THE prolific five-star Grand Prix winning mare Castleforbes Libertina was sadly put to sleep this week at the age of 27.
Bred in Germany by Friedhelm Vehlber, the Libero H mare from a Polydor damline was owned throughout her phenomenal career at the top of the sport by Lady Georgina Forbes and lived out her life, following retirement in 2011, at Castle Forbes Stud in Co Longford.
Ridden under the Irish flag by Jessica Kürten, Libertina won nine five-star Grands Prix all over the world, including the Dubai Masters (2006), London Olympia (2007) São Paulo (2008), Leipzig (2009 and 2010), Zurich (2009), Gothenburg (2010). Perhaps her most popular win came on home soil in the Dublin Grand Prix in 2008 in front of a packed Irish crowd.
The pair won the 2007 Rolex Top 10 Final in Geneva and came within a single fault of lifting the FEI World Cup trophy at the 2006 final in Kuala Lumpur.
Castleforbes Libertina was officially retired from the sport at Mullingar Show in June 2011, after which she appeared in public a few times. In 2016, with her Kannan foal Castleforbes Gillian at foot, she qualified for The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship at the Dublin Horse Show and was shown by Ballina’s Tiernan Gill.
That foal also won the HSI filly foal championship in the same year and now, as a seven-year-old, is being ridden by Gerald Clarke. The pair won the opening round of the HSI Studbook Series at Galway Equestrian this year. Gillian is the only foal recorded from Castleforbes Libertina on the Irish Horse Register.
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