I moved to North Carolina about ten years ago. At horse shows I noticed that the popular Warmblood breeds where the Hanoverian and Oldenburg. The only breeding farms I found stood Hanoverian or Oldenburg Stallions. Small breeders where producing foals that would be registered in one of those registries. In competitions there was some variety of breeds, but still the popular competition horse was usually a Hanoverian or Oldenburg. The Swedish broodmares that I found where breeding to Hanoverian or Oldenburg approved stallions. The foals are usually being registered in the Oldenburg or Hanoverian Registry.  Still, the Swedish Breed did have some recognition here, mainly due to Kay Meredith. Kay was a big contributor to bringing Swedish competition horses to the area. Kay regularly found Swedish horses for her students. Today Kay is well known for her Swedish Gray gelding Main Event Mangalam by Amiral out of Viveka.

      In 1998 I purchased L.A. Baltic Sundance by L.A. Baltic Sun out of Rose of Sweden by Burggraf within a few weeks Sundance took up residence in North Carolina. To bring attention to him the first year I donated a breeding to the silent auction at the CDI-W Raleigh Dressage show in June. A small breeder and vet named Ellen Ziemer booked Sundance’s first North Carolina breeding buy winning that auction. Sundance’s second breeding that year was from Laurie Platt of Maryland. She found Sundance through our web site, HalifaxFarm.com. It was a small start but people started to notice Sundance, became interested in the Swedish stallion and the Swedish breed
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     Dennis Callin relocated to North Carolina from California and has also been a great influence in helping bring notice to the Swedish Breed. Dennis known for bringing several Swedish horses to the FEI levels is still known for his partnership with the stallion Zorn and for coming very close to making the World Championship team with Zenith. Dennis has a training center just outside of Raleigh. He has stayed true to his love of the Swedish Breed. He has been to Sweden many times locating appropriate horses for his students. Not leaving himself out, Dennis has just imported a very impressive 17 hand, 4 year old gelding appropriately called Selected by Chapman (out of Blaze of Glory by Bellini). Dennis also has one broodmare who had a foal by Zorn last year and is expecting again anytime now, also by Zorn.
 
     Sundance is no longer the only Swedish stallion in North Carolina. A year later after the arrival of Sundance, another Swedish Stallion, Flamenco,has taken up residence. Flamenco is owned by Linda Little and is being shown by Hokan Thorn. They have had great success in his first competition year in North Carolina. Flamenco earned Prix St George NCDCTA Championship. He also was the recipient of the NCDCTA First Place Horse of the Year at Prix St. George. Flamenco already has created interest with breeders. Among others Kaye Tallevi-Powers has booked her mare Filigree by Garrant to Flamenco. Kaye already has a lovely colt by Amiral out of Filigree. Kaye also has a Quarter Horse mare that is bred to Flamenco due to foal in April. The foal will receive Swedish Appendix registration and Kaye will be bringing the foals to the North Carolina Inspection.
   
     Ellen Ziemer, who won the silent auction breeding to Sundance, had a beautiful black filly. The filly was so impressive Chris Mills of Raleigh purchased the filly at eight weeks. Chris named her Shadow Dance and will present her at the Swedish Inspection this year. Ellen was so pleased with her first Swedish foal she is breeding the same mare back to Sundance along with two other of her broodmares. All the mares are accepted into the Swedish Book and the foals will be registered Swedish. Out of the three mares breed to Sundance for 2002 foals, two have already been sold, in- utero, to Connie Harter of Wake Forest and Ann Perrotta of Youngsville, North Carolina. Sundance arrived in 1998 and had two bookings. In just under three years Sundance has been booked to ten mares in North Carolina alone.

      The Swedish Breed is growing very quickly in North Carolina, with many breeders now breeding Swedish Warmblood horses. This year, because there are enough young Swedish horses here, SWANA will hold a Swedish Inspection in North Carolina at Halifax Farm. I am very excited about being a part of the growth. People in North Carolina are discovering that the Swedish horses are elegant, light and talented.  North Carolina is quickly becoming a major contributor to the Swedish Warmblood breed. In 1999, I was one of only three people in North Carolina listed as members of SWANA, the Swedish Warmblood Association of North America. In 2001, I am one of twelve.

     It is time for the Hanoverian and Oldenburg to make room for the horses of the breed known for it’s sweet disposition, elegant movement and willing trainability, the Swedish Warmblood.

Epilogue

     This article was written for the SWANA Newspaper in 2000. Since the writing of this article, Sundance has produced 26 offspring by 2004. We expect eight more offspring in 2005. In 2002 Dennis Callin hosted the Swedish Warmblood Inspection. Twenty two horses where inspected, broodmares, weanlings, yearlings and 3/4 year old performance tests. North Carolina had the biggest inspection site that inspection year. 2004 will host it's third inspection at Masterpiece Farms in Southern Pines. We hope once again to host one of the biggest inspection sites in North America.

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