American Trakehner Association

Inspection Committee

After much discussion, the ATA has changed its approach for inspecting ATA horses to be much more in line with the Trakehner Verband. We have hired Dr Christian Schacht as Breed Director  

Christian Schacht will consult with the ATA as Breed Director. In that capacity, Mr. Schacht will oversee the ATA’s inspection process, and will personally participate in all of the ATA inspections this year.   For those of you that do not know Christian, or did not see his presentation at last year’s annual meeting, he is an internationally recognized trainer, rider, and evaluator of sporthorses.  His family has been breeding and raising Trakehner horses for decades, and he has a deep and abiding love for the breed.    Previously, Christian served as Breeding Director for the ISR/Oldenburg registry.   We believe Christian will be a tremendous asset to the inspection process, and help us improve the standing of the Trakehner breed in North America.    

Please welcome him as one of our own.  

Our Previous Inspection Committee members were:

These individuals volunteer their time to inspect Trakehners at inspections held around the country.

3 members of the committee inspect the stallions in addition to a representative of the Trakehner Verband who carries 2 votes.

1 member of the committee inspects the mares.

Rhea Gibble

Rhea Gibble is an accomplished FEI dressage rider and trainer.  She has also been very successful with both show hunters and event horses in her riding career.  Her success has been almost exclusively with Trakehner horses and she has won, as a rider, more than 12 ATA Horse of the Year Awards, the Foerderverein Award and, as a breeder, the Gerda Friedrichs Award.  She has been a member of the Inspection Committee since 1999 and joined the ATA in 1976 as a life-time member.  In 2009 she served, by invitation of the Trakehner Verband, as judge of the German Trakehner Mare Championship in Neumuenster, Germany.  Ms. Gibble is the CFO of the Pender Veterinary Centre in Fairfax, VA and resides in Middleburg, VA. She is the daughter of ATA distinguished member, Helen Gibble. 

Brad Kerbs

Brad Kerbs of Eureka, MO, is the Past-President of the ATA and has been a member of the Inspection Committee since 1990. He served as chairman of the Inspection Committee from 2000 – 2006 and again from 2010 to present. He is the former President CEO of Purina Mills in St. Louis, MO as well as former Chairman of the Board of Burke Industries in San Jose, California. He is a member of the Trakehner Verband and also judged the German Trakehner Mare Champion in Neumünster, Germany in 2001 and 2007. He was the chairman of the Canadian Sport Horse Association’s inspection committee for two years and has judged the horse breeding divisions of the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. He lived in Europe near the Dutch / German border for 6 years and attended European inspections for Trakehner, KWPN, Westfalen, Holsteiner and Hanoverian associations. He has scored and judged over 6,000 warmblood horses since 1988. He has been a member of the ATA since 1977.

Margaret MacGregor

Dr. Margaret MacGregor is a board certified neurosurgeon and Partner at the Springfield Clinic’s Department of Neurological Surgery.  After graduating from Smith College with Honors in German, she returned to the Universität Hamburg as a Fulbright Fellow in Physical Chemistry.  She subsequently obtained her medical degree from the New Jersey Medical School.  A Neurosurgical Residency was completed at Loyola University in Maywood, Illinois

She has owned and ridden Trakehner horses since 2001. At Holders Hill she stands the approved Trakehner stallions Horalas *Pg*E* and Feiner Prinz. Formerly, the Trakehner stallion Troy also stood at the farm.   She is a life-time member of the ATA, Chair of the ATA Education Committee, member of the ATA Board of Trustees as well as a member of the Trakehner Verband.  Dr. MacGregor is also Secretary of the American Trakehner Foundation.  A number of ATA inspections have been held at Holders Hill.  She credits her maternal grandmother, who bred and showed Bedlington Terrier dogs for over forty years, for kindling her interest in animal breeding.

In 2012 and 2013 she was an invited Judge for the Trakehner Lower Saxony Foal Championships, in Hannover, Germany.  Fluent in German, Dr. MacGregor was approved as an ATA inspector in 2014.

Carol Poulin-Taylor

Carol Poulin-Taylor started riding at the age of five and competing in local 4-H shows at the age of twelve. Her first professional job with horses was at a Morgan breeding and training facility in Maine where she worked for 12 years. She has trained and competed various breeds in dressage and eventing and has over 30 years of experience training horses from birth up to a finished show horse. In 1997 she earned her USDF Bronze Medal Rider Award.

 In 1994 Carol started her own boarding and training facility, Esprit Equestrian Center in Durham, Maine, where she is the owner, instructor and trainer. The focus is mainly on dressage but also includes the jumping disciplines with horses that show talent in that area. In 1992 she graduated with distinction from the USDF “L” Judges Program and officiates at several shows a year. She also travels and teaches clinics.

 Carol has been breeding Trakehners since 1998 producing two or three foals every year and stands the ATA approved stallion Tradition *Pb*.  In 2007 she was USDF fifth place Dressage Sport Horse Breeder of the Year.  She has been a member of the ATA since 1994 and has served on the ATA Board of Directors for two terms and was the Chair of the Awards and Futurity committees.  She was approved as an ATA inspector in 2011.

Karen Stopek

Karen Stopek has been riding horses since age seven and shows in Hunter/Jumper and Dressage competitions.  She has been breeding sport horses since 1999.  She owns and operates Stopek Stables in Adel, Iowa, and has stood the approved Trakehner stallion Prelude by Mozart since 2005.  She enjoys foxhunting and was a member of The Moingona Hunt. She also trains young horses as well as teaches riding lessons.  Her first exposure to Trakehner horses was at the age of 13 at Dagmar Zimmerman’s Birchmont Farm in Novelty, OH. 

In the early 1980’s, she lived in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio and was in the stands watching as Abdullah Pg*E* win his first Grand Prix at the Chagrin Valley Hunter Jumper Classic.  In addition to Trakehners, Karen also raises miniature polydactyl cats and Great Dane dogs.  Karen has served as a Trustee for the American Trakehner Association, has hosted inspections for the ATA, was Advertising Sales Manager for seven years, and formerly was the Chair of the Publications Committee.  Mrs. Stopek was approved as an ATA inspector in 2014.