:: Matthews Hanoverians and Casey Johnson have success at Horse of the Year Show
- March 2008.
Casey riding Dream World MH was successful in Level 4 dressage, with a win and 3 seconds. She was Reserve Champion Level 4 Horse of the Year. Casey also rode De Ninya MH for minor placings in level 1 dressage. Dream World MH bred in Awanui at Matthews Hanoverian Stud was also judged Adult Performance Bred Horse of the Year, she won 'Mare To Breed From' and 'Horse Suitable For Dressage over 4 years'. Then in the Championship against the stallions she was judged overall Champion. Dream World MH is out of Wel Kantje, a State Premium mare imported by the Matthews from Germany in 1996. Dream World MH is an embryo transfer foal by Dream Boy, an imported stallion. She was born while Wel Kantje was out competing and winning also at the Horse of the Year Show and had a very successful competition career before being retired and having her own foals.
In the '4 year and under Performance bred Horse of the Year' Dream World MH's younger sister Dream Girl MH was Reserve Champion. The Level 1 dressage Champion was also bred by Matthews Hanoverians, this was Giusto MH now owned and ridden by Susan Tomlin of Palmerston Nth.
Level 2 dressage was dominated by Matthews horses.... Domino MH out of Dream Worlds' sister was Level 2 Champion also ridden by Susan and the reserve Champion was Geldof MH ridden and owned by Sarah Matheson-Raey of Cambridge also bred in Awanui.
Earlier in the season Casey had success at the Northland Championships in October with a Champion in Level 3 with Rain Dance MH, Level 4 Dream World MH and reserve in Level 5 Animation, who then injured himself.
In December at the Auckland Manukau Championships, Casey and Dream World MH were Level 4 Champions again, then in January crowned champion again at Waitemata Championships. Overall in the NZ Dressage Accumulators Dream World MH and Casey were 2nd in the Level 4 Freestlye to Music and 4th in the Level 4 Challenge Accumulator for NZ.

:: "Casey Johnson makes her mark in Taupo". Article by Joan Gilchrist, March 2007.

Outstanding results for Kaitaia equestrian Casey Johnson at the 2007 national dressage competition in Taupo. The goal is to ride dressage at the Olympics for New Zealand, but Awanui 21-year-old Casey Johnson knows that's a bit down the track. However, she has a head start on many of her contemporaries with the same dream: she has a string of purpose-bred dressage horses to build up her experience on, and the support of the breeder of those horses to go as far as she can.
Johnson is stable rider - as it is known in Europe and the USA - for Awanui breeders Judith and Peter Matthews. The couple have been breeding warm-bloods from the best German lines for a number of years, including importing good quality mares and inseminating them from some of the world's leading dressage stallions. They have also extensively used the imported Hanoverian Golden Boy, who has proved a good cross-out with their mares.
Johnson and the Matthews horses have just had a great weekend at the Bates National Dressage Championships in Taupo, among their successes, the coveted Horsepower Young Dressage Horse Championship.
Johnson lives literally over the road from the Matthews' property. She started riding on her eighth birthday when she first went for lessons with Englishwoman Phoebe Kirby who kept some ponies for local kids to learn to ride on. "I walked for a year because I was so scared." Johnson grins at the memory of the chubby child bouncing around on Kirby's ponies. Then, as she progressed, Kirby gave her a pony to ride on, Johnson started hunting and show jumping and was in the Northland Pony Club horse trials championship in 2003.
"I loved eventing," says Johnson, "but I get paid for what I do now." She started wandering across the road to Matthews' Hanoverians when Judith had German girls working for her and riding the horses. Johnson cleaned stables in exchange for lessons.
Then she found herself being, as she describes, "the crash test dummy for the young horses"! Matthews laughs. "The German girls were not brave enough to get on them - but they never bucked anyway." Johnson confesses to never thinking that far ahead!
Matthews offered her a job, but family and friends persuaded Johnson to finish school, which she did. She has now been riding for Matthews for some four years? All she has ever wanted to do was to ride horses. Initially she took a part-time job in the Matthews' service station, which lasted precisely six hours before Johnson was back to the horses.
Since then she has been on the competition circuit, championships in Northland, Waikato and Waitemata in the lower grades to her credit, because mostly the Matthews' horses are relatively young. She's had some lessons from Canadian international Leonie Bramall. She's going to Bramall's European stable for a couple of months at the end of April to work in the pressure of the German dressage world and it can't come soon enough. She's also had some lessons from Aussie-based New Zealander Linda Schmerglatt and from former Kiwi international rider Katherin Gorringe. Apart from that, "I study lots of videos and try to put in to practice what I see, and Judith shouts at me! Then I work to get whatever she's said is wrong, right!"
Matthews said, "She comes over at the weekends and I tell her she doesn't have to, but that's what she wants. I asked her if she wanted to go and ride in the USA, she said 'not until I am taking a horse with me'".
It is the sort of dedication that will carry Johnson, who has four younger brothers, to international level in this demanding sport. Matthews is playing her part, keeping the best young horse from each year's crop of foals for Johnson to break and school on and see how far she can take it. At the moment, they are very excited by a 3-year old from the imported mare Diva Primero by Dreamboy.
This last weekend at Taupo, Johnson had a winning time: third in the NRM Medium Accumulator and fourth in the Medium Championship with Pat Dalrymples's Animation; fifth on Dabado MH for the Matthews Hanoverians Novice championship qualifier. Rain Dance MH was right up there for seventh in the Novice Championship; while DreamWorld MH may live up to her name in the future, taking out the Horsepower Young Dressage Horse Championship, scoring as the best in conformation, highly praised for her riding qualities.
Johnson is an ideal jockey for these young horses learning their trade: soft, and with a remarkable riding 'feel' which is the hallmark of the top riders in the world. On Dream World MH, she was third in the Elementary Championship.
And what does Casey Johnson do when she's not riding top class young dressage horses? "I sleep!"

