Courtesy photo
Test rider Susan Eldridge with Fallon

Despite Woodinville’s dramatic growth as a city, it has still managed to retain some of its equestrian character. It continues to be a home for stables of all sizes that cater to a variety of equine disciplines.

Backyard horse owners are also drawn to the area for its many scenic riding trails and the support they find within the equestrian community. Among the small horse farms that are tucked between housing developments is Silver Lining Hanoverians. Owned and operated by Nona and Jerry Henderson, Silver Lining Hanoverians specializes in breeding quality competitive dressage horses, using mares that have been proven in testing and/or competition.

The Hendersons moved to Woodinville 20 years ago because of the area’s horse-friendly reputation, but they didn’t begin breeding Hanoverians until 1999.

“I learned about this breed from friends,” says Nona Henderson. “These horses are known as one of the most successful breeds of riding horses in the world today. They originated in Germany, in Hannover, where horse breeding has been a successful industry for hundreds of years.”

Henderson continues to explain that the Hanoverian is bred to excel in equestrian disciplines such as jumping and dressage and that it is an all-round athletic and versatile performance horse.

She adds, “This breed is used in international competitions, like the Olympics, because they’re great competitors and very rideable.”

Henderson went to Germany with a friend who had a Hanoverian and was drawn to the breed.

She also liked the support that exists for American breeders of this type of horse and the assistance given to them by the Hanoverian Verband Association in Germany. “I bought my first Hanoverian in 1999 and I spent several weeks in Germany attending a breeding course to find out everything about this type of horse,” says Henderson. “Now I have three mares at the farm here in Woodinville and one in Germany that I keep there for more exposure to the world market. The mare in Germany has had two babies and the mares in Woodinville have had two thus far. I don’t breed them a lot because I also like to use them in competition.”

The cost of this breed ranges from $8,000 on up for a baby and $20,000 plus for a fully broken, riding horse.

To be registered as a Hanoverian, horses are carefully inspected for breed characteristics and performance standards.

“It’s not like you can just get a horse and send in the paperwork to register it,” explains Henderson. “There are inspection teams that go around the country and evaluate mares and stallions. It’s a fairly strict process.”

At these inspection tours, representatives from the German Verband, along with U.S. judges from the American Hanoverian Society, facilitate the performance tests and screen the horses to see if they meet the standards in order to be entered into the breeding books. Five years ago, the American Hanoverian Society created an annual award to honor the “Best North American-Bred Young Mare.” This award is to reward the young mare that has the best combined scores from her studbook inspection and her mare performance test. It is restricted to mares that are three and four years old in a calendar year.

This stipulation is to reward those mares that are performance tested when they are young and show good innate athletic ability and talent, in contrast to a mare who has had years of dressage or jumper training.

Last year, the Dr. Walter Hartwig Prize for the Best North American-bred Young Mare went to Silver Lining’s Fallon.

“It was quite an honor for us,” says Henderson, “because this is a very prestigious award and we’re a very small farm. Fallon was our first homegrown foal, so that made it even more special. She received a score of 8.0 on her studbook inspection and an 8.5 on her mare performance test” (scores range from 1-10 with 10 being the highest). Fallon is currently preparing for the next dressage show season with Roxanne Christenson, a leading dressage trainer in the Northwest.

“My hope for Fallon,” says Henderson, “is that she can be a competitor like her mother, Weltlady, who once ranked in the top five in national dressage competition. I also hope she can eventually produce nice foals, as my goal is create a mare family of three generations.”