champions Tour tournament in Doha on Sunday to support Maurice and Don Diarado. The pair already had a very strong clear round on the first day of the Grand Tour, finishing in eighth place.
