By Anna Skinner
Noblesville resident Andrea Lothamer showed her horse at the Virginia Horse Center last month. She and her horse won the Friesian Saddle Seat World Championship and the Friesian World Championship for a junior horse saddle seat. Her horse, a four-year-old Friesian breed named Foppe Fan Skarren, was imported from Holland last year.
“We ride him in a flat English saddle and he is judged on having a big, high stepping, floaty trot,” Lothamer said. “They are just big-moving horses.”
After taking Foppe to some local Friesian Saddle Seat shows, Lothamer realized the talent and elegance her horse possessed. Since Foppe was a 100 percent registered Friesian horse, she could enter him into the World Championship in Virginia.
“There are few horse shows in the spring and summer and next October we will take him back to the world show,” Lothamer said. “We jog him with a cart to parks, ride him, and work him to work on his form.”
For his winning performance, Foppe and Lothamer received a blanket of roses, a few big trophies, ribbons and lots of recognition. Lothamer said that the trophies and ribbons are now displayed above her fireplace mantle.
Lothamer spends time with her other horses as well, a Friesian mare named Femke and an American Rescue named Lucky.
“My dad trained hackney ponies and I always had a horse growing up and a couple years ago I started riding again and then my husband built a barn,” Lothamer said. “I never entered any horse into any championship, but Foppe won a big horse show in Indianapolis and kept winning. Everyone told us to take him to the world show.”
In the meantime, Foppe is kept at Lothamer’s barn where she rides and takes care of him. He also attends training in Atlanta, Ind.
“It’s exciting being on something so big and powerful, yet they’re such gentle giants,” Lotthamer said about the Friesian breed.