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23. <title>Breeders Congress at the KWPN stallion show</title>
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27. <pubDate>Fri, 28 Feb 2025 04:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
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29. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
30. <category><![CDATA[Show Jumping]]></category>
31. <category><![CDATA[christopher hector]]></category>
32. <category><![CDATA[Jumpig breeders congress]]></category>
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38. <description><![CDATA[Some of the most famous jumping breeders in the world joined the panel at an International Congress at the KWPN stallion show. Christopher Hector interviews the congress organizer Dirk Willem Rosie who raises some very very controversial issues...]]></description>
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50. <h2 class="text-build-content" style="text-align: center;"><b>Top breeders discuss key issues at Congress</b></h2>
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68. <p class="text-build-content" style="text-align: center;"><i>The panel consisted of (from left to right) Valentijn De Bock, Walter Lelie, Tom Brennan, Alexandra Lebon,<br />
69. </i><i>Fred van Straaten and Harm Thormählen.</i></p>
70. </div>
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75. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Breeders Congress at the 2025 KWPN stallion show</strong></p>
76. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>By Christopher Hector</strong></p>
77. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>It’s not just the success of the Dutch horses in dressage and jumping that is the magnet drawing spectators from all over the world to the KWPN stallion show in den Bosch, it’s the show itself, and the organizers are always looking for ways to improve their offering.</strong></p>
78. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>This year it was the first edition of a very special congress of breeders, from all over the world…</strong></p>
79. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>The day after the congress I sat down with the chief mover-and-shaker behind the Congress, Dirk Willem Rosie -that’s him in the far right of the photo.</strong></p>
80. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>I asked Dirk, what are your overall impressions of the evening?</em></p>
81. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“It was to be expected that we would hear lots of very interesting stories from famous and successful breeders and that obviously happened. The other thing is that we may have had a few too many of them which made the evening very long, heavy stuff so to speak, on the other hand it was a unique opportunity to have these successful breeders in the one spot, and they were more than willing to share their expertise.”</p>
82. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“I have had many reactions from people who were grateful that we took the initiative and invited all these people from various countries. Some of them told us things that we already knew, but I was really pleased that the personal story of each breeder came out, and also that famous breeders are normal human beings, and that sometimes luck was the reason they produced some of their top horses, and they were honest enough to share that with us.”</p>
83. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“For instance, the French breeder, Alexandra Lebon told us that her top mare Jubilée d’Ouilly was not the product of deep research but rather coincidence because the semen she wanted for her mare Gardinia (Graphit / Sermon I) didn’t come because there was trouble with the plane and then she had to choose Palestro (St Brendan xx / Sermon I) and Jubilee came out, and that is something that happens so often with breeders, that luck plays a part.”</p>
84. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“On the other hand, they were quite consistent in their view that the mare really makes the difference, that’s something we all know, and we all preach that, but these top breeders all had their successes with mares that stood out, and that is something in which coincidence does not play a role. All of them, with no exceptions, started with a super mare with super qualities, and really that’s the explanation for their success.”</p>
85. <p><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38267" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="532" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald-300x228.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald-395x300.jpg 395w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
86. <p><em>Emerald &#8211; not from a star studded mare line&#8230;</em></p>
87. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>I was thinking about that this morning, and called up a couple of pedigrees on your wonderful website,horsetelex.com, and found that Emerald, for instance, does not come from a star-studded mare line, the same with Vigo d’Arsouiles… Last night people were getting scared, oh we can’t breed if we can’t afford to buy a super mare, but sometimes great stallions have come out of ‘normal’ mare lines…</em></p>
88. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“That’s right, and that’s how mother nature works, sometimes it is a bit strange and unpredictable, and then a freak of nature comes out. The thing is to find that freak of nature and to use it, and don’t condemn horses on the basis of their pedigree. We can condemn horses on the basis of their ability, and how they perform, always take the pedigree into consideration, but the horse has to be a top performer, and that’s how sometimes new horses enter the scene because they are that freak of nature, because mother nature spreads her seeds and sometimes a single seed lands over there in the extreme part and something new comes out, and we have to detect that, and work with mother nature, and the freaks that pop out.”</p>
89. <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-47840" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1fragance.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="335" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1fragance.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1fragance-300x183.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1fragance-493x300.jpg 493w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
90. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Fragance &#8211; not a superstar in the ring&#8230;</em></p>
91. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>And sometimes the fabulous performers are not the great producers. For instance, Joris had Butterfly Flip join his mare band, and yet the results from this mare are very modest, but when we look at his most famous mare, Fragance, she was 1.30m, 1.40m tops, not a superstar like Butterfly…</em></p>
92. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“I like what Joris said about this last night, that he likes this instance because it gives average breeders the idea that they too can play in this game. He mentioned Fragance as an example, who was not a top 1.60 horse, but still a special horse with a special mind. He found out because his wife was riding Fragance, that she had a 110% mentality, a will to perform.”</p>
93. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Joris also made the point that Fragance was still competing when she was 19 or 20, and that this was an indication of soundness, yet when the discussion came to the issue of using younger stallions or older stallions, there was a room full of people saying no, no, no let’s breed to the younger stallions, but if we look at dressage breeding, where they compulsively breed to younger stallions, and ignore the good established older stallions, they now have massive genetically based soundness problems. Shouldn’t we apply that to jumping breeding, if we go to a stallion like For Pleasure we know he was still jumping Grand Prix when he was nineteen, he’s not only brilliant but he’s very very sound…</em></p>
94. <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28804" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ForPleasure.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ForPleasure.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ForPleasure-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ForPleasure-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
95. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>For Pleasure &#8211; great sire, and oh so sound&#8230;</em></p>
96. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That’s right. I was amazed at the feelings recorded last night, I thought that some of the public and some of the panelists would say, it’s dangerous to breed to young stallions because you run the risk of losing a generation, but they all tried to convince us that we should use young stallions.”</p>
97. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>But at times last night I thought it got a bit like Facebook, with people saying what they thought they were expected to say, but I suspect that if you go and look at the stallions those same people are actually using, you’d find they go to the famous established ones.</em></p>
98. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That’s why I referred to the BWP stallion show where archeology was dominate…</p>
99. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Darco still influences breeding there, but he is also here at the 2025 KWPN stallion show…</em></p>
100. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That’s why I made remarks last night, that while the breeders and the experts all said, you must use younger stallions, the market says something else, that’s something we can’t deny. If you want to sell your foal, and most breeders want to sell their foals, better not use a young stallion because you can’t sell the foal at a good price.”</p>
101. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“We need to deal with this situation, and you mentioned the example of dressage, it is an amazing phenomenon that dressage and showjumping breeders are at 180 degrees confrontation with each other.”</p>
102. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“I agree that in dressage breeding we have a problem with so many stallions that either never performed, or only performed for a short period of time.”</p>
103. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Or like Dynamic Dream, never even did a performance test, and breeds hundreds of mares…</em></p>
104. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67727" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1aaDynamic-Dream-canter-2.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="351" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1aaDynamic-Dream-canter-2.jpg 512w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1aaDynamic-Dream-canter-2-300x206.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></p>
105. <p><em>Dynamic Dream &#8211; no performance test&#8230;</em></p>
106. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That’s right and it’s logical that some of the health issues that are causing these stallions not to compete, will creep into the population and pop out when we don’t want them. It’s the other way round in showjumping where we see the tendency of using proven stallions, sound stallions. Chacco Blue, For Pleasure, Darco, Diamant de Sémilly… they were like 120% sound, and in that respect the two populations are saying goodbye to each other. That’s something that worries me. In showjumping it worries me, because in my personal opinion, you don’t progress with Darco and For Pleasure and stallions like that, you do have progression with the well-bred young stallions, six, seven years old that have shown potential for the big sport, that’s the kind of stallions we use for genetic progress.”</p>
107. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“In dressage I think we are losing it, because the younger stallions are so popular, and some of them are just not sound enough, and the idea, the objective for the commercial breeders is just so far away from the sport. In showjumping that is less, everybody knows how a horse should jump, but in dressage, breeders don’t breed for Grand Prix they breed for stallions. Some of these foals will grow up and become lovely horses, but that’s not on the basis of genetic progress, it’s on the basis of the hard labour that the riders put in.”</p>
108. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“We need to get our minds back on track and directed to the sport, to Grand Prix, to get some sense in dressage breeding.”</p>
109. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Another of the what I thought were ‘face book’ responses, was when you raised the very important question of the future of the breeding associations, they were going no no, we must keep our breeds separate, but I just did a survey of the stallion licensings of the past twelve months, and the stallions licensed were all a mix of different breeds and bloodlines, there was no sign of any loyalty to the traditional breed lines. Maybe when you look at the KWPN, there’s a Dutch identity, but if you look at the other breed societies’ new licensed stallions, you cannot tell looking at the pedigrees, which breed society you are looking at…</em></p>
110. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“No, you are right.”</p>
111. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Forget it, I liked the old days when the breeding station had a couple of stallions, and a hotel and was the centre of community life, that’s disappeared…</em></p>
112. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“This is another example of the fact that people don’t practice what they preach, there is a discrepancy between what people like to say, and what is actually happening. At the Congress there was a consensus that the studbooks should be doing more to protect the breeders from stallions that were not sound and healthy, stallions that were hard to train, in practice breeders don’t act that way, they use dressage stallions even before they are approved, they don’t want to be protected by any studbook. There’s a big difference between what people say when they are in groups and being monitored and what they do afterwards in their own stables.”</p>
113. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“I am very much in favor of that option where stud books should act to stop some stallions producing offspring, but in practice it is a matter of competition in the market. In Germany, for instance, if Oldenburg approves Secret, even though he has weak pasterns and one uneven front hoof, etc etc, then Hanover will follow and then Westfalia, other stud books follow up because breeders want to use the stallion.”</p>
114. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“The first thing that should have happened was for Oldenburg to say, no! You go and be a Grand Prix star, then maybe we can consider approving you.”</p>
115. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>One second in a young horse class at Ermelo and a win at the Bundeschampionate, and he is the most popular stallion everywhere on the basis of one 30 second video! </em></p>
116. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68381" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Secret-Beelitz.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Secret-Beelitz.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Secret-Beelitz-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
117. <p><em>Secret &#8211;  breeding sensation but no real performance&#8230;</em></p>
118. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“The doors are open and that’s because one studbook was open, and that’s because they are all in competition, they all want registrations from foals by such a popular stallion. It’s a money question and money talks everywhere.”</p>
119. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“My opinion is that studbooks should fulfill their primary role, and that is to select for sound horses, good fundament and all those things, but it starts with the fundament, with correct legs. Of course x-rays, but it starts with the fundament.”</p>
120. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>One of the breeders whose opinion I respect, said that he had been to licensings, and there were young stallions that were obvious shiverers, yet they were approved, and shivering is a big problem right now…</em></p>
121. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“Yeah, or a premium stallion! That’s what happens.”</p>
122. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>So if the studbooks are not doing this, why not forget it, and just have one big registry, save money and let the market decide…</em></p>
123. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That would be an option, but my position is, especially with the KWPN, I’m Dutch and I used to work with the KWPN, so I have a certain bond with the stud book. The KWPN has a history of strict selection, and is surrounded by stud books that lower their thresholds, like Westfalia, like AES, and the reaction to these competitors and the drive for registrations, should be to raise the bar, especially at this show for three-year-old stallions.”</p>
124. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>But I think the KWPN is a little different because, it does not depend on the stallion auctions to get enough money to keep going, and while there is another Dutch book, it is basically the national book, whereas in Germany they have lost the revenue from their stallion auctions and there is a multiplicity of books, ‘ oh you don’t like my stallion in Oldenburg, I’ll take him down the road to Westfalia’. Sooner or later, I suspect these stud books will disappear and I think it will be more sooner than later.</em></p>
125. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“You mean a united German stud book, DSP or something like that?”</p>
126. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>Something like that, or PSI…</em></p>
127. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“In my opinion in this evolution of the growing number of approved stallions, which means a growing number of stallions that should not be approved is a problem, because these young stallions should be the means of genetic progress. Then the first stud book to raise the bar, especially for the first line, the three-year-old stallions, creates a brand, a brand of true quality that the breeders will recognize when they see it.”</p>
128. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>They might recognize it on facebook, but when it comes to paying a higher fee, and having the chance of their horse being rejected, perhaps they’ll look for a cheaper easier option. We used to look at books like AES and say, that’s not a studbook, it’s just a registry, and yet when I look at the results the AES has produced quite a large number of very successful horses, perhaps because they had such a wide-open book, then there was a chance of new blood coming, and they are not the worst stud book when it comes to results…</em></p>
129. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“That doesn’t guarantee the quality of an AES approved stallion. What I am arguing for is not a strategy that is achieved in a year but a long-term strategy where you use an approved stallion from a book with a high bar, then you know that stallion is sound, you know that stallion has been trained and has proven to be nicely rideable, doesn’t have something like a breathing problem or anything like that. I’ve been breeding to stallions in Germany and I didn’t know about their soundness, and I was surprised to have foals with hereditary problems that are not in my mare, and you find this out when the offspring is two-and-a-half years old, and by that time, you’ve spent a lot of money.”</p>
130. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>You say this is a long-term strategy, but my question is, do the stud books have a long time? I hear of books that are losing millions of euros, the number of registrations going down…</em></p>
131. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“Lower your costs, and the judges there do not cost a lot of money, it’s the way they do their job that makes a difference. Use very knowledgeable judges who can explain why they have taken their decisions, have a high bar, and stick to that strategy, and tell the world that is what you are doing. Market that brand. I only believe in long lasting solutions, and everything you do must be seen and be transparent. Also with riders and trainers, hang cameras everywhere so everybody can look. That’s how you deal with the situation, you must be strict for yourself, have high standards for yourself, and show the rest of the world that you have these standards.”</p>
132. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>To finish where we started, I thought the Breeders Congress last night, was a brilliant concept, the panel and the topics you picked, were fabulous. I thought the problem was trying to squash it into such a small amount of time. You were doing a good job asking probing questions, but in the end, time was defeating us.</em></p>
133. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">“Yes.”</p>
134. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em>When I started coming to this stallion show in den Bosch, fifteen years ago, one of the reasons I came was because on the Sunday when nothing else is happening, there was a special tour for foreign visitors, all done in English like the Congress last night, and we went to some great studs and training stables. Do you think that one day the Congress might be held on the Sunday and give us all day to discuss important issues and maybe visit a couple of nearby farms?</em></p>
135. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;"><em> </em>“We’ve decided to continue this initiative next year. We’ll make two Congresses, one for dressage, one for jumping, and that’s a very good idea to combine it with tours. We are open for any good idea to make this first initiative a long-lasting attraction as part of the KWPN stallion show.”</p>
136. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">A couple of days after the Congress, a press release detailed the series of topics put before the audience and their response, which was done by clicking on the bar-code and using an app…</p>
137. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: left;">Here is the press release with the audience responses:</p>
138. </td>
139. </tr>
140. <tr>
141. <td align="left">Text Dirk Willem Rosie &#8211; here are the statements followed by the responses&#8230;</td>
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154. <div>
155. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 1: Only stallions that have excelled at the highest level themselves can produce valuable offspring. So: <b>young stallions are a no-go!</b></p>
156. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 1: I prefer to use:</p>
157. </div>
158. </td>
159. </tr>
160. </tbody>
161. </table>
162. </div>
163. </td>
164. </tr>
165. </tbody>
166. </table>
167. </div>
168. <div>
169. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
170. <tbody>
171. <tr>
172. <td>
173. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
174. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
175. <tbody>
176. <tr>
177. <td align="left">
178. <div>
179. <p class="text-build-content">1) An extremely promising young stallion:</p>
180. <p class="text-build-content">
181. </div>
182. </td>
183. </tr>
184. <tr>
185. <td align="left">
186. <div>
187. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>18,5%</b></h3>
188. </div>
189. </td>
190. </tr>
191. </tbody>
192. </table>
193. </div>
194. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
195. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
196. <tbody>
197. <tr>
198. <td align="left">
199. <div>
200. <p class="text-build-content">2) A younger stallion that has already shown some potential for the big sport</p>
201. </div>
202. </td>
203. </tr>
204. <tr>
205. <td align="left">
206. <div>
207. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>59%</b></h3>
208. </div>
209. </td>
210. </tr>
211. </tbody>
212. </table>
213. </div>
214. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
215. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
216. <tbody>
217. <tr>
218. <td align="left">
219. <div>
220. <p class="text-build-content">3) A proven star of the international top sport</p>
221. </div>
222. </td>
223. </tr>
224. <tr>
225. <td align="left">
226. <div>
227. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>22,5%</b></h3>
228. </div>
229. </td>
230. </tr>
231. </tbody>
232. </table>
233. </div>
234. </td>
235. </tr>
236. </tbody>
237. </table>
238. </div>
239. <div>
240. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
241. <tbody>
242. <tr>
243. <td>
244. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
245. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
246. <tbody>
247. <tr>
248. <td align="center"></td>
249. </tr>
250. <tr>
251. <td align="left">
252. <div>
253. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 2: There is no doubt that the mare is at least as important as the stallion. So, the mare should actually be as good as the famous stallion we buy the semen from. <b>But this effectively means that the ‘ordinary’ breeder had better look for another hobby!</b></p>
254. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 2: I breed my mare when she:</p>
255. </div>
256. </td>
257. </tr>
258. </tbody>
259. </table>
260. </div>
261. </td>
262. </tr>
263. </tbody>
264. </table>
265. </div>
266. <div>
267. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
268. <tbody>
269. <tr>
270. <td>
271. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
272. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
273. <tbody>
274. <tr>
275. <td align="left">
276. <div>
277. <p class="text-build-content">1) Has shown good ability and quality as a young horse</p>
278. </div>
279. </td>
280. </tr>
281. <tr>
282. <td align="left">
283. <div>
284. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>81,5%</b></h3>
285. </div>
286. </td>
287. </tr>
288. </tbody>
289. </table>
290. </div>
291. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
292. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
293. <tbody>
294. <tr>
295. <td align="left">
296. <div>
297. <p class="text-build-content">2) Has excelled in sport</p>
298. </div>
299. </td>
300. </tr>
301. <tr>
302. <td align="left">
303. <div>
304. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>14%</b></h3>
305. </div>
306. </td>
307. </tr>
308. </tbody>
309. </table>
310. </div>
311. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
312. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
313. <tbody>
314. <tr>
315. <td align="left">
316. <div>
317. <p class="text-build-content">3) I quit breeding my unknown mare and look for something with an extremely commercial pedigree</p>
318. </div>
319. </td>
320. </tr>
321. <tr>
322. <td align="left">
323. <div>
324. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>4,5%</b></h3>
325. </div>
326. </td>
327. </tr>
328. </tbody>
329. </table>
330. </div>
331. </td>
332. </tr>
333. </tbody>
334. </table>
335. </div>
336. <div>
337. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
338. <tbody>
339. <tr>
340. <td>
341. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
342. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
343. <tbody>
344. <tr>
345. <td align="center"></td>
346. </tr>
347. <tr>
348. <td align="left">
349. <div>
350. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 3: The role of studbooks is changing dramatically: these days they depend more on breeders than the other way round. <b>Studbooks will soon become service providers, leaving (almost) everything to the private initiative of breeders and stallion owners.</b></p>
351. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 3: I think that:</p>
352. </div>
353. </td>
354. </tr>
355. </tbody>
356. </table>
357. </div>
358. </td>
359. </tr>
360. </tbody>
361. </table>
362. </div>
363. <div>
364. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
365. <tbody>
366. <tr>
367. <td>
368. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
369. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
370. <tbody>
371. <tr>
372. <td align="left">
373. <div>
374. <p class="text-build-content">1) Studbooks should minimize costs as much as possible (registration only)</p>
375. </div>
376. </td>
377. </tr>
378. <tr>
379. <td align="left">
380. <div>
381. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>17%</b></h3>
382. </div>
383. </td>
384. </tr>
385. </tbody>
386. </table>
387. </div>
388. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
389. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
390. <tbody>
391. <tr>
392. <td align="left">
393. <div>
394. <p class="text-build-content">2) Studbooks are there to support breeders in a broad sense, especially with the sale of foals and horses</p>
395. </div>
396. </td>
397. </tr>
398. <tr>
399. <td align="left">
400. <div>
401. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>31%</b></h3>
402. </div>
403. </td>
404. </tr>
405. </tbody>
406. </table>
407. </div>
408. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
409. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
410. <tbody>
411. <tr>
412. <td align="left">
413. <div>
414. <p class="text-build-content">3) Studbooks should take more responsibility and protect breeders from stallions that are, for example, not healthy or difficult to ride</p>
415. </div>
416. </td>
417. </tr>
418. <tr>
419. <td align="left">
420. <div>
421. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>52%</b></h3>
422. </div>
423. </td>
424. </tr>
425. </tbody>
426. </table>
427. </div>
428. </td>
429. </tr>
430. </tbody>
431. </table>
432. </div>
433. <div>
434. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
435. <tbody>
436. <tr>
437. <td>
438. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
439. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
440. <tbody>
441. <tr>
442. <td align="center"></td>
443. </tr>
444. <tr>
445. <td align="left">
446. <div>
447. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 4: Stallion shows for 3-year-old stallions are still standard procedure. While we all know that under saddle, at an older age, we see much more and can make better decisions. Apparently, there is still a great need among owners for a podium for 3-year-old stallions. <b>So, should we &#8211; against our better judgement &#8211; maintain that podium?</b></p>
448. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 4: I find the stallion shows of 3-year-old stallions:</p>
449. </div>
450. </td>
451. </tr>
452. </tbody>
453. </table>
454. </div>
455. </td>
456. </tr>
457. </tbody>
458. </table>
459. </div>
460. <div>
461. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
462. <tbody>
463. <tr>
464. <td>
465. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
466. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
467. <tbody>
468. <tr>
469. <td align="left">
470. <div>
471. <p class="text-build-content">1) A valuable genetic and commercial opportunity and a beautiful event that I do not want to lose</p>
472. </div>
473. </td>
474. </tr>
475. <tr>
476. <td align="left">
477. <div>
478. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>79.5%</b></h3>
479. </div>
480. </td>
481. </tr>
482. </tbody>
483. </table>
484. </div>
485. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
486. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
487. <tbody>
488. <tr>
489. <td align="left">
490. <div>
491. <p class="text-build-content">2) An old-fashioned phenomenon that studbooks should collectively put an end to by testing stallions at least one year later under saddle</p>
492. </div>
493. </td>
494. </tr>
495. <tr>
496. <td align="left">
497. <div>
498. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>17,5%</b></h3>
499. </div>
500. </td>
501. </tr>
502. </tbody>
503. </table>
504. </div>
505. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
506. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
507. <tbody>
508. <tr>
509. <td align="left">
510. <div>
511. <p class="text-build-content">3) An unnecessary phenomenon because sport determines all breeding decisions</p>
512. </div>
513. </td>
514. </tr>
515. <tr>
516. <td align="left">
517. <div>
518. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>3%</b></h3>
519. </div>
520. </td>
521. </tr>
522. </tbody>
523. </table>
524. </div>
525. </td>
526. </tr>
527. </tbody>
528. </table>
529. </div>
530. <div>
531. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
532. <tbody>
533. <tr>
534. <td>
535. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
536. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
537. <tbody>
538. <tr>
539. <td align="center"></td>
540. </tr>
541. <tr>
542. <td align="left">
543. <div>
544. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 5: Very high prices have been paid at auctions for high-quality breeding material in recent years. Breeders benefit from the large amount of ‘venture capital’ flowing into the sector. Furthermore, that ‘big money’ is being paid for very interesting breeding material that can contribute to genetic progress. <b>The entire breeding industry benefits from this development!</b></p>
545. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 5: Auctions of ‘sexy’ bred embryos and foals</p>
546. </div>
547. </td>
548. </tr>
549. </tbody>
550. </table>
551. </div>
552. </td>
553. </tr>
554. </tbody>
555. </table>
556. </div>
557. <div>
558. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
559. <tbody>
560. <tr>
561. <td>
562. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
563. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
564. <tbody>
565. <tr>
566. <td align="left">
567. <div>
568. <p class="text-build-content">1) Are a hype that is over once the hope proves to be a lot bigger than the result</p>
569. </div>
570. </td>
571. </tr>
572. <tr>
573. <td align="left">
574. <div>
575. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>34%</b></h3>
576. </div>
577. </td>
578. </tr>
579. </tbody>
580. </table>
581. </div>
582. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
583. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
584. <tbody>
585. <tr>
586. <td align="left">
587. <div>
588. <p class="text-build-content">2) Threaten genetic diversity and the wallet of the ‘ordinary’ breeder</p>
589. </div>
590. </td>
591. </tr>
592. <tr>
593. <td align="left">
594. <div>
595. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>45%</b></h3>
596. </div>
597. </td>
598. </tr>
599. </tbody>
600. </table>
601. </div>
602. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
603. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
604. <tbody>
605. <tr>
606. <td align="left">
607. <div>
608. <p class="text-build-content">3) Give acceleration to genetic progress and enable ‘ordinary’ breeders to participate in more professional breeding</p>
609. </div>
610. </td>
611. </tr>
612. <tr>
613. <td align="left">
614. <div>
615. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>21%</b></h3>
616. </div>
617. </td>
618. </tr>
619. </tbody>
620. </table>
621. </div>
622. </td>
623. </tr>
624. </tbody>
625. </table>
626. </div>
627. <div>
628. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
629. <tbody>
630. <tr>
631. <td>
632. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
633. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
634. <tbody>
635. <tr>
636. <td align="center"></td>
637. </tr>
638. <tr>
639. <td align="left">
640. <div>
641. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 6: We never talk about it, but welfare is indeed the elephant in the room. To the outside world, which knows nothing about horses, we may seem like money-minded people doing things to young horses when they should be in the field. <b>It is in our own interest to pay more attention to horse welfare.</b></p>
642. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 6: Horse welfare</p>
643. </div>
644. </td>
645. </tr>
646. </tbody>
647. </table>
648. </div>
649. </td>
650. </tr>
651. </tbody>
652. </table>
653. </div>
654. <div>
655. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
656. <tbody>
657. <tr>
658. <td>
659. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
660. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
661. <tbody>
662. <tr>
663. <td align="left">
664. <div>
665. <p class="text-build-content">1) May be a relevant issue for riders, but not for breeders</p>
666. </div>
667. </td>
668. </tr>
669. <tr>
670. <td align="left">
671. <div>
672. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>1%</b></h3>
673. </div>
674. </td>
675. </tr>
676. </tbody>
677. </table>
678. </div>
679. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
680. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
681. <tbody>
682. <tr>
683. <td align="left">
684. <div>
685. <p class="text-build-content">2) Is not regulated enough in the breeding world, think about icsi and training horses at too young an age</p>
686. </div>
687. </td>
688. </tr>
689. <tr>
690. <td align="left">
691. <div>
692. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>16,5%</b></h3>
693. </div>
694. </td>
695. </tr>
696. </tbody>
697. </table>
698. </div>
699. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
700. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
701. <tbody>
702. <tr>
703. <td align="left">
704. <div>
705. <p class="text-build-content">3) Is for me something important that I take into account in my personal practice</p>
706. </div>
707. </td>
708. </tr>
709. <tr>
710. <td align="left">
711. <div>
712. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>82,5%</b></h3>
713. </div>
714. </td>
715. </tr>
716. </tbody>
717. </table>
718. </div>
719. </td>
720. </tr>
721. </tbody>
722. </table>
723. </div>
724. <div>
725. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
726. <tbody>
727. <tr>
728. <td>
729. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
730. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
731. <tbody>
732. <tr>
733. <td align="center"></td>
734. </tr>
735. <tr>
736. <td align="left">
737. <div>
738. <p class="text-build-content">Statement 7: Prize money in international show jumping has increased extremely in recent years. For riders, they are an important part of their income. Meanwhile, the vast majority of breeders lose money on breeding future stars. <b>We should do everything we can to make the FEI, Longines and Rolex realize that part of the prize money should flow to the breeders who have made all this possible.</b></p>
739. <p class="text-build-content">Poll 7: Breeders&#8217; premiums are</p>
740. <p class="text-build-content">
741. </div>
742. </td>
743. </tr>
744. </tbody>
745. </table>
746. </div>
747. </td>
748. </tr>
749. </tbody>
750. </table>
751. </div>
752. <div>
753. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
754. <tbody>
755. <tr>
756. <td>
757. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
758. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
759. <tbody>
760. <tr>
761. <td align="left">
762. <div>
763. <p class="text-build-content">1) Not that important, a utopia, they were never there anyway</p>
764. </div>
765. </td>
766. </tr>
767. <tr>
768. <td align="left">
769. <div>
770. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>9,5%</b></h3>
771. </div>
772. </td>
773. </tr>
774. </tbody>
775. </table>
776. </div>
777. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
778. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
779. <tbody>
780. <tr>
781. <td align="left">
782. <div>
783. <p class="text-build-content">2) A moral obligation of sponsors, who should set aside a small part of their budget</p>
784. </div>
785. </td>
786. </tr>
787. <tr>
788. <td align="left">
789. <div>
790. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>20,5%</b></h3>
