Some Europeans might have rubbed their eyes when they saw Mosaic, a diminutive horse with a rather tall lady aboard, for the first time. Carrying the Australian flag on the saddle pad they seemed to go on with a tradition that started in 1980 when Australia sent a dressage rider to the Olympics for the first time. The country continued to do so with little success until the 1990s. Initially nobody assumed that this liver chestnut would change Australia’s reputation from rather exotic dressage country to a nation seriously devoted to the discipline. The story of Mosaic is proof that one could ride on a half pony, come from down under and yet be serious about international competition.

Mosaic was born in New Zealand in 1983 and is an offspring of Witzbold, one of the first imported Hanoverian sires in this country. His father was well bred by Winnetou out of a Lungau mare and went on to sire several other dressage horses in kiwi country, which competed internationally, e.g. Mosaic’s full brother Playskool.

Mosaic’s dam was a pony size mare by Sharam ox, so in the end Mosaic was standing barely 160 cm and missed the big lines of a typical European warmblood. He became a registered NZ Hanoverian and his breeder Eric Ropiha, a well-known horseman in New Zealand, sold him as a 3 ½ years old to Sharon Field, one of the country’s first international dressage riders.