Fein Cera


Sex	mare
Colour	brown
Born	1991
Breed	Holstein
Father	Landadel
Mother	Bella Hopp (Cera)
Mother by	Cor de la Bryere
Breeder	Harm Thormählen
Owner	Turnabout Farm

For more information about her pedigree look here.

Fein Cera was born in 1991 at the stable of Harm Thormählen in Kollmar, near Hamburg.

Her mother Cera II was very successful with Karsten Huck, Paul Darragh, Princess Haya and Otto Becker. With the latter she won the German Championship in 1998.

Like her mother Fein Cera also got pregnant as young mare. Her daughter Klein Cera (by Calato) is still at Harm Thormählen`s stable. Until now she got 4 foals. The last foal is by Come on and was born in 2002. Due to a colicoperation and a long pause she isn`t able to compete in showjumping.

Fein Cera would have been sold for a very high price but Harm knew what he had in his stable. She was hidden from possible buyers, rarely well-groomed and never showed. She was a great jumper but under the saddle and in handling she required a lot of feelings.

Cera with her cute foal Fein Cera- photo: Thormählen

Fein Cera with her mother Cera and her breeder Harm Thormählen - photo: Thormählen

First she started with Phillip Baumgarten in competitions for 5 and 6 years old horses. A few month later she came like her mother to Karsten Huck. In autumn she won the regional championships in Bad Segeberg (Germany) and she became known as an exceptional horse.

The unvisible shield “For sale” was always hanging round the neck of the beautiful mare. Her breeder Harm Thormählen tried to get a german buyer. Also other riders like Ludger Beerbaum tried this horse but he was not happy.

In December 1998 she was sold to Alison Firestone. In their first season together they placed in many international Grand Prix but at the second season – Fein Cera was already 8 years - there were some misunderstandings. Videos from this time showed a horse which was very unsatisfied and hectic. Alison decided to gave the horse to Peter to sell it. But in his work she learned to trust Peter and it turned out that both were made for each other.

Fortunately Peter found a sponsoring group who saved him the horse until the World Championship in Jerez 2002. Fein Cera thanked him with a great performance and the win of the individual bronze medal. Additionally she won the prize for the best horse of the WEGs which made Peter especially proud, as he knew that he made her what she was then.

After WEG the sponsor group could not hold her any more. She was sold to the US amateur rider Sarah Willeman who let Peter ride her until she has finished her study - at least that was the plan. But, fortunately, she saw that Peter and Cera just belong together and didn`t seperate the pair. That payed off soon when Cera and Peter got a member on the US team for the OG in Athens that in the end won the gold medal.

Fein Cera stayed with Peter and they won a lot of placings in many big GPs yet until she was retired in the end of 2007. Previously she was bred to Ustinov and via embyrotransfer became mother of her second foal. The little stallion was born from an surrogate mare in May 2008 at Peter`s stable in Germany.

Fein Cera with Erin - photo: Erin Gilmore

Fein Cera`s retirement even at the age of 15 years is surely a big thank you from the rider and the owner to a great and fabulous horse! She never refused and always tried to do a good job! There is surely another big thank you to Peter! He turned a very sensitive and hot horse into a confident and relaxed performing world class horse. She can be proud to have had a rider like him and also Peter knows that she maybe have been the best horse that he ever had! It is not exaggerated to say that she was one of the best horses ever in showjumping! But not only her show jumping qualities and great successes make her unique, with her beauty and personality she was fascinating the audience all over the world and remains unforgettable!

Fein Cera enjoying her retirement on green fields - photo: Erin Gilmore

Peter about Fein Cera`s retirement and how she is after that:

"I competed her in Gothenburg last year (2007) and that was her last show befor we deciced we wanted to do some breeding with her befor she gets too old. We got her pregnant and we did an embryotransfer. That took about three month and then I spend three month in the summer time putting her back to work again. So she had six month out of sport. Then last fall I rode her in three big Grand Prixs and she placed in all three, she was amazing and then we retired her after that. We thouht it would be a good time to let her stop at the top of the sport. She does always everything. That horse did so much or my ridingand for the US, she won some great medals for our country and she had fantastic results, I was so proud of her. She looks beautyful. I watch her every day, she is in the field all day long. She is dappel and gorgeous and perfect sound and healthy. She trail rides some times but we now deciced to pull her shoes off. She is really happy, she is happy to be in the field."