791. </div>
792. </td>
793. </tr>
794. </tbody>
795. </table>
796. </div>
797. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
798. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
799. <tbody>
800. <tr>
801. <td align="left">
802. <div>
803. <p class="text-build-content">3) So important that they have to happen anyway (task of the studbooks)</p>
804. </div>
805. </td>
806. </tr>
807. <tr>
808. <td align="left">
809. <div>
810. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>70%</b></h3>
811. </div>
812. </td>
813. </tr>
814. </tbody>
815. </table>
816. </div>
817. </td>
818. </tr>
819. </tbody>
820. </table>
821. </div>
822. <div>
823. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
824. <tbody>
825. <tr>
826. <td>
827. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
828. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
829. <tbody>
830. <tr>
831. <td align="center"></td>
832. </tr>
833. <tr>
834. <td align="left">
835. <div>
836. <p class="text-build-content">To find out more about the attendants of this congress, we also asked:</p>
837. <p class="text-build-content"><b>What is the main reason you breed?</b></p>
838. </div>
839. </td>
840. </tr>
841. </tbody>
842. </table>
843. </div>
844. </td>
845. </tr>
846. </tbody>
847. </table>
848. </div>
849. <div>
850. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
851. <tbody>
852. <tr>
853. <td>
854. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
855. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
856. <tbody>
857. <tr>
858. <td align="left">
859. <div>
860. <p class="text-build-content">1) Selling foals and embryos</p>
861. </div>
862. </td>
863. </tr>
864. <tr>
865. <td align="left">
866. <div>
867. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>14%</b></h3>
868. </div>
869. </td>
870. </tr>
871. </tbody>
872. </table>
873. </div>
874. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
875. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
876. <tbody>
877. <tr>
878. <td align="left">
879. <div>
880. <p class="text-build-content">2) Building up a dam line</p>
881. </div>
882. </td>
883. </tr>
884. <tr>
885. <td align="left">
886. <div>
887. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>33,5%</b></h3>
888. </div>
889. </td>
890. </tr>
891. </tbody>
892. </table>
893. </div>
894. <div class="mj-column-per-33-333333333333336 mj-outlook-group-fix">
895. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
896. <tbody>
897. <tr>
898. <td align="left">
899. <div>
900. <p class="text-build-content">3) Producing my own sport horses</p>
901. </div>
902. </td>
903. </tr>
904. <tr>
905. <td align="left">
906. <div>
907. <h3 class="text-build-content"><b>52,5%</b></h3>
908. </div>
909. </td>
910. </tr>
911. </tbody>
912. </table>
913. </div>
914. </td>
915. </tr>
916. </tbody>
917. </table>
918. </div>
919. <div>
920. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
921. <tbody>
922. <tr>
923. <td>
924. <div class="mj-column-per-100 mj-outlook-group-fix">
925. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
926. <tbody>
927. <tr>
928. <td>
929. <table role="presentation" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
930. <tbody>
931. <tr>
932. <td align="center"></td>
933. </tr>
934. <tr>
935. <td align="left">
936. <div>
937. <h2 class="text-build-content">Conclusions</h2>
938. </div>
939. </td>
940. </tr>
941. <tr>
942. <td align="left">
943. <div>
944. <p class="text-build-content">As HorseTelex, we draw the following conclusions from this survey. First of all, the respondents (those present at the congress) are, for the most part, professionals (more than half of them breed for their own use, i.e. to bring out themselves later in the sport). This professional group of showjumper breeders overwhelmingly do NOT choose the big, old names (the proven sires) as partners for their mares. They prefer young stallions.</p>
945. <p class="text-build-content">These breeders think it is enough if a broodmare has shown her potential at a young age. They feel that studbooks do still have an important role to play. The vast majority of visitors to the congress stick to the existing stallion shows (i.e. with 3-year-old stallions). It is also striking that a large majority has reservations about commercial auctions of foals and embryos. Finally, an overwhelming majority considers horse welfare to be a private matter and almost all respondents strongly support the establishment of premiums for successful breeders.</p>
946. </div>
947. </td>
948. </tr>
949. <tr>
950. <td align="left">
951. <div></div>
952. </td>
953. </tr>
954. <tr>
955. <td align="center">
956. <table role="presentation" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
957. <tbody>
958. <tr>
959. <td role="presentation" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#414141"><a href="http://xtg5k.mjt.lu/lnk/AVoAAGCeBSEAAc5FRl4AALOHduEAAYCsBfEAnB6NABLHWgBnpzjFVUprOk-FTZy9eqG_47QJwwASv3c/3/yS6Jhlfikgtnv24k9eqH0w/aHR0cHM6Ly9mb3Jtcy5nbGUvUTVWVkZIR2tzN1ZGUTVHVzY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Want to participate in this survey yourself? Click here  </a></td>
960. </tr>
961. </tbody>
962. </table>
963. </td>
964. </tr>
965. </tbody>
966. </table>
967. </td>
968. </tr>
969. </tbody>
970. </table>
971. </div>
972. </td>
973. </tr>
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975. </table>
976. </div>
977. ]]></content:encoded>
981. </item>
982. <item>
983. <title>KWPN Stallion Show 2025</title>
984. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2025/02/kwpn-stallion-show-2025/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kwpn-stallion-show-2025</link>
986. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
987. <pubDate>Sat, 08 Feb 2025 03:39:11 +0000</pubDate>
988. <category><![CDATA[ads]]></category>
989. <category><![CDATA[Advertise]]></category>
990. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
991. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
992. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
993. <category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
994. <category><![CDATA[Show Jumping]]></category>
995. <category><![CDATA[christopher hector]]></category>
996. <category><![CDATA[Dressage breeding]]></category>
997. <category><![CDATA[dutch breeding]]></category>
998. <category><![CDATA[Jumping Breeding]]></category>
999. <category><![CDATA[KWPN Stalliion Show]]></category>
1000. <category><![CDATA[Sporthorse Breeding]]></category>
1001. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68758</guid>
1002.  
1003. <description><![CDATA[Sporthorse fans from all over the world come to the KWPN stallion show in den Bosch, Christopher Hector brings you an on-the-spot report - just where is the cutting edge of jumping and dressage breeding right now?
1004.  
1005.  
1006. ]]></description>
1007. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68800" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kwpndancinggirls.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kwpndancinggirls.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kwpndancinggirls-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kwpndancinggirls-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1008. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Christopher Hector enjoys one of the world’s great equestrian events</strong></p>
1009. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Dirk Caremans took the photos</strong></p>
1010. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The number of colts that have failed their licensing before going on to be super sires, and in many cases belatedly admitted into their studbooks, has been well documented, but I thought it might be fun in the leadup to the KWPN stallion show, to look at some of the licensing stars and see how many have gone on to greatness, and for how many, that triumph in the Brabanthallen, was the full measure of their fifteen minutes of fame…</p>
1011. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The stand out star of the Dutch licensing was until recently, the 2005 Champion, Johnson (Jazz / Flemmingh). He was, until 2014, the only licensing champ to go Grand Prix. Ridden by Hans Peter Minderhoud, Johnson was a valued member of the Dutch team, solid rather than starry. As a sire, he has produced 38 approved sons, and 87 Grand Prix competitors, leaving him Number One on the WBFSH standings three years in a row, but none of his stallion sons has really made a mark, while his Grand Prix performers are useful, rather than brilliant. Standing third behind Johnson in 2014 was Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) – Johnson like the rest of the colts had initially been given the ‘V’ name of that year, but since Team Nijhof already had a Verdi, he became Johnson.</p>
1012. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68801" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Johnson-KWPN25A41816.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Johnson-KWPN25A41816.jpg 500w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Johnson-KWPN25A41816-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
1013. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>The grand old stallion was honoured at the 2025 stallion show &#8211;<br />
1014. here he is with long time rider, Hans Peter Minderhoud</em></p>
1015. <p style="font-weight: 400;">While Vivaldi never made it to Grand Prix, he has produced 36 Grand Prix horses and 74 licensed sons, including Vitalis (D-Day) who has gone on to establish his own dynasty, with 88 approved sons and 16 Grand Prix competitors, including two super-stars, Vayron (Gloster) and Vamos Amigos (Hotline).</p>
1016. <p style="text-align: left;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68726" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale.jpg 799w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px" /></p>
1017. <p style="text-align: center;"><i>Glamourdale</i></p>
1018. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Nine years later, the Championship sash was handed to Glamourdale (Lord Leatherdale / Negro) who has gone on to be a genuine international Grand Prix superstar with Charlotte Fry. So far he is the sire of 33 sons, and two Grand Prix starters, none of whom have set the world on fire.</p>
1019. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The colt that was third to Glamourdale that year, Toto Jr (Totilas / Desperados) has been a very fine Grand Prix performer, first with Edward Gal, and more recently with Hans Peter Minderhoud. He is already the sire of 45 approved sons, one of which, Taminiau (Sandro Hit), has already competed Grand Prix with Hans Peter.</p>
1020. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-64562" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/totoJNpir.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="597" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/totoJNpir.jpg 683w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/totoJNpir-300x262.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/totoJNpir-343x300.jpg 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></p>
1021. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Toto Jr</em></p>
1022. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Toto Jr is also the sire of Majestic Taonga, one of five premium colts at the 2020 KWPN stallion show where he was presented by his co-owner, Helgstrand Dressage, who later sold half shares in the stallion to Madeleine Winter-Schulze for Isabell Werth to ride. Since then the stallion has made two appearances at the 2024 World Young Horse Championships with Lisa Wernitznig, 2<sup>nd</sup> in the preliminary round, 10<sup>th</sup> in the 7 year old final.  Toto Jr has two colts selected for the 2025 KWPN stallion show…</p>
1023. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The other four 2020 premiums went to:</p>
1024. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Mansion (Totilas / Krack C / Jazz) who has not become an approved stallion, but has gone on to compete medium level dressage.</p>
1025. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Maxson (Johnson / Negro) who was sold as a five-year-old to American dressage rider Sarah Mason-Beaty. A check of the FEI database reveals no trace of either horse or rider.</p>
1026. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Monte Carlo TC (Dream Boy / United) is a stallion no longer, Blue Hors decided to geld him in 2024 to concentrate on his sport career.</p>
1027. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68764" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-10.34.43 AM-1024x961.png" alt="" width="640" height="601" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-10.34.43 AM-1024x961.png 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-10.34.43 AM-300x282.png 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-10.34.43 AM-768x721.png 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-10.34.43 AM.png 1398w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1028. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Merlot VDL</em></p>
1029. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Merlot VDL by Bordeaux out of a Florencio / Vivaldi mare went on to star in the performance test where he was crowned Champion with a high score of 85.5 points. He is currently competing at Medium level and is represented by one of the colts selected to come to the 2025 stallion show.</p>
1030. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The 2021 licensing was a double triumph for the Dutch breeders, Frank van der Valk and Jaqueline van Anholt. Not only did the stallion they bred, Painted Black, sire four licensed sons, but the star of the premium ring, Next Pitch US, is a product of their most famous mare line. Next Pitch is out of It’s Litchy, out of Litchy, who is the dam of Painted Black.</p>
1031. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68766" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Next-Pitch.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Next-Pitch.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Next-Pitch-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Next-Pitch-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1032. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Next Pitch US </em></p>
1033. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Next Pitch US is by Genial by Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) out of Wocky who was by Reiner Klimke’s Grand Prix star, the Trakehner, Biotop, out of a Ferro mare. Next Pitch is licensed in Westfalia, Oldenburg and the AES, but not the KWPN. He is no longer on the Reesink stallion roster, but Stal Brouwer informs us, Next Pitch is being trained by Wendy Kuiken and is preparing for his competition debut this summer. “We have high expectations for this promising duo and will share their progress via Facebook, Instagram and our website.”</p>
1034. <p style="font-weight: 400;">2023 saw a three generation licensing champion for the first time, the champion, L’Avenir, is by the 2019 champion, Le Formidable, who is by the 2009 champion, Bordeaux.</p>
1035. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68767" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/L-Avenir.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/L-Avenir.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/L-Avenir-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/L-Avenir-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1036. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>L’Avenir</em></p>
1037. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Bordeaux has a wonderfully balanced pedigree. He is by United who combines the blood of two of Anky van Grunsven’s Grand Prix stars, Krack C and Partout, his dam sire, Gribaldi is another Grand Prix star, and one of the most influential dressage stallions of modern times. Bordeaux’s dam line takes us across the border to Germany, introducing the blood of the great Donnerhall, while the bottom line takes us to Adone, the dam of Nicole Uphoff’s wonderful Rembrandt.</p>
1038. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Bordeaux has been ranked 9<sup>th</sup> on the WBFSH dressage stallion rankings, three years in a row, 22/23/24.</p>
1039. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68673" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bordeaux-1024x863.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="539" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bordeaux-1024x863.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bordeaux-300x253.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bordeaux-768x647.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bordeaux.jpg 1282w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1040. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bordeaux</em></p>
1041. <p style="font-weight: 400;">At the 2020 KWPN stallion show, Bordeaux was proclaimed a Keur stallion. Bordeaux competed Grand Prix with moderate success (eleven starts, best result, two thirds on 72), but he is the sire of two Grand Prix frontliners in Bohemian and Bluetooth. Bordeaux is the sire of seven KWPN-approved sons: Ferdeaux, Google, Grenoble, Kenzo US, Kilimanjaro, Livius and Le Formidable.</p>
1042. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Le Formidable adds two of the all-time greats to the equation thanks to his dam, Vienna, who is by Ferro out of a De Niro mare. It was no surprise when he was crowned Champion of the 2019 show, and then rewarded with 278 foals by him, born the following year.</p>
1043. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68768" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Le-Formidable.jpg" alt="" width="592" height="435" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Le-Formidable.jpg 592w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Le-Formidable-300x220.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px" /></p>
1044. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Le Formidable</em></p>
1045. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Since then Le Formidable competed in two young horse classes in 2022. I am told he is currently training Grand Prix with his owner, Saskia Poel.</p>
1046. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Le Formidable did however qualify nine colts to the 2024 stallion show, four of whom passed to go on to the performance test, with L’Avenir, famously bred, out of Weihe’s Hope by Sir Donnerhall, out of Isabell Werth’s Grand Prix star, Weihegold, taking home the Championship. It was something of an upset when not one of the five passed the performance test, and this year, of the 88 colts selected to go to the 2025 stallion show, <strong>not one </strong>is by Le Formidable.</p>
1047. <p style="font-weight: 400;">L&#8217;Avenir is standing at HengstenhouderijBrowers where he is described as ‘Approved: Oldenburger, Designated KWPN performance test’ and a WFFS carrier…</p>
1048. <p style="font-weight: 400;">But the absence of Le Formidables has not lessened the influence of Bordeaux. Aside from his own three sons, his grandson, the ginormous Las Vegas has no less than seven qualified to go to Den Bosch. The 1.80m tall, Las Vegas is by Ferdeaux who combines Bordeaux and Ferro. Las Vegas is out of a mare by the Jazz son, Wynton who is out of a daughter of Kyra Kyklund’s wonderful Matador, out of a daughter of Rubinstein. Las Vegas’s grand dam is by the somewhat obscure Houston, but the bottom line is far from shabby – Flemmingh and Ferro.</p>
1049. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-68769 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LasVegas.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="608" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LasVegas.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LasVegas-300x228.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LasVegas-768x584.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1050. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Las Vegas</em></p>