Above: Casey Johnson and "Dream World MH" at HOY, March 2008.

DREAM TEAM: Casey Johnson on Dream World MH at Taupo, March 2007.

Dream World MH.
Photo Barbara Thomson

:: "Dream World MH" wins 2005 NI Young Dressage Horse Championship

"Dream World MH" by Dream Boy ex Wel Kantje (bred by embryo transfer). Scored over 8 in the recent mare inspection tour by the German Visitor Dr Wilkins. Won the 2005 North Island Horsepower Young Dressage Championship at Tielcy Park in Palmerston North. She won the 4 year old section then went onto win Overall over the 5 and 6 year olds. She then went on to be Reserve Champion Preliminary horse at the 2005 HOY show in the rain. The prize-giving was unmounted. Kathrin Gorringe is riding "Dream World MH" for the stud, so we hope to see her out this season.
Dream World MH's home name is 'Donut', she was the young horse Ben Conn rode in the Master class featured in the 'Horse & Pony' magazine earlier in the year.

:: "Dabado MH" - Reserve Champion Hanoverian at HOY 2005

"Dabado MH". Chestnut mare born 2001, by De Niro ex Witzfleur by Witzbold. In Dabado's mare inspection by the German visitor Dr Wilkins, she scored very well, with an 8+, and was 2nd highest for the NZ Inspection Tour. We took her to the Horse of the Year show and there she won the Hanoverian mare class, as well as the 3 years and over class, before acheiving Reserve Champion Hanoverian. Dabado MH is now also under saddle and will be shown by the Stud's rider Casey Johnson this season. She is going very well under saddle. This lovely mare is being retained by the stud as a future breeding prospect.

:: Introducing "Weltliebe"

Weltliebe, a German imported mare by Weltmeyer, has recently come home after schooling with Kathrin Gorringe. She won a Novice test at the Horse of the Year Show 2005, but unforunately the last one was rained off. She will now be competed by Casey Johnson, our rider. Weltliebe is the dam of two lovely fillies by Gymnastik Star - "Gala MH" and "Ghia MH".