'Prez' a once-in-a-lifetime horse and he's still just six years old
WHEN Elizabeth Krog visited her friends Pat and Richard Ryan at their Warrawee stud near Lancefield in Victoria five years ago aged just 23, she met the horse of her dreams.
The stud has produced some top-class horses, including Warrawee Beyoncé, Warrawee Diemonetee and Warrawee Voulez Vou in the show ring, the dressage horse Warrawee Rock Royalty and Warrawee Naaziq, an Arabian race horse that won at Moonee Valley and Caulfield.
Elizabeth said as soon as she saw Impresareeo (home name Prez) she wanted him. He was a very gangly, scared-of-everything, eyes-popping, black spider baby that just had natural talent to burn.
“When Pat first showed me him, I said to her and my mum this is it this is the horse,” she said.
“I knew in that moment I had seen my forever horse, that horse that you can never replace.”
The Ryans kept him as a colt for a little bit to serve and collect before gelding him, so there is youngstock on the ground.
Prez is out of the beautiful Warrawee Jive Queen, who is by a Warmblood stallion from an Anglo Arabian mare. He benefits from the Arabian blood, which always seems to add elegance and spark to the Warmblood movement.
He came to Elizabeth shortly after being gelded and going back into work. At this time she hadn’t built an arena at home so she only had a 40-acre paddock to ride him in, but thinks it was the best thing for him to develop.
At a show he is calm and for a young horse, very willing to try.
“If you tell him he will be okay he will generally get the job done just without exploding, but I guess that’s what makes him so special to watch,” Elizabeth said.
“He pricks his ears, I feel his heart beating he just lifts, for a horse that can be so scared I think he secretly knows that there are a lot of eyes on him, and he loves to put on a show.
“I really think I will never ride anything like him again.”
The young horse’s first year of showing was amazing. His black colour and elegance caught judges’ eyes from the start, and as a five-year-old in a snaffle bridle, he was champion newcomer and open hack at Barastoc Horse of the Year and Show Horse Council champion.
At the NSW Southern Stars show, he was grand champion newcomer and champion open hack.
He repeated his Victorian wins at the Show Horse Council event and Barastoc this year before the pair made their first trip to Sydney Royal Show at Easter and as a six-year-old was named champion novice hack and champion open hack.
His rider still feels like it is all a dream.
“He has been so successful in such a short amount of time, I am really looking forward to what the future holds for this amazing boy and I,” Elizabeth said.
“We will be doing the Garryowen at Melbourne Royal Show this September – my first year competing – and I cannot wait to do it on such a special horse.
“There are a lot of people that support this horse and myself and I am truly grateful for them.”