1051. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Las Vegas has had a spectacular career thus far, a World Young Horse finalist in 2021, 22 and 23, he is a winner of the Pavo Cup for five-year-old horses, and commenced his small tour career in fine style, ridden by Diederik van Silfhout for a 76.69% in their first Prix St Georges. He was the second most used Dutch stallion in 2021 with 251 foals, second behind My Blue Hors Santiano with 253 foals.</p>
1052. <p style="font-weight: 400;">There is a worry about Las Vegas’s height, and all of the colts selected for the 2025 show stand around 170 cm, with one even measuring 1.77m.<br />
1053. “This is not the height that we want for a three-year-old, but we give the colt the benefit of the doubt,” Bart Bax, the Chairman of the Licensing Committee, told <em>Horses.nl.</em></p>
1054. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68770" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Santiago.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="542" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Santiago.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Santiago-300x203.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Santiago-768x520.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1055. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Santiano </em></p>
1056. <p style="font-weight: 400;">My Blue Hors Santiano repaid the breeders faith in him with five colts selected to front the stallion show in Den Bosch, with Bart Bax commenting that the Dutch breeders were learning how to use the Danish stallion: “That Santiano needs a mare with blood became obvious today. He doesn’t make them noble. It can be that breeders in the first year didn’t know that he required a noble mare for this stallion.”</p>
1057. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Santiano is out of Romanik (Romanov / Don Schufro) and by three times World Young Horse Champion, the now gelded, Sezuan (Zack / Don Schufro) making him a three-quarter brother in blood to Zonic by Zack, a Grand Prix star with Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud.</p>
1058. <p style="font-weight: 400;">As usual it was an exciting collection of young stallions to front the commission this year, and once again, it proves that the Dutch breeders have crafted their own dressage lines, with ‘foreign’ sires in a very small minority… Let the show begin!</p>
1059. <h3 style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Jumping at the KWPN stallion show</strong></h3>
1060. <p style="font-weight: 400;">While the Dutch crowd has learned to love dressage, their first and enduring love is for showjumping. This year, the number of young stallions selected is 27, fewer than previous years. There is much to love, though there is universal agreement that the crop on the second day was the crème de la crème. While once it was possible for a jumping ‘expert’ to opine that the European horses were ugly beasts ridden by big men, the youngsters that grace the ring on the first day were in the main beautiful creatures.</p>
1061. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68771" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Celtic-VDL-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Celtic-VDL-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Celtic-VDL-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Celtic-VDL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Celtic-VDL.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1062. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Celtic VDL </em></p>
1063. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Out of the first day, sixteen were selected to go to the performance test, with one destined for the premium ring, Celtic VDL by the Chacco Blue son, Chatinue, out of Georgia by Continue, making him a half brother to jumping star, Balou du Reventon. The next day he was joined by another eleven to go to Ermelo for the performance test, and three more in the premium ring, Schnaps by Mattias (out  of a Cantos mare), Santiago by Eldorado van de Zeshoek out of a Kashmir van Schuttershof mare and Seger V by O’Neill van ’T Eigenlo out of an Air Jordan mare.</p>
1064. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The stallion who put the largest contingent into the performance test was the chestnut Grand Prix star, Emerald van ’T Ruytershof, out of mares by Kannan, Heartbreaker, and Untouched who was also the sire of one of those who made the cut.</p>
1065. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38267" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="532" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald-300x228.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Emerald-395x300.jpg 395w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1066. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Emerald van ’T Ruytershof</em></p>
1067. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Emerald is a pretty perfect synthesis of the best of the French, with one of the Holsteiner greats. He is by Diamant de Sémilly out of a mare by the Capitol son, Carthago, out of a mare by the influential, Lys de Darmen (by the Anglo Arab, Et Hop).  He was born in 2004, and finished his jumping career in 2018, but not before he starred with Harrie Smolders at all the world’s top shows. Emerald is currently the sire of 103 licensed stallions and forty-four 1.60m competitors.</p>
1068. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57912" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1aaCommeIlFautMarcus-Ehning.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="466" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1aaCommeIlFautMarcus-Ehning.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1aaCommeIlFautMarcus-Ehning-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1aaCommeIlFautMarcus-Ehning-451x300.jpg 451w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1069. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Comme il faut</em></p>
1070. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I love the story of how two Ukrainian showjumping enthusiasts, Victor Timoschenko and Valentin Nychyporenko came to Germany, and with the expert assistance of Ludger Beerbaum, returned home with one of the great jumping sires of modern times, Cornet Obolensky, plus the promise of a foal from his first season out of Ludger’s superstar, the fabled Ratina Z. The foal was Comme il faut who went on to be a solid 1.60m performer with Marcus Ehning. He is the sire of 140 licensed sons and 34 who have competed at 1.60m, including the Gold Medallist at Paris, Checker 47.</p>
1071. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68772" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mattias.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mattias.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mattias-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mattias-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1072. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Mattias, at his Licensing</em></p>
1073. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Comme il Faut is the sire of one of the newcomers to the stallion ranks, Mattias, out of a Catoki / Berlin mare, and somewhat surprisingly the seven-year-old, with ten 1.45m starts under Jur Vrieling has been popular with the jumping breeders who usually wait for a stallion to firmly establish himself on the international stage before trusting him with their precious brood mare.</p>
1074. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68773" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Schnaps-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Schnaps-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Schnaps-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Schnaps-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Schnaps.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1075. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Schnaps</em></p>
1076. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Mattias is the sire of this year’s champion, Schnaps out of a mare by Cantos (by Contender) a moderate performer for VDL, out of a mare by the best son of Voltaire, Concorde. The reserve goes to Santiago, who stands at VDL where unlike so many others, only add their stud suffix to horses they <strong>actually breed.</strong> Santiago is by Clinton out of a Kashmir van Schuttershof mare.</p>
1077. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The fourth stallion into the premium ring also won his share of fans – Seger V, by O’Neill van ’T Eigenlo, who is better known as Minute Man, and jumped in the Dutch team with Willem Greve. Seger V is out of a mare is by Air Jordan, by Argentinus, out of a Heartbreaker mare.</p>
1078. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Over the (many) years I have been coming to the stallion show, I have identified a group of observers, who can be relied upon to provide insightful comments. Long time stallion commissioner, Arie Hamoen is very much one of them. It was good to catch up with him once again.</p>
1079. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-48792" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Arie.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="527" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Arie.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Arie-300x226.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Arie-398x300.jpg 398w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1080. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Looking at the jumping horses, what has impressed you so far?</em></p>
1081. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“The modern type, athletic horses, using their bodies, suppleness during jumping. This year we had a small group, we selected very hard, twenty seven stallions, but the top quality is okay.”</p>
1082. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Which stallions do you think are making the biggest impression on Dutch jumping breeding?</em></p>
1083. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68774" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Eldorado.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="563" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Eldorado.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Eldorado-300x211.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Eldorado-768x540.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1084. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Eldorado van de Zeshoek</em></p>
1085. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We had a very nice Eldorado, he’s also in the premium stallions. Long lined, can be a little bit light footed, he’s a little bit heavy in his movements but he jumps with a lot of power, a lot of scope. The Mattias is also a nice young one. There are four premium stallions and they are all a bit different. One has a more easy way of going, that is the Chatinue son Celtic VDL, very powerful in his jumping, maybe he’s a little bit short in his neck, okay we’ll see that later on. Then the O’Neill, he is very long lined, maybe he can have a little more power behind, in his hind leg, but he was an easy mover. From the four stallions in the premium you can make one stallion that is the ideal picture.”</p>
1086. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The young stallions are making their mark, this is good that they are getting a chance…</em></p>
1087. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think so, it is important for breeding that you collect data, that’s why I hope the breeders use young stallions. When you select too many stallions, then it takes a long time to get the data back, which are the good ones. Therefore, if you are stricter, then you hope the breeders use them, but you like to have the information as soon as possible, that’s why you give young stallions a chance.”</p>
1088. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It&#8217;s interesting that the jumping horses seem to be getting shorter and the dressage horses are getting taller…</em></p>
1089. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We’ll see tomorrow, but the dressage horses can be too big. In the past we had a rule, the minimum size is one sixty with no maximum size, but now we have the discussions, especially in dressage that maybe it is necessary to have a maximum size. For a dressage horse, 1.80 is too big, the higher the horse the more risk the veterinary problems. We need to give the sign to the breeders that they can be too big, for the young stallion, 1.65 to 1.70 is ideal.”</p>
1090. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>And with the jumping horses you don’t mind if they are a little bit shorter?</em></p>
1091. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Length enough in the body, that is important. I like not the square, I like a rectangular model. For a two-year-old horse, 1.65 is good enough, when he is grown up, it becomes 1.70, but they need length in the body, too short and too little, that is the biggest problem.”</p>
1092. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Did you see any problems in the breeding in the horses you saw?</em></p>
1093. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“More and more we become international and everyone is looking for the same horses, horses that have scope enough, but also a lot of elastic, the fences cannot become bigger and we need a different canter, not like the canter for dressage, in dressage they like a lot of expression, a lot of strength in the hind leg, and for jumping horses it is important that they are quick because the time becomes shorter and shorter, because we cannot build the fences higher. Now speed is much more important in the selection – in the past you can build a wall of two metres, and they take a lot of time to get over it, but now the time is shorter and shorter.”</p>
1094. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The breeding is becoming more international? Are we losing the distinctive breeding of the different studbooks?</em></p>
1095. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Yes, more and more we use the same stallions to get the same horse.”</p>
1096. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>A universal horse…</em></p>
1097. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Yes, then the problem is in-breeding. In the past if you had too much the same breeding, then you could go to France or Germany and look for other mare or stallion lines, but more and more it is a risk. With ICSI the mare can have seventy offspring, unbelievable for a mare, and that is a risk for in-breeding.”</p>
1098. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>When I look at the pedigrees, I see a stallion like Heartbreaker, once, twice even three times, on the same pedigree…</em></p>
1099. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“It is a risk for the future.”</p>
1100. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But how do we get out of that, when the breeders are looking for the same stallions?</em></p>
1101. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“It is for the studbooks to select stallions with different pedigrees, so the breeders have the chance to make an out-cross. Maybe the Thoroughbred again, or Trakehner. When you have a heavy horse, then maybe you have to use the Thoroughbred again.”</p>
1102. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But where will we find jumping Thoroughbreds?</em></p>
1103. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“That is the problem.”</p>
1104. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I saw a stallion today with Laudanum but that was the last Grand Prix jumping Thoroughbred stallion…</em></p>
1105. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68775" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sky-Fall--1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sky-Fall--1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sky-Fall--300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sky-Fall--768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sky-Fall-.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1106. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><em>Sky Fall, by Chacco Blue out of a Diamant de Sémilly mare,  out of one by Narcos II out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Laudanum</em></p>
1107. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“There was also Heraldik in one dam line. When everyone uses the same stallions then the studbooks need to make a plan that we select out-crosses, in-breeding always gives problems, veterinary problems, longevity, lots of problems. We should learn from our royal families, kingdoms go down through in-breeding.”</p>
1108. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Another of my regular commentary team is the man in charge of France’s biggest stallion station, Arnaud Evain.</p>
1109. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Every year I find you here looking at young stallions…</em></p>
1110. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-17766" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ArnaudCropped1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="298" /></p>
1111. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Looking for the next Dutch stars, but also looking to see the progeny of other European stallions which are represented here.”</p>
1112. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What have you seen interesting so far?</em></p>
1113. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I liked a couple of sons of Mattias, and I had the confirmation of some other stallions that I already knew, the good and weak points of Emerald, of Eldorado&#8230;”</p>
1114. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What are they?</em></p>
1115. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“As a stallion owner I am not in a position to say what are the good or bad points of my competitors’ stallions.”</p>
1116. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But what is Emerald putting on his progeny?</em></p>
1117. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“He himself has a lot of Le Tot de Sémilly in terms of a good mind, rideability, and in the end it will be more and more amateurs trying to compete with the professionals, so we need to make rideable horses.”</p>
1118. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Mattias, what do you think he is putting on his young stock?</em></p>
1119. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I haven’t seen enough under saddle, just free-jumping ability, but okay they are with good trainers, so I need to see more, but they attract my attention but we will see in the future. I will probably try to import some semen of Mattias to France, and we’ll see how it works.”</p>
1120. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Breeding in France is still strong?</em></p>
1121. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We as GFC, our stallions covered 5000 mares in France last year, which is about 40% of the total. We thought about some people who wanted to sell their foals, and it was not so easy to sell foals, so it might be that some of them might not breed next year, so we expect normal growth with maybe a small set-back. Not the breeders with quality, but the amateurs with one mare, if they don’t sell the foal, they will not breed the mare.”</p>
1122. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You still have a population of amateur breeders with just a few mares?</em></p>
1123. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s all over Europe, but in France the ones who breed zero to one mare every year, they are over 60% of the population of breeders. If you go to one or two mares, then it’s 75% of the population of breeders, and close to 50% of the production, it’s huge.”</p>
1124. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I was talking with some of my Dutch colleagues and they were saying that here the price of land is so high that the amateur breeders are being pushed out of the market…</em></p>
