United States Eventing Association

In the sport of eventing, it is not often common to see a stallion present among the hustle and bustle typically characteristic of an event. Upon first sight, you might never realize that Isselhook’s First Sight TSF, also affectionately referred to as Goody, is a stallion based on his demeanor. The 7-year-old Trakehner stallion (Lossow x Fuenflinden) thinks he is just another one of the guys, according to rider Alex Green, who says she is constantly impressed with his demeanor. After putting in consistent performances during the 2021 season, Goody earned the title of the 2021 SmartPak USEA Stallion of the Year.

“There are not many horses that can continue to be stallions and competition horses,” Green confessed. “He is actually the first stallion I have had to work with and it is pretty exceptional in my mind. He goes on the trailer with mares and he is able to stand tied to the trailer at events and just do things like a normal horse.”

The young stallion, originally produced by Sophie Lube, was imported from Germany in November of 2020 by Janine Shoffner of Flying Horse Farm after being approved by both the German Trakehner Verband and the American Trakehner Association. He was just one rail away from being the reserve winner at the 6-year-old World Young Horse Eventing Championships at Le Lion D’Angers in October 2020 but still easily landed in the top 10.

“My friend in Germany called me about him and said that he was simply amazing and I absolutely must buy him,” Shoffner recalls. “I took Alex [Green] with me and it was essentially love at first sight for us both. I knew I wanted a stallion and something that would produce high performance horses in the future, but I also wanted something that was manageable and nice to deal with, and he checked all of the boxes.”

The pair have joked that with his laid-back temperament, the stallion should be competing in hunter derbies instead of eventing, but he has proven himself a successful competitor as he effortlessly moves up the eventing ranks.

“I would have to say he is probably one of the best-produced horses I’ve ever had the honor of sitting on, and more than that is he has a good character to boot,” Green explained.

Green recalls their first Intermediate competition together as a tipping point in the pair’s career where she knew this was no ordinary horse.

“I had only been riding him for about four months and he hadn’t competed at this level yet seeing as we had only done a couple of events,” she detailed. “He just cruised around and as I came off the last jump I got a bit choked up because I realized what a special horse he was and how much heart he had.”

While the Trakehner is known for having the physical conformation and desired look of an upper-level dressage horse, they are a lighter warmblood breed and therefore possess both the endurance athletic ability and jumping ability desired for the cross-country and show jumping phases. Goody, especially seems to be fit for the job as Green describes him as bred for dressage but with an incredible jump, and brave on the cross-country field.

“I think it is very special that Goody is a Trakehner stallion because the Trakehner society in particular are exceptional advocates of their breed, and they truly love their horses,” Green commented. “He is a fantastic stallion to have come to the United States to improve their breeding program and It gives them a very unique opportunity to have an incredible representation of the breed stateside available for fresh semen.”

As for his competition career, Green and Shoffner look forward to continuing to advance him to the top levels of eventing while he also stands for stud at Flying Horse Farm. Now that the two are more familiar and Goody has become accustomed to living across the pond, Green can not wait to see what the next year has in store.

"I am very excited to get him out this year because he just feels incredible right now,” she confirmed. “We are all ecstatic to have him over here with us to continue his career and hopefully his legacy.”