Karin Offield and her internationally celebrated dressage competition and breeding stallion, Lingh, announce their intention to stay at Flyinge, the National Stud of Sweden, for a second season of breeding. Offield talks about Lingh and the New News.

"I was thrilled when I was asked if Lingh could stay for another season of breeding at Flyinge. Lingh will clearly benefit from their newly expanded, export qualified breeding station. It's a modern accommodation that will enable Flyinge to ship fresh semen to neighboring countries in the E.U. Additionally, at Flyinge's new collection facilities, they have the capacity to produce frozen semen under quarantine conditions to meet various countries' import requirements. Frozen semen has become more mainstream with many vets and breeders - good news not only for expanding a stallion's market internationally but also especially for those stallions who come under heavy demand with their local markets. We have strong international interest for Lingh's services and are delighted to begin to meet that market. Lingh is currently in the breeding shed producing frozen semen for New Zealand and Australia."

"To put Lingh's 2009 breeding performance in clear perspective: he produced an excellent 87.5% pregnancy rate," she said. "Only a few mares of the whole group he covered did not get pregnant as expected. Exciting and encouraging too for Lingh breeders is the fact that many of the mares that are now in foal are older dressage mares that were never bred before. It's nice to be able to say that Lingh made a lot of breeders very happy this year.

"Amidst the chatter about Lingh's semen quality last season, I'd like to share the details to separate out fact from rumor," Offield continued. "When Lingh arrived at Flyinge last season we began freezing him for the U.S. market, Holland and Finland. His semen was excellent and the breeders were very pleased with the results, with confirmed pregnancies using that frozen semen. When he got a cold and his motility dropped to a level that Flyinge reported was no longer acceptable to ship to his large number of booked mares, Flyinge asked mare owners to ship their mares in to Flyinge for breeding. At this time, nine mares were bred at Flyinge and nine got pregnant at Flyinge. Flyinge also managed to ship off a few doses of cooled semen to 10 mares in Sweden during this time and of those 10 mares, eight are pregnant. We lost most of the April and May bookings to these circumstances. I can say that the teams of reproduction experts at Flyinge are excellent, the transport is well executed and they will continue to manage Lingh to top results, hopefully producing an even better pregnancy rate than 87.5% this season.

"I have been pleased with the ongoing care and consideration of Lingh's best interests at Flyinge."

Lingh had recovered nicely from his stable injury that occurred during the winter of the U.S. selection trials. Rest and rehab took place while Offield was training at Anky's in Holland.

"In late fall, Lingh arrived in Sweden, and Edward Gal gave Lingh a super ride for Swedish audiences during the Flyinge Stallion Show. That was quite a night! Over the winter, Swedish rider Mattias Jansson was keeping Lingh fantastically fit, spending many hours riding in the woods and tracks and trails around the stables. Mattias and Lingh traveled through Sweden last spring with the Flyinge Stallion Show, meeting breeders and performing for the big crowds that came to watch and learn about the famous stallions in the Flyinge program. Then, late this summer, Lingh hurt his foot so I said, 'Let's turn him out, pull his shoes and give him a long rest.' He now enjoys his time in a big paddock every day. His overall health and his stallion duty all seem to agree with him. He loves his time outside, and for a stallion whose competition career has always come first, he is now enjoying the best life at Flyinge."

"Flyinge has done a lot for me. As a stallion owner, there are many choices and decisions of directions to take. The management of Lingh at Flyinge has been simple, clear and profitable. I am encouraging mare owners to pay attention to Lingh, what his young offspring are achieving and to use Lingh now during these prime years of his life for breeding. The common thread I hear in my conversations with the Lingh breeders is how special, easy going and nice it is to handle his foals. The offspring have long legs; they appear well balanced with good front ends. They also have a lot of elasticity and an engine in their movements - all qualities we want for dressage horses and sport horses." Karl Henrik-Heimdahl, Flyinge's Breeding Director responded, saying, "Lingh is suitable for most kind of mares."

"The best advice I can give for mare owners outside the Scandic area is to breed to Lingh early in the spring season. The new Export Station can accommodate those early requests easily. I want very much to see new Dutch foals in 2011," Offield concluded.

Visit www.lingh.nl or www.offieldfarms.com and find lots of pictures of his mares, the foals, and their achievements at
www.hasslerdressage.com/stallions/lingh-offspring.html and information and videos of his career.