1125. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“It is not the case in France. In France access to land is far cheaper than here. France is very administrative, we like to make rules and you cannot buy land without authorization. Here in Holland the price of the land is the same whether you can build something on it or not, in France the price of land on which you can build is much the same as here, but the land you can only crop is about ten times less.”</p>
1126. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Last night at the breeders congress, there were people worried that the distinctive breeds were disappearing, one French breeder was saying I want to breed traditional Selle Français, but you with your semen imports have probably done more than anyone to make the Selle Français less French…</em></p>
1127. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We know that the inheritability of the performance is 20% genes and 80% the general environment, from the conception to the jump-off of the Grand Prix. Definitely we all breed with the same genes, all of us for a hundred years. If you go back to the Thoroughbreds which are the grand grand-sires of all the stallions in Europe, they are the same. We all breed what I call ‘bastards’. There are no more purebreds except the Thoroughbreds and the Trotters.”</p>
1128. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>And Trakehners…</em></p>
1129. <p style="font-weight: 400;">And Trakehners, but where are the Thoroughbreds and the Trotters and the Trakehners in the world jumping rankings? All the top studbooks in the rankings, are studbooks of bastards. There are Selle Français bastards and Holsteiner bastards, but they are going to be different because the Holstein breeders are not the French breeders. It’s very easy to figure it out – take a group of 30 mares, take them from Oldenburg because they all look the same, dark brown and 1.63cm, so you have the same pool of genes, and make a tank with the semen of a couple of Trakehners, a couple of Anglo-Arabs, couple of Warmbloods, 20 different stallions in the phenotype, and give one group of mares with one tank to the people in Holstein, the same group of mares with the same tank in Normandy, same in Sardinia, wait thirty years and you will have three different populations of horses.”</p>
1130. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But is that changing because the identification with locality everywhere in the world is becoming less, especially with the internet, it is more and more international and less and less local…</em></p>
1131. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s true for the genes, but when you buy a horse you have the name of the breeder and his address, so you know the horse is Holsteiner, but has he been bred in Holstein or in Normandy, then stop talking of a studbook and start talking of a group of people. The people in Germany will not like the same mare to breed to the same stallion, as the same mare and same stallion in Sardinia. Because of the people, because of their choice or what they like, what qualities they reinforce, what defects they will tolerate, the group of people will make the group of horses different, and it won’t take a long time, six generations are enough, it goes very quick with horses. With the same group of mares if you only want horses one metre seventy, you will achieve it, or one sixty-two, with the same horses you will achieve it. It’s up to the humans, it’s not a question of genes, it is a question of human choices.”</p>
1132. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But is the market not becoming more universal, they all want the same horse…</em></p>
1133. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“The market is becoming more universal and the wealthiest part of the clients, the Middle East, America, they care about the phenotype. They sit on a horse, oh he’s a nice mover, I like his technique, I like his mouth, where is he bred? Okay but that is not the priority, the priority is what they see. Still they go to Germany because they like the way the Germans select their horses, or they go in France because they like the way the French select their horses, and the job of the studbooks is to keep their own identity which is no longer an exclusivity of genes, but it is a characteristic they are looking for that makes the difference between a Selle Français and a Holsteiner.”</p>
1134. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We will forgive a lack of amplitude in the trot with the Selle Français, more than the Holsteiner will do. So we are not going to use the same stallions, we have some stallions the Holsteiner will not use because the trot is not good enough, and the good trot of the Holsteiner makes the weak backs that the Selle Français breeders don’t want to use. The Selle Français breeders have a horse in their dreams which doesn’t look like the horse of the German dreams, and everyone chases their own dreams.”</p>
1135. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You were saying that all today’s sporthorses descend from those foundation Thoroughbred stallions. I did some research recently and I found that Furioso the Thoroughbred was so influential in jumping, eventing and dressage, but where do we find Thoroughbred stallions, in the whole catalogue here, I saw once Laudanum and once Heraldik, where are the new Thoroughbreds…</em></p>
1136. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26864" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Furioso.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="502" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Furioso.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Furioso-300x232.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Furioso-388x300.jpg 388w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1137. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Furioso xx</em></p>
1138. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s because you have only the pedigrees to three generations, but if you go to seven generations, we don’t use the Thoroughbreds, but we use their sons, they are there. Most of the horses you have seen here at the KWPN stallion show are between 30 and 60% Thoroughbred. Not in the first three generations but if you go to the sixth or the seventh, you’ll find them because those Thoroughbreds have been very popular everywhere in Europe between the years 1950 and 1975, and then we were using the sons or grandsons, but they are still there.”</p>
1139. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I was talking with Arie Hamoen and he was worried about the possibility of in-breeding because everyone was using the same stallions, he was saying that Holland needed an infusion of new Thoroughbred blood, but where do you find it?</em></p>
1140. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m happy to hear that because once again I am here with my catalogue and you see all those Thoroughbreds in the fourth or fifth generation of all these Warmblood stallions, so the genes are here. Today we breed by the phenotype, what is your definition of blood? To have blood it doesn’t have to be Thoroughbred, it needs to be blood, good blood. A horse like Heartbreaker, you don’t see Thoroughbreds in his pedigree in the first four generations but in the fifth one you see 60% Thoroughbred and there you understand why he is bringing so much blood in his progeny.”</p>
1141. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>But are you worried if you look at a pedigree and see Heartbreaker three times on that same pedigree?</em></p>
1142. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“If it goes with the strong points of Heartbreaker, I’m happy, if it goes with all the weak points of Heartbreaker, I am scared.”</p>
1143. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>In principle it doesn’t worry you?</em></p>
1144. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“No, and I don’t think we are in danger of in-breeding because we have such a large population of females in Europe, so we can easily cross a Clinton/Heartbreaker out of a Dutch dam line with a Clinton/Heartbreaker out of a French dam line and escape the danger of in-breeding. We select by the phenotype…”</p>
1145. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>ˆNot the blood…”</em></p>
1146. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“What is your definition of blood?”</p>
1147. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I think you wrote it was the distance from the leg to the brain…</em></p>
1148. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“The distance between the stimulation and the reaction, how quick can a horse react, and how long can he maintain this quick reaction. If the direction is good, we call that good blood, if the reaction is bad, you call that bad blood. But the blood is the ability to react quickly, at the same speed throughout the twenty or thirty minutes of the working session. Blood is nothing to do with sensitivity, you can have very emotive horses with not much blood, and you can have bloody horses with no emotions. Right now I am preparing a glossary of all those terms like ‘blood’, because we use those terms and we don’t know exactly what we mean.”</p>
1149. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Next I asked Bart Henstra of the jumping stallion commission, just what he liked about the top horses that made the premium ring?</em></p>
1150. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think they were very complete horses, they had a good pedigree, good conformation and they also had athletic jumping ability. We select a lot on athleticism and eagerness in jumping, they need to be easy in the jumping, want to do the job, need to be careful. We especially like light-footed, athletic horses. All for in the championship were easy in the scope, easy to make their fences.”</p>
1151. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>When you are looking at the pedigrees, are you looking at increasing the outcross, decreasing in-breeding?</em></p>
1152. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We also take that into consideration, but we also look a lot into the dam line, we like to have a lot of sport in the dam line, especially mares who competed themselves, that’s very important, but we also take into consideration in-breeding and the relation to the total population.”</p>
1153. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>How would you rate this year’s crop of stallions, good, great, not so great?</em></p>
1154. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think we have been a little more strict in how we select, but I think the ones we selected were really talented horses, we are looking forward to seeing them under saddle, in the autumn they can do the performance test and we’ll see how they continue, but so far they are looking good.”</p>
1155. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Another member of the selection panel, Eric van der Vleuten said they were looking for scope:</em></p>
1156. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“In the past they always said that in Holland, we have nice horses, but lacking in scope. What we are looking for now, is to have blood horses, light footed but also with scope, that’s what we try to improve all the time.”</p>
1157. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Were you looking for taller horses?</em></p>
1158. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“They don’t have to be really tall, okay they have to be not small, they have to be a nice size, but what is important is the reach they have in the canter. A small horse can look like a big horse, it can have a big stride, a lot of power.”</p>
1159. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>A different sort of stride, not like Glamourdale?</em></p>
1160. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“No, no, no, we don’t like too much with the head up, we like more that they can go easy forward, nothing is in the way of them making a good jump.”</p>
1161. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Did you see any problems for the breeders?</em></p>
1162. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We would like to have a couple more horses approved, but we have been strict enough, but I think we need to be quite strict in the selection because we want to have the best horses. Overall I think we were happy with the horses we selected, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality, so overall we were happy with the horses we selected.”</p>
1163. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Egbert Schep is the ideal person to bridge the two halves of this article since he is a force in jumping, and is now in dressage breeding. After some fairly intense discussion at the Breeders Congress – young stallions or established stallions – I asked Egbert his preference…</p>
1164. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Which I prefer? I prefer both. It depends if it suits your mare, but I use also young stallions. If you know them and they are good enough and they suit your mare and you think the young stallion is a good match, then why not?</p>
1165. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>In dressage they use many many young ones and not so many older stallions, and we are getting a lot of soundness problems with the dressage horses…</em></p>
1166. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“More than the jumpers?”</p>
1167. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I think so, if you breed to an older stallion then at least you know he is sound…</em></p>
1168. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“But with the younger stallions why should they not be sound? The only thing is that you don’t know how their career is going to be, otherwise why shouldn’t you take a good young horse.”</p>
1169. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Which young stallions do you like at the moment?</em></p>
1170. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“There are a lot that are very nice horses. You can see it here in the competitions, in the 1.20m classes, there were five, six, seven fantastic nice horses that everybody can use, but they don’t use them, they use all the older famous names, and that is only because they think they can sell their foals better at the auction, and that is not the purpose of breeding. The purpose should be that you breed a good sport horse.”</p>
1171. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>If you had to pick from the young stallions now, which would you choose?</em></p>
1172. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-68777 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor-768x511.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EgbertPorFavor.jpg 1586w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1173. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><em>Egbert and Por Favor ES (by El Baronne (Emerald out of a Libero (Zeus) mare and the premium sash…</em></p>
1174. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I have now a five year old that was a premium stallion here, Por Favor, that horse I use a lot because he is a fantastic jumper and a fantastic type of horse. Then I have a young horse from Aganix that is coming four, but a fantastic horse, he’s big, he’s pretty, he moves for a ten, and jumps for a ten. They are horses that I use, on the mares that suit them &#8211; that is the main thing, the main thing is to make the right combination.”</p>
1175. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>In the dressage selection you have two by Las Vegas, you are not worried that he is taller than a giraffe?</em></p>
1176. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“No, no, no, one that I have by him is really tall, the other is a normal size, but it depends on which mother they have.”</p>
1177. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You don’t think the dressage horses are getting too tall and that is a soundness problem?</em></p>
1178. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I don’t think so, there are enough horses from 175cm to 180cm that are going Grand Prix.”</p>
1179. <p><em>Are you a dressage breeder or a jumping breeder?</em></p>
1180. <div>
1181. <p>&#8220;I am mainly a jumping man, we have a few dressage mares but jumping is where my heart is.”</p>
1182. </div>
1183. <h3 style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Dressage at the 2025 Stallion Show</strong></h3>
1184. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-66917" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jovian2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="528" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jovian2.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jovian2-300x264.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jovian2-341x300.jpg 341w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1185. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Jovian and Andreas</em></p>
1186. <p style="font-weight: 400;"> On the first day of dressage selection, there was only one stallion with more than one son invited to go to the performance test – Jovian &#8211; who like his owner/rider, Andreas Helgstrand, is a somewhat controversial character. There were those who thought that at the age of eight, Jovian was too young to be competing Grand Prix. Then there’s those of us who find it such a loss to dressage breeding that the hysterical WFFS campaign banished Jovian’s sire Apache from the breeding barn because he was a carrier, distressing. In both the Jovian sons, the legacy of Apache shines through…</p>
1187. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Where did you find Jovian? I asked Andreas&#8230;</em></p>
1188. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Here in Holland as a four-year-old, I saw him on a video and went to see him and we bought him.”</p>
1189. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What turned you on about him?</em></p>
1190. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“His powerful movements, a pretty horse. He won a four-year-old class here in Holland, that’s how we saw him on the video.”</p>
1191. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>So he wasn’t one of the cheap ones…</em></p>
1192. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“He was not cheap, sadly not!”</p>
1193. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It was good for him today, two into the performance test, what do you think he is putting on his progeny?</em></p>
1194. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Elasticity for sure, they all have a nice swing in the trot. I think that’s what he gives most. A nice frame with a good neck.”</p>
1195. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68778" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Silverstone-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Silverstone-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Silverstone-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Silverstone-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Silverstone.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1196. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Silverstone by Jovian out of a Charmeur mare</em></p>
1197. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What sort of mares does he work best with?</em></p>
1198. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“He himself is a big horse, and quick, and he’s a big mover, so he needs always mares with blood and a bit faster in the legs because he himself is such a big mover. If you take another big mover, they can get too slow, you need to mix it.”</p>
1199. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>There was some criticism of you riding him Grand Prix when he was only eight years old…</em></p>
