Carzanola: A Grand Prix Journey

By Nancy Hinz

Champ or “Carzanola” (Tuchinski x Lanola – Wellington; P.W. Witteveen, breeder) was born in 2007, and imported from the Netherlands to Texas by Larry Garrett of College Station, Texas.  Larry’s mission was to import several high-quality youngsters from abroad, spend some time handling them and taking them out to breed shows, and then offer them for sale to area riders. 

I first saw Champ when Larry presented his youngsters to the audience at a Region 9 Young Rider event that was held at his farm. That day, Larry and I joked about “my baby.” Before too long, though, we were seriously talking about me buying him. 

As soon as Champ turned two, I gave Larry a deposit, and the joke became a reality. Shortly after that, Champ came to live at Yellow Rose Dressage. Larry and his crew had done a great job handling the babies. When I got Champ, he had already been out to a few shows, been clipped and braided, and knew all the good manners required for in-hand classes.  I will forever be grateful to Larry for bringing Champ into my life! 

I started Champ’s under-saddle training when he was three, and he did his first show under saddle as a four-year-old. He earned a 66% in Training Level Test 3 at the Windy Knoll Show in 2011. He was a very promising youngster with a good attitude, who behaved the same everywhere I took him. 

Many people were urging me to do the Young Horse classes, but his canter was so big, and his balance took a while to develop, so I felt it was better to go with a schedule that worked for him, rather than push him to meet the schedule of the Young Horse program. This plan worked really well for us. 

In 2012, as a five-year-old, we placed seventh in the USDF Horse of the Year standings at First Level, with an average score of 74.189%. The next few years were spent working on the basics of rhythm, balance, and confidence. 

Champ progressed at a normal rate, and we were soon doing Second Level.  At the end of the year when he was seven, I started getting serious about teaching him flying changes. Much of the credit for his beautiful changes has to go to Pamela Goodrich. She helped me through the process so I could correctly manage his big canter, and Champ also spent some time that year with Pam in Florida. 

The investment in time and training that year paid off big time, and we won the Champion title in the Third Level Open class at the 2015 US Dressage Finals Presented by Adequan®, as well as Reserve Champion at Third Level in the USDF Horse of the Year standings. 

Around that same time, I was having to make some life decisions. I had been living in a used mobile home for 25 years, and it was time for me to work on building a house. My plan was to sell my nice young horse to get a down payment for the construction of a home. 

Prior to putting him up for sale, I did some preliminary X-rays to see if there were any issues. To my great surprise, it turned out that Champ had several Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD lesions) in his right stifle. From the time he was a two-year-old, his left stifle would occasionally stick, but it didn’t give us trouble when working, and there was never a clue that there was an issue with the right one. 

I had to make a decision. Should I keep him, continue his training, and see if it ever becomes a problem? Or, should I do surgery and remove the lesions so that he would have a clean pre-purchase exam? 

I decided to keep him. I continued in our training, and he offered no complaints. We progressed at a normal rate, reaching Prix St. Georges, and Intermediate 1. We were even Champions at the Houston Dressage Society Inc.’s 2018 Spring Classic CDI2* Small Tour. 

It was not until later in 2018, at the age of 11, that Champ started having trouble with his right stifle. We did not have a good show at the 2018 Great American/USDF Region 9 Dressage Championships that year, and after more X-rays and discussion with my vet, we decided it was time: we needed to do the surgery to remove the lesions. I knew if we didn’t do it, he would be done competing for sure, but his prognosis for making it back to training and reaching Grand Prix was uncertain. 

I had full faith in my veterinarian and my horse, so we scheduled the surgery for November 2018. There were no complications, and Champ was a perfect patient. He had to spend two weeks on full stall rest without any exercise, or even hand walking. At the end of the two weeks, we began our rehab rides. 

Five months later, he was fit and ready to show again, and we made our comeback at the April 2019 Texas Rose Dressage Classic at the Texas Rose Horse Park. We had another successful season and ended 2019 with a fourth-place finish at the US Dressage Finals in the Intermediate Freestyle Open. 

Then came the push for Grand Prix. It remained to be seen whether or not Champ’s stifles would hold up for the piaffe and passage work. I had been playing with that work for about six months prior to him needing surgery, but now, we had to do it for real. 

The work progressed nicely and, in February 2020, Champ was ready to try his first Grand Prix test. It was with this test that I also earned the final score necessary to complete my USDF Gold Medal. 

Throughout that year, we continued training, but I could tell Champ still needed more strength. He was a bit anxious about the piaffe, and it was not even, so I made the choice to back down to Prix St. Georges and I-1, in order to give him another season to get stronger. 

As it happened, I had an FEI Young Rider training with me that year, and the horse she had wasn’t quite working out for her as a show partner. I decided to let her take Champ and try to qualify for the Region 9 Young Rider team. Her name was Sarah Evans, and she put in all the hours of dedication necessary to learn how to ride Champ. While he was very friendly and obedient, he was also very powerful. 

After several months of sweating and struggling to sit his big trot, Sarah and Champ were ready to compete together. We chose our qualifiers, and they were able to get the scores they needed to make the team! Together, Sarah and Champ competed at the 2021 North American Youth Championships (NAYC) for Region 9. 

It was a very interesting competition; the judges eliminated an unusually high number of horses for lameness that year. Needless to say, knowing the history of Champ’s stifles, I was very nervous for them. Champ, on the other hand, was not. He was fully confident in his job, and thanks to my team, he was sound as could be and working great. 

Sarah did a great job, even making it to the freestyles. They placed in the middle of the pack in a very competitive group of riders, and with that accomplishment under his belt, I challenged Champ one more time to try the Grand Prix work. This time, he told me he was ready for the push. 

I continued to help him build his strength, and when we returned to competition, it was solid work. Throughout the fall of 2022 and into 2023, we completed a number of Grand Prix tests. Our scores averaged 66.5%, with our personal best being 69%. These scores earned me my USDF Gold Medal with Distinction.

It is important for me to thank all those who were part of this journey. For all the good training and coaching, Pam Goodrich, our farrier John Warner, our veterinary team of Dr. Mark and Jean Haugland, master saddler Mike Corcoran, chiropractors Dr. Kylie Brkusich and Dr. Andrea Sargent, Magnawave person J.J. Jeffers, and of course, Larry Garrett, who began this entire experience for me. THANK YOU!

We are now in the spring of 2025. It is true that time flies when you are having fun. Despite several ups and downs along the way, Champ NEVER let me down. He stepped up and did everything I ever asked of him. He is now eighteen years old, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep him and his stifles in good enough shape for the collected work needed to perform a good Grand Prix test. 

My final decision for his career is to now let him retire at home. I don’t want to keep pushing him to the point where he feels uncomfortable.  I still ride him each day, but now we are doing lighter work and enjoying all the memories. 

The longer I am in this business, the more I realize how important it is to remember that the horses don’t get to choose what they do for a living – we do that for them. I appreciate the kindness of our equine partners, and try to be very respectful of their abilities and limitations. We covered a lot of miles traveling to shows and had our fair share of success, so the biggest THANK YOU of all goes to Champ!!