1200. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“The horse was World Champion two times, he was well on the way. Three times, he got ten in rideability from test riders. The horse has such natural talent, should I keep him home just for letting him stay there? I play with my horses, and everyone who knows our stables, knows how little I ride him. You don’t need to ride him a lot, he’s just super easy to do all the tricks with. So I just wanted to go out and ride him. Ten years ago there were many many at eight years old, now it is too fast, things are changing. When I was a kid they rode at the Olympic Games on six-year-olds, it’s not that we are killing them, some are just more talented than others.”</p>
1201. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45165" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apache.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="446" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apache.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apache-300x243.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apache-370x300.jpg 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1202. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Apache</em></p>
1203. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It was a tragedy that Apache’s career was ruined by crazy ladies on Facebook because of WFFS. Is it important that Jovian keeps on that line?</em></p>
1204. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Who knew about this in the past before all the tests, maybe it has been in the breeding for years and nobody tested for it. I have never seen it, and at Schockemöhle / Helgstrand we say we pay you €10,000 if someone has a foal by one of our stallions with it, and we have never had to pay this. Maybe one time, but there were a lot of other things with this.”</p>
1205. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You saw Apache, is there a lot of him in Jovian?</em></p>
1206. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Of course, they are both pretty looking horses.”</p>
1207. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You saw the other stallions this morning?</em></p>
1208. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I also had another one approved by Sezuan out of a Stedinger mare.”</p>
1209. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>And do you think they are heading in the right direction here?</em></p>
1210. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think they are heading in the right direction here in Holland, their dressage horses are very popular, but they have a depth from some years back, and they are absolutely on track, congratulations to the judges today, they were doing a very good job. They were tough, but I think that is right.”</p>
1211. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Do you think there is a worry that the dressage horses are getting too tall?</em></p>
1212. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“No. There are still small horses. If you come to my stable, there are still many small horses. People get higher and higher too, and I don’t think there is a problem with this. We have tons of small horses, from Jovian, from Revolution, all these big stallions we have, they still produce 1.60m horses sometimes.”</p>
1213. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>In your group, are there some new stallions that you think will become important?</em></p>
1214. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Daan the expensive one from Verden. Another is the Champion Stallion in Oldenburg, La Paix  (La Vie x Sir Donnerhall I), Independent by Ibiza is super super good.  Another is V-Power (Viva Gold / Fidertanz) he was champion in Westfalia, he makes amazing offspring. We have our grey Proud James, who went into the performance test with the highest marks ever in Holland. There are some very good young ones coming on.”</p>
1215. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It&#8217;s incredible, once there were five or six really good dressage stallions and now there are just so many…</em></p>
1216. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Absolutely.”</p>
1217. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68779" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sonic-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sonic-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sonic-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sonic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Sonic.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1218. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Sonic</em></p>
1219. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Amongst the colts that were selected for the performance test there were five by Las Vegas, but none made the premium ring, including the crowd favourite, Sonic, an eye-catching chestnut with lots of chrome, out of a Davino (Hotline) mare. Perhaps the Commission were remembering last year’s crowd fave, another flashy chestnut, L’Avenir, who took home the Champions sash and then failed to complete the performance test.</p>
1220. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I reminded one of the major players on the Dutch dressage scene, Nico Witte, that it was fifteen years since our last interview, <em>that time I was asking you about a stallion you discovered, Jazz, this time let’s talk about another of your discoveries, Las Vegas…</em></p>
1221. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60272" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Nico-Witte.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="317" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Nico-Witte.jpg 500w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Nico-Witte-300x190.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Nico-Witte-473x300.jpg 473w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
1222. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I found him as a foal when I was looking for offspring of my stallion, Daily Diamond. I was in stables in the south of Holland. I didn’t like the Daily Diamond foal so much, but there was another foal in the stable. What kind of a foal is this, he’s by Ferdeaux out of a Wynton mare, Wynton was my stallion as well, my wife competed with him on Grand Prix level in the team. Can I see this one? Sure, and the breeder brought him out of the stable into the indoor arena, just six or seven steps. We have to buy this one, he’s unbelievable.”</p>
1223. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-27721" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wynton2.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wynton2.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wynton2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wynton2-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1224. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1225. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Wynton, a competitor at Grand Prix level</em></p>
1226. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“It was funny, after three years I had a Swedish delegation at my farm with 40 breeders, I said, I will present this one at the Dutch licensing, remember the name, I will call him Las Vegas.”</p>
1227. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What is he giving to his foals?</em></p>
1228. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Very much a strong back, uphill tendency. In the conformation they are very very correct. So the first year of Las Vegas was okay but it takes a while with the young stallions for the breeders to know what they need, that’s how it was with Las Vegas, now this year we have a couple of really really good offspring at the stallion show.”</p>
1229. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>What sort of mares does he need?</em></p>
1230. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Not too big, 168, 170, with a good outline.”</p>
1231. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>With blood?</em></p>
1232. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Yes that would be good, blood on the dam line.”</p>
1233. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>When we talked fifteen years ago, did you think Jazz would still be so influential here at the stallion licensing?</em></p>
1234. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Yes, absolutely, at that time I told a few people that Jazz was a one in a million horse. Now we see him in the dam line, also with Wynton, you can see the influence of Jazz is really really there.”</p>
1235. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-48161" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Millenium.jpg" alt="" width="668" height="445" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Millenium.jpg 668w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Millenium-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Millenium-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px" /></p>
1236. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Millennium</em></p>
1237. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It was interesting to see the influence of Millennium, the somewhat controversial son of the even more controversial Easy Game (by Gribaldi who was great, and not in the least controversial). Millennium is the sire of Morricone (Rubin Royal) whose son, McLaren, out of a Sir Donnerhall I, mare, had three selected to go on to the performance test, while Morricone himself was the sire of another selected, out of a Florencio mare.</p>
1238. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The McLaren son, Saint McLaren SG out of a Wynton mare was one of the seven to compete for the Championship sash. He was joined by Sylvester (Bordeaux / Zhivago), Everglow Gold (Escolar out of the Sir Donnerhall I daughter, Weihe’s Hope, out of Isabell Werth’s dressage star, Weihegold). Simply the Best (Ferguson / Dream Boy), Scott Nicolas (For Romance / Vitalis), Scaramouche (Toto Jr /Negro) and So Unique (Vivino / Boston Sth).</p>
1239. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It was So Unique, another flashy chestnut, who took home the sash. The champion’s bloodlines are a wonderful blend of German and Dutch with even a touch of French.  His sire, Vivino is by the very Dutch, Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) out of the very German, Desiree by the De Niro son, Dancier out of a Feinbrand mare.</p>
1240. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68780" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SoUnique-STH-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SoUnique-STH-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SoUnique-STH-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SoUnique-STH-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SoUnique-STH.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1241. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>So Unique</em></p>
1242. <p style="font-weight: 400;">So Unique’s dam, L’Unique, is by Boston Sth by Johnson out of a mare by the French 1.60m showjumper, Quattro. She is out of Zamba Dream by Samba Hit, a full-brother to Dressage World Champion, Poetin, out of a mare by one of those all-purpose Dutch stallions, Farrington by the 160m jumper, Wellington, out of a mare by the first Dutch dressage super sire, Doruto.</p>
1243. <p style="font-weight: 400;">One person who I turn to over-and-over in my search for insight and information is Johan Hamminga, a key figure in the development of the Dutch dressage horse. Johan is a wonderful trainer and a breeding expert, what did he think of this year’s collection?</p>
1244. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33715" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/johanport.jpg" alt="" width="293" height="448" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/johanport.jpg 293w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/johanport-196x300.jpg 196w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px" /></p>
1245. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“On the Commission we have seen a lot of stallions, more than eighty. Especially we are looking for the stallions with a lot of expression, ‘bloody’ models, the bloody types that are light footed, with a lot of bounce from the ground, and in a good balance, when they are moving in the arena, they can keep their balance easily when they are moving free. It will also be easy when you are riding them, when the horses are free-moving and out of balance, then it will be difficult for the rider to keep them in balance.”</p>
1246. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> Which stallions did you like their progeny?</em></p>
1247. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68782" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.41.11 AM-1010x1024.png" alt="" width="640" height="649" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.41.11 AM-1010x1024.png 1010w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.41.11 AM-296x300.png 296w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.41.11 AM-768x778.png 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.41.11 AM.png 1490w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1248. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>McLaren</em></p>
1249. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“From the young stallion, McLaren we saw very nice models, very nice in the head, well formed necks with long, uphill muscles, that’s important, I think. Then when they are combined with a mare with a strong hind leg, there’s enough power from behind and there is enough engagement, then you can get a very good horse”</p>
1250. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-68788 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Saint-Mclaren-1-1.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Saint-Mclaren-1-1.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Saint-Mclaren-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Saint-Mclaren-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1251. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Saint Mclaren by Mclaren out of a Wynton mare&#8230;</em></p>
1252. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Was part of the aim to get more Trakehner blood, from Morricone, from Millennium…</em></p>
1253. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Then comes Easy Game, Gribaldi, Trakehner blood is important. We also have mares from Ferro, they have a very good hindleg, and mares from out of jumping lines, normally they have a good hindleg and they can carry themselves in an easy way. McLaren was for us, a young stallion with very modern types.”</p>
1254. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Did you like any other young stallions?</em></p>
1255. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Las Vegas makes a nice horse. You saw him yesterday evening , with Diederik von Silfhout, Las Vegas is a very tall horse, but he is good in his frame  and the horse has a lot of potential to collect, a very nice front leg, shoulder freedom, and he can carry himself in an easy way. I think for the future for Holland that is a very good combination.”</p>
1256. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>And you didn’t like the one the crowd liked, the chestnut by Las Vegas with all the white….</em></p>
1257. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We liked that chestnut of course, he is out of Ina-Sina, a dam line of very good jumping horses. He has Goodtimes in the dam line who also makes a very good hind leg from Nimmerdor. We liked that, but the canter from the chestnut was not so good. In trot it was spectacular, but when you see a horse with such a big trot, he has to collect. The audience likes that when he is moving so big and so much forward, but in the canter it was not so easy for him to collect, that was the reason we said, he has to go under the saddle in the performance test, it is better to invite him to the performance test, but don’t give him a premium.”</p>
1258. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Once again Bordeaux put a horse into the Championship ring, he has been such an important stallion here in Holland, what does he give?</em></p>
1259. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Bordeaux is the sire of a lot of sporthorses with a good character, stable, not crazy. Strong with a good form, they are built in a balance with a nice neck and they are easy to ride.”</p>
1260. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68783" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM-1024x866.png" alt="" width="640" height="541" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM-1024x866.png 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM-300x254.png 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM-768x649.png 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM-1536x1298.png 1536w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-07-at-11.45.49 AM.png 1810w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1261. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Livius by Bordeaux</em></p>
1262. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>One that I liked that missed out was Livius, I liked both of his young stallions but neither were invited to the test…</em></p>
1263. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Bloody types with a lot of length in the neck, sometimes they are a little long in the back then it is not so easy to collect them from behind. The loins have to be very well muscled and wide because all the strength you develop from behind has to go through the loins to the bit, and that is the most important thing.”</p>
1264. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Do you think dressage breeding in The Netherlands is healthy at the moment?</em></p>
1265. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think we make small steps forward. The Dutch dressage horses have become more modern, more light-footed, but we have to spend more time on the training, and on the riders.”</p>
1266. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>My feeling, especially looking at some of the young horses in the warm-up arena is that the horses are nicer than the riders…</em></p>
1267. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Of course, we have to spend more time on that.”</p>
1268. <figure id="attachment_68126" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-68126" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-68126" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HeroesADros-copy.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="450" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HeroesADros-copy.jpg 750w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HeroesADros-copy-300x180.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-68126" class="wp-caption-text">Screenshot</figcaption></figure>
1269. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1270. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> </em></p>
1271. <p style="font-weight: 400;">
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1276. </item>
1277. <item>
1278. <title>Fab Freestyle in Amsterdam</title>
1279. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2025/01/fab-freestyle-in-amsterdam/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=fab-freestyle-in-amsterdam</link>
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1282. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1283. <pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 14:02:18 +0000</pubDate>
1284. <category><![CDATA[ads]]></category>
1285. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1286. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1287. <category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
1288. <category><![CDATA[Freestyle Amsterdam]]></category>
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1290.  
1291. <description><![CDATA[More fabulous dressage at Amsterdam, Christopher Hector reports and catches up with the dressage world's latest star, Becky Moody...
1292.  
1293.  
1294. ]]></description>
1295. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68730" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Header.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Header.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Header-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Header-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1296. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Christopher Hector with another on-the-spot report</strong></p>
1297. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Photos from Digishots</strong></p>
1298. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Freestyle at Amsterdam did just what the radical idea of dressage to music was supposed to do, attracting a sell-out crowd to one of the world’s great equestrian events where the spectators cheered, stomped and leapt to their feet to celebrate a truly great contest.</p>
1299. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68713" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Maria-von-Essen-Invoice-AMST25L165A5296.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Maria-von-Essen-Invoice-AMST25L165A5296.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Maria-von-Essen-Invoice-AMST25L165A5296-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Maria-von-Essen-Invoice-AMST25L165A5296-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1300. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Maria and Invoice © DigiShots</em></p>
1301. <p style="font-weight: 400;">There is a bit of a problem right now with the top top stars in the second half, way in front of the half dozen in the first half, though there were two wonderful combinations in the first group. The Swede, Maria von Essen, riding her black 13-year-old gelding, Invoice (Jazz / Ferro), and Holland’s Hans Peter Minderhoud and his ten-year-old stallion, Taminiau (Toto Jr / Sandro Hit). I believe that the prefix goes to the breeder of the foal, in the case of Taminiau and Toto Jr, the breeders were J W Hotland and Judith and Sönke Schmidt, sticking a Glock prefix on, is like branding by cheque book, so until Glock breeds one of their own, I’ll leave their prefix off.</p>
1302. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Vayron with Ingrid Klimke was a bit of a disappointment in the Freestyle, not so nice as his GP show, untidy with a bit of tail swishing and a tendency to get out behind, finishing with a score of 80.58, in ninth behind Invoice (Jazz / Ferro) and Maria, and Hans-Peter and Taminiau.</p>
1303. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The horse immediately after Vayron was Don Olymbrio (Jazz / Ferro), that’s two in a row taken to Grand Prix by Daniel Bachmann. So I had a look at the FEI database to see just how many big tour horses this talented young man has made, so far. There’s a great long list, but the standouts are Zepter (Zack / Wolkentanz II) and his sire Zack (Rousseau / Jazz) both capable of beating any in the world on their day. I suspect that only Isabell has produced more, and without being rude, Isabell has been around for a touch longer than Daniel. I look forward to his next star!</p>
1304. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Don Olymbrio once again makes a graceful entrance, twos to ones on a dead straight line is a neat trick, the rest is lovely though the contact is not happy in the final passage / piaffe trip down the centre-line. They will finish fourth on a score of 83.070, but were they 3<sup>rd</sup> (Clive Halsall at E) or 8<sup>th</sup>, Mariette Sanders-van Gansewinkel at C?</p>
1305. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68714" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dinja-van-Liere-Hartsuijker-AMST25L_U0A0520.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dinja-van-Liere-Hartsuijker-AMST25L_U0A0520.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dinja-van-Liere-Hartsuijker-AMST25L_U0A0520-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dinja-van-Liere-Hartsuijker-AMST25L_U0A0520-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1306. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Dinja and Hartsuijker © DigiShots</em></p>
1307. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Dinja van Liere’s Hartsuijker <em>(it means Heart Sugar) </em>is such a wonderful type (by Johnson out of a Scandic mare), super passage pirouettes into piaffe then a huge trot, trouble is the gelding has his mouth open, such a pity because the rest is great, though by the end it is looking like hard work. Fourth with four of the judges, with the Dane, Kurt Christensen at B the odd man out, 9<sup>th</sup> on his list. 82.645 to finish in fifth.</p>
1308. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68715" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Isabell-Werth-DSP-Quantaz-AMST25L165A7155.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Isabell-Werth-DSP-Quantaz-AMST25L165A7155.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Isabell-Werth-DSP-Quantaz-AMST25L165A7155-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Isabell-Werth-DSP-Quantaz-AMST25L165A7155-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1309. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Isabell and Quantaz © DigiShots</em></p>
1310. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Isabell and Quantaz, the gelding looks a little hollow and high behind and this is not their day. They are lucky to come away third on 85.265, ranked three with three of the judges, but fifth with Mr Halsall.</p>
1311. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68716" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L165A8431.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L165A8431.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L165A8431-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L165A8431-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1312. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Charlotte and Glamourdale © DigiShots</em></p>
1313. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Glamourdale is a truly amazing horse and Charlotte Fry is brave enough to show him right on the edge, the good side EXCEPT there is a problem with the contact. Okay stallions do that funny thing when they flip their lips and that’s no problem, but from where I was sitting I thought I saw the horse’s tongue a few times, and certainly his mouth was open for much of the test, and it was wide open as he stood right in front of the C judge (check the video if you don’t believe me). With two scores of 90%, Glamourdale is first with all five judges… but not everyone agrees.</p>
1314. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68717" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Woody-Jagerbomb-165A6686-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Woody-Jagerbomb-165A6686-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Woody-Jagerbomb-165A6686-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Woody-Jagerbomb-165A6686-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Woody-Jagerbomb-165A6686.jpg 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1315. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Becky and Jagerbomb &#8211; All you need is love &#8211; © DigiShots</em></p>
1316. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I know that I am not alone in the press room believing the winner ought have been Becky Moody and Jagerbomb. In praise of this British duo, I’ll turn to the great English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and ask: <em>How do I love thee? Let me count the ways&#8230;</em></p>
1317. <p style="font-weight: 400;">First and foremost, Becky ‘made’ the horse, he was conceived and foaled down at Moody Dressage, the equestrian centre in South Yorkshire, run by Becky and her sister, Hannah, and their parents Patrick and Anne.</p>
1318. <p style="font-weight: 400;">If Glamourdale looked like a Rolls from day one, and stood champion at his stallion licensing and has been a star ever since, Jagerbomb was more of a Vauxhall Astra, and looked so ordinary as a youngster that he was almost put up for sale. Luckily not, and with the help of David Hunt, who is the first British rider to win a Grand Prix Special in Europe, a former President of the International Dressage Trainers Foundation and a member of the FEI Judges Supervisory Panel  at two Olympic Games, and a master horseman, and another great British rider / trainer, Carl Hester, Becky and Jagerbomb set about doing exactly what dressage training is supposed to do – making the horse more beautiful, so much so that the pair were a last minute call-up for the British dressage team to Paris, where they starred.</p>
1319. <p style="text-align: center;"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68724" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/JagerbomBecky-copy.tif" alt="" /></p>
1320. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Copyright ©FEI/Leanjo de Koster</em></p>
1321. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Another reason for gushing about their Kür in Amsterdam is that after test after test of computer generated ‘music’ driven by relentless percussion, their score was lovely, a delightful mix from the Fab Four, combined with a risk taking, flowing choreography. They made their entrance with John Lennon singing <em>Imagine</em> and off they went with a test that made the heart sing. There was no need for the Beatles to wonder, <em>I hope you will enjoy the show, </em>the sellout crowd was on its feet cheering for a test that was so complete, so assured, and so correct, that I know I was not the only member of the equestrian press corps, who thought they should have won the class. But wow, what a class it was!</p>
1322. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68721" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckyinterview-1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="399" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckyinterview-1.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckyinterview-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1323. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Photo &#8211; Anke Gardemann</em></p>
1324. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Lucky I was, to catch up with Becky after the show…</p>
1325. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Can you tell me a little about how you train?</em></p>
1326. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I train with both David Hunt and Carl Hester and I find them a really brilliant combination because they are a little bit different in their approaches, but with the same end goal. Carl is super super helpful from a test riding point of view, making sure the horse is supple and straight, and David is fantastic at helping to motivate the lazier horses, and to really get deep into the way of going of the horse, so for me that combination works really well.”</p>
1327. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>How would you describe David Hunt’s training, is it more old school?</em></p>
1328. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> </em>“Not at all, I think it helps that he has been sitting on the JSP and he has been exposed to the really top top levels of the sport. I’ve trained with him for over twenty years and I’ve definitely seen his training change and develop as he has learnt more and more. I think that’s the incredible thing about what we do, because each horse teaches you something different. I think what both of them work on is that the horse looks it&#8217;s best, when it is happy doing what you have asked it to do.”</p>
1329. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Isn’t that what dressage is supposed to do, improve the horse – I understand you almost sold Jagerbomb as a young horse…</em></p>
1330. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s right. I bred him so I have had him from the start, he’s always had a wonderful temperament, a very good frame, easy in the contact, but he really lacks a little energy and motivation, he didn’t articulate his joints particularly well, a bit straight if you like. But he did show when he was six or seven a lot of talent for the piaffe, and he has ended up a horse that has answered every question in a really positive way, and he has enabled me to make him better and better.”</p>
1331. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I thought what was marvellous to watch was the purity of your training, because at no point did he say, this is hard…</em></p>
1332. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> </em>“I think this is something that I really appreciate, he really does make my life so easy because he has that incredible natural balance, he has always been very good in the contact, so I can ride him very much how I wanted to ride him. Not every horse is like that, not because they are difficult but because they find something hard because their balance isn’t so good. People are like that, some have great natural balance. I have some horses at home that are not so far on in their training, but they don’t have that balance or contact, so from that point of view he really does help me out.”</p>
1333. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>It was great that you used real music, not something generated by a computer to fit a video of what the horse does well. That’s what I think freestyle was supposed to be about, expressing music, and it made him come alive..</em></p>
1334. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> </em>“I think a lot about the music, and for the music to really connect with the audience. The judges listen to the music to a degree, but they have so many other things to do, so much technical information that they are having to deal with as well, but I think the audience really are listening to the music. It’s important to find something that is fun, and for Jagerbomb that really expresses his personality. He really is a fun horse and he comes alive with the music.”</p>
1335. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Without being rude, is it unfair that your team-mate has this seventeen hand black stallion with the most amazing canter…</em></p>
1336. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68726" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale.jpg 799w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/glamourdale-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px" /></p>
1337. <p style="text-align: center;">Copyright ©FEI/Leanjo de Koster</p>
1338. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em> </em>“Glamourdale is a fabulous horse and Lottie does an amazing job, so I will keep trying to beat her! I’ve done it once, but I don’t think you can take anything away from that combination, they are phenomenal and so exciting for the sport, so I’ll just keep trying to get better and improve ourselves so we can beat them again.”</p>
1339. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Some of us think you did today. Thank you very much because dressage is under attack, but it’s people like you, breeding and making your own, and training and riding so honestly, that’s what is going to save dressage, not people buying multi-million dollar flash machines..</em></p>
1340. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I know, but we’ll just keep doing what we can.”</p>
1341. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Thank you once again, it was a privilege  watching you today…</em></p>
1342. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68728" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckArena.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckArena.jpg 799w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckArena-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/beckArena-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px" /></p>
1343. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Copyright ©FEI/Leanjo de Koster</em></p>
1344. ]]></content:encoded>
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1352. <title>Wonderful dressage in Amsterdam…</title>
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1357. <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 16:16:12 +0000</pubDate>
1358. <category><![CDATA[ads]]></category>
1359. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1360. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
1361. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1362. <category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
1363. <category><![CDATA[Amsterdam Grand Prix]]></category>
1364. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68693</guid>
1365.  
1366. <description><![CDATA[There was a feast of wonderful dressage to enjoy in the World Cup Grand Prix in Amsterdam. Enjoy this on-the-spot report...
1367.  
1368.  
1369.  
1370.  
1371. ]]></description>
1372. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Pity about the judging!</strong></p>
1373. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>An on-the-spot  report from Christopher Hector</strong></p>
1374. <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Photos from DigiShots</strong></p>
1375. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68696" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Hans-Peter-Minderhoud-GLOCKs-Taminiau-AMST25L35067.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Hans-Peter-Minderhoud-GLOCKs-Taminiau-AMST25L35067.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Hans-Peter-Minderhoud-GLOCKs-Taminiau-AMST25L35067-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Hans-Peter-Minderhoud-GLOCKs-Taminiau-AMST25L35067-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1376. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Taminiau © DigiShots</em></p>
1377. <p style="text-align: left;">The first horse out in the World Cup Grand Prix was the ten-year-old Taminiau, Toto Jr’s first Grand Prix representative (out of a mare by Sandro Hit). The black stallion is a wonderful type, unlike his dad who is a bit ponyish (but proving an excellent sire for all that) and Hans Peter Minderhoud who is riding more quietly and tactfully these days. There’s lots to like about the test, the final centre line is super and when Hapi drops the rein at the end of the test, Taminiau strolls out cool as. Score 72.565 and the combination remains at the top of the leaderboard even after a score of much more experienced campaigners have done their thing.</p>
1378. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68697" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nanna-Skodborg-Merrald-Blue-Hors-Don-Olymbrio-AMST24L35221.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nanna-Skodborg-Merrald-Blue-Hors-Don-Olymbrio-AMST24L35221.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nanna-Skodborg-Merrald-Blue-Hors-Don-Olymbrio-AMST24L35221-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nanna-Skodborg-Merrald-Blue-Hors-Don-Olymbrio-AMST24L35221-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1379. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Don Olymbrio © DigiShots</em></p>
1380. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I confess to loving Don Olymbrio (Jazz / Ferro) he has that ‘look at me’ special presence, and it’s not just all those flashy white bits. The seventeen-year-old stallion is so soft through the body, and so with his rider, Nanna Skodborg Merrald. The curb rein is loose so the bit sitting correctly, and he extends through his whole body, not just those flashy front paws – bigger not faster. He gets a bit agitated in the final piaffe, and he pays the penalty of going third in the draw with a way mean 74.37. Still it’s enough to take the lead and stay there for a long long time.</p>
1381. <p style="font-weight: 400;">He&#8217;s a horse that gets me thinking about just what is that special magic – a combination of power and grace that makes some horses grab the limelight, perhaps being a stallion helps.</p>
1382. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Interestingly the next two into the ring are by Charmeur (Florencio / Jazz) who looked sensational at the 2010 licensing, but who proved a bit of a handful as a competitor. Madeleine Witte-Vrees finally got him into Grand Prix, but his highest score in nine outings that made it to the FEI database was 69%. The two at Amsterdam were both geldings and were calmer than their dad but no stars…</p>
1383. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Johnson (Jazz / Flemmingh) is another who seems to produce better geldings than stallions. Dinja van Liere’s Heartsuijker, (out of a Scandic mare) is a wonderful type, the chestnut has an abundance of power in the trot, a huge unhurried diagonal, a little agitated in the piaffe, but he keeps the rhythm. The canter really covers ground and a 73.652 has him sitting just behind Don Olymbrio, at least until the big kids come out to play in the final stages of the class.</p>
1384. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Isabell Werth’s Quantaz (Quaterback / Hohenstein) is going great guns at the moment, but does the rather plain, chunky brown gelding have the magic? He has certainly got the strength, and the work is oh so correct, no surprise with Isabell in the saddle. He is superbly educated but just a tech boring. 74.109, and Nanna holds her place at the top for now.</p>
1385. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68698" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L36593.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L36593.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L36593-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlotte-Fry-Glamourdale-AMST25L36593-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1386. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Glamourdale © DigiShots</em></p>
1387. <p style="font-weight: 400;">There is nothing boring about Glamourdale (Lord Leatherdale / Negro), the black stallion is an excitement machine, and his rider Charlotte Fry is not afraid to take a risk, there’s a few little mistakes and a biggish whoopsy on the final centre line but there is no denying the magic and the judges fall under the spell. 79.5 to take the lead.</p>
1388. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68699" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Moody-Jagerbomb-AMST25L36692.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Moody-Jagerbomb-AMST25L36692.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Moody-Jagerbomb-AMST25L36692-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Becky-Moody-Jagerbomb-AMST25L36692-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1389. <p style="text-align: center;"><em> Jagerbomb © DigiShots</em></p>
1390. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Becky Moody’s Jagerbomb (Dante Weltino / Jazz) is plain bay gelding, but perhaps we might remember another plainish gelding, Valegro who with Charlotte Dujardin gave us some of the truly great moments in dressage (get lost Facebook Trolls who will get agitated at any favorable mention of one of the great riders of our time). Jagerbomb is another marvel of training, though you can see why Becky, whose family bred him, almost sold him as a youngster because he didn’t show that flash movement. Okay it might lack that special something, but sit back and enjoy and marvel at the purity of the training. 77.087, up to second, with only Ingrid Klimke and Vayron (Vitalis / Gloster) to come.</p>
1391. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I’m a bit conflicted at this point since Ingrid and Daniel Bachman Andersen are two of my very favorite riders, and I was sad when the owners took Vayron away from Daniel. The line that they were patriotic Germans looked a bit thin after it was revealed that the stable switch only happened after a deal to send the stallion to America fell through, still Ingrid is not to blame and they join a legion of owners who have done riders wrong.</p>
1392. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The big bay has a degree of elasticity that Franziskus never possessed and Ingrid has him motoring in a fabulous impulsive trot. Okay he might not have as grand a canter as Glamourdale (who has?) and he gets a bit untidy in the piaffe passage tour, though the final passage is really great.</p>
1393. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68700" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Ingrid-Klimke-Vayron-NRW-AMST25L36881.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Ingrid-Klimke-Vayron-NRW-AMST25L36881.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Ingrid-Klimke-Vayron-NRW-AMST25L36881-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Ingrid-Klimke-Vayron-NRW-AMST25L36881-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
1394. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Vayron © DigiShots</em></p>
1395. <p style="font-weight: 400;">A score of 73.326 and Vayron finishes sixth, though the scores were so close (in the top ten there were two 74s and two 73s) that the placings were a bit of a lottery.</p>
1396. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Last year the judging here was a disgrace, this year it was just timid.  For all that, sit back and look at that top ten and you will see that we were lucky enough to enjoy some wonderful dressage…</p>
1397. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2025/jumping-amsterdam-amsterdam/resultlist_D01.html">https://www.longinestiming.com/equestrian/2025/jumping-amsterdam-amsterdam/resultlist_D01.html</a></p>
1398. <p style="font-weight: 400;">
1399. ]]></content:encoded>
1401. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2025/01/wonderful-dressage-in-amsterdam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
1402. <slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
1405. </item>
1406. <item>
1407. <title>International Congress of Showjumper Breeders</title>
1408. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2025/01/international-congress-of-showjumper-breeders/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=international-congress-of-showjumper-breeders</link>
1410. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1411. <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jan 2025 01:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
1412. <category><![CDATA[Advertise]]></category>
1413. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1414. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
1415. <category><![CDATA[Show Jumping]]></category>
1416. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68648</guid>
1417.  
1418. <description><![CDATA[Exciting news from the KWPN stallion show, this year's show will feature a congress (in english) with some of the world's leading show jumping breeders. The stallion show will be held from ]]></description>
1419. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68649" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-1024x523.png" alt="" width="640" height="327" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-1024x523.png 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-300x153.png 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-768x393.png 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-1536x785.png 1536w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.12.28 PM-2048x1047.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1420. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Top breeders share their expertise</strong></p>
1421. <p>This year&#8217;s KWPN stallion show in s&#8217;Hertogenbosch has an added very special feature, a Congress of Jumping experts and breeders&#8230; Here is the press release from the organizers:</p>
1422. <p style="font-weight: 400;">We would like to invite you to the International Congress of Showjumper Breeders. Renowned breeders from all European countries come together to share their expertise. With you!</p>
1423. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68651" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-1024x503.png" alt="" width="640" height="314" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-1024x503.png 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-300x147.png 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-768x377.png 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-1536x755.png 1536w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-08-at-12.14.23 PM-2048x1006.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1424. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Successful breeders like Harm Thormählen (Capitol, Fein Cera), Tom De Craene (Van de Bisschop), Patrice Boureau (Orient Express), Tom Brennan (MHS Going Global, Kilkenny), Alexandra Lebon (Jubilée d’Ouilly) and Fred van Straaten (Handel, Andretti-s, Faquitol) will be on the panel. Many more top breeders from all leading breeding areas will be present to share their insights with the audience and participate in a super interesting discussion.</p>
1425. <p style="font-weight: 400;">All breeders wonder: how can we move forward in our breeding program? Regardless of the studbook where the horses are registered or the country you come from. This congress brings together breeding experts from all over Europe to discuss topics such as: How to build a valuable, meaningful mare line? How to select a mare for such an enterprise? Which stallion to choose: young and full of genetic promise or proven and well-established? How about a way in between these extremes?</p>
1426. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Your opinion also matters during this evening, we encourage open dialogue. The second part of the evening will be interactive, with networking taking center stage. Meet Europe&#8217;s most successful breeders!</p>
1427. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Get your ticket now at <a href="http://www.kwpn.org/internationalcongress">www.kwpn.org/internationalcongress</a>. The ticket includes access to the KWPN Stallion Show on Wednesday, January 29, from 2:00 PM.</p>
1428. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The congress will be in English</p>
1429. <p>The stallion show runs from January 29 to February 1 in the beautiful city of s&#8217;Hertogenbosch and has become a mecca for sporthorse breeders from all over the world&#8230;</p>
1430. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67610" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Atmosphere-KWPN2closer.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Atmosphere-KWPN2closer.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Atmosphere-KWPN2closer-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Atmosphere-KWPN2closer-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1431. ]]></content:encoded>
1435. </item>
1436. <item>
1437. <title>Have the Warmblood breeds merged into one?</title>
1438. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2025/01/have-the-warmblood-breeds-merged-into-one/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=have-the-warmblood-breeds-merged-into-one</link>
1440. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1441. <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:15:37 +0000</pubDate>
1442. <category><![CDATA[ads]]></category>
1443. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1444. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
1445. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1446. <category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
1447. <category><![CDATA[Performance horse studbooks]]></category>
1448. <category><![CDATA[christopher hector]]></category>
1449. <category><![CDATA[Dressage breeding]]></category>
1450. <category><![CDATA[Sporthorse Breeding]]></category>
1451. <category><![CDATA[Warmblood Breeding]]></category>
1452. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68611</guid>
1453.  
1454. <description><![CDATA[Have the European  Warmblood breeds merged into one universal Sporthorse? Christopher Hector looks at this year's dressage stallion licensings and finds that the borders are down...
1455.  
1456.  
1457. ]]></description>
1458. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67542" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HeaderKwpnW.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HeaderKwpnW.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HeaderKwpnW-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HeaderKwpnW-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1459. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Christopher Hector looks at the dressage stallion licensings of Europe’s leading breeding associations and finds that breed differences have all but disappeared…</strong></p>
1460. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Verden press release glowed with satisfaction:</p>
1461. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68630" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Hannoveraner_Donkey-Boss_Hengstmarkt-2024.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Hannoveraner_Donkey-Boss_Hengstmarkt-2024.jpg 960w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Hannoveraner_Donkey-Boss_Hengstmarkt-2024-300x188.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Hannoveraner_Donkey-Boss_Hengstmarkt-2024-768x480.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></p>
1462. <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The premium stallion by Donkey Boss/Don Olymbrio was sold for 2 million euros at the auction (Photo: Hannoveraner Verband)</strong></p>
1463. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“The Niedersachsenhalle was on fire when the hammer came down.  A Donkey Boss/Don Olymbrio son was sold to Denmark for €2,000,000… the Hannoveraner chestnut stallions were in high demand.”</p>
1464. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Sold to Helgstrand Dressage (who else?)</p>
1465. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Only trouble is there is almost nothing very ‘Hannoveraner’ about Daan G, the chestnut auction topper. He is the product of a very Danish breeding program at Stutteri G, headed up by the founder, and owner, of the stud, Helene Geervliet.</p>
1466. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Helene grew up on the stud Skovgård in Farum, Denmark, where her Dutch parents bred DSA <em>(one of the two books that combined to form the Danish Warmblood)</em> sports horses, and New Forest ponies. After working abroad, she returned to Denmark in 2001, where she bought a Danish breeding stallion Salomon, who was by the famous Trakehner stallion Schwadroneur.</p>
1467. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-17195" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Schwadroneur.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="460" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Schwadroneur.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Schwadroneur-300x250.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1468. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Schwadroneur.</em></p>
1469. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1470. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Bred in Germany by Otto Langels, Schwadroneur was a Grand Prix star for Denmark’s Anne Grethe Törnblad, but the bay was influential in Trakehner breeding throughout the world. Salomon’s mare line combines Swedish, Hanoverian and early Danish bloodlines.</p>
1471. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-36363" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DonkeyBoy.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="472" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DonkeyBoy.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DonkeyBoy-300x202.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DonkeyBoy-445x300.jpg 445w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1472. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Hesselhoj Donkey Boy</em></p>
1473. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Ms Geervliet’s star of the Hanoverian licensing is largely Danish bred, with just one tiny Hanoverian line. He is by Hesselhoj Donkey Boss, a son of Hesselhoj Donkey Boy, out of Boogie Woogie, a Danish mare by the Dutch stallion, Blue Hors Zack, out of a mare who combines the Hanoverian Ragazzo with our old friend, Schwadroneur.</p>
1474. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39920" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DonOlymbrioTrot.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="382" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DonOlymbrioTrot.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DonOlymbrioTrot-300x164.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DonOlymbrioTrot-500x273.jpg 500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1475. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Don Olymbrio competing at Aachen</em></p>
1476. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Dann G is out of De Vie G who is by the very Dutch Don Olymbrio (Jazz / Ferro), and out of Duffy, a daughter of the Oldenburg star, Don Schufro, out of Bijou by the Hanoverian Baroncelli, out of Bijou by the Oldenburger, Donnerschlag, over a mare by the Hanoverian, Wenzel.</p>
1477. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The breeders in Oldenburg, just across the border from the Hanoverian district, never had the State Stud setup with an all-powerful breeding director, instead they relied on private stallion owners who were much more likely to welcome outside bloodlines. So closed was the Hanoverian State Stud Celle at the time, that for many years the director, Dr Bade refused to stand a son of the Oldenburger Donnerhall, it was an attitude that saw him miss De Niro when he had the chance to select him in the director’s lot.</p>
1478. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1479. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-68631 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Verbier-1024x849.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="531" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Verbier-1024x849.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Verbier-300x249.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Verbier-768x637.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Verbier.jpg 1100w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1480. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Verbier</em></p>
1481. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The champion of this year’s Oldenburg licensing, Verbier, again emphasizes how meaningless the old studbook divisions have become. Verbier is by the Hanoverian stallion, Von und Zu who is by the Dutch sire Vitalis, out of a mare by the De Niro son, Dancier. Verbier’s dam line is a right mix: Sandro Hit, the great Westfalien, Rubinstein, De Niro and the Anglo Arab, Matcho.</p>
1482. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Verbier sold for € 720,000 at the auction following the licensing to Swedish breeder, Antonia Axson Johnson of Lovsta Stuteri.</p>
1483. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68633" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Vuelta.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Vuelta.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Vuelta-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Vuelta-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1484. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Vuelta</em></p>
1485. <p style="font-weight: 400;">At the Westfalien licensing in December 2024, the champion of the dressage stallions was Vuelta, a son of Vitalis out of a Fürst Jazz mare, the young colt was later sold for €850,000 to Eugene Reesink, who presented his sire Vitalis at the 2009 licensing where he stood reserve champion. The Dutch breeder and mega-dealer, Eugene Reesink lives near the German border and often brings his young stallions to the Westfalien licensing, once again we see that borders are down.</p>
1486. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-68634 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FuurstJazz-1024x918.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="574" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FuurstJazz-1024x918.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FuurstJazz-300x269.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FuurstJazz-768x689.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FuurstJazz.jpg 1258w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1487. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Fürst Jazz</em></p>
1488. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It’s the same with the breeding of Vuelta. He is by Vitalis (Vivaldi / D-Day) out of a mare by Fürst Jazz, by the Oldenberger, Fürst Romancier (by the Westfalian, Fürst Heinrich) out of the Dutch mare, Borendy (Painted Black / Jazz). Borendy descends from Wendy, one of the two Amor mares who formed the basis of legendary breeding program of Huub and Tiny van Helvoirt, and is by the most famous stallion they bred, Jazz, who descends from Warmante, the other Amor mare the van Helvoirts bought on their original shopping spree. Fürst Jazz competed small tour with Danielle Heijkoop before being sold to Kristy Oatley in September 2022, but seemingly has not competed with his new owner. He is no longer listed on either the van Uytert or Schockemöhle stallion rosters.</p>
1489. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Vuelta is out of Shakira by the Oldenberg stallion, Stedinger by Sandro Hit, out of a mare by the Holsteiner Landadel who is out of a mare by the Furioso xx Son, Futuro. Shakira is out of the Hanoverian mare, Wilawanda by the Weltmeyer son, Waikiki.</p>
1490. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68635" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/plus-horses-redemption.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="566" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/plus-horses-redemption.jpg 850w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/plus-horses-redemption-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/plus-horses-redemption-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" /></p>
1491. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Plus Horses Redemption</em></p>
1492. <p style="font-weight: 400;">In Denmark, there were three premium stallions, again a mix of diverse bloodlines. Two were by Secret (Sezuan / St Moritz I) – one Sarai L (out of a For Romance mare) and the other, Select Me, out of Fantasy an Hanoverian mare by Fantastic a son of Fürst Romancier. The third, Plus Horses Redemption is by the Westfalien stallion Revolution (Rocky Lee / Rpouletto) out of Flossie by the Westfalien, Florencio, out of an Oldenberg mare, Blandine, a grand-daughter of Furioso II, the great grand-sire of Florencio…</p>
1493. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44787" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Helgstrand-A-Revolution-ERME18L56836.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Helgstrand-A-Revolution-ERME18L56836.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Helgstrand-A-Revolution-ERME18L56836-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Helgstrand-A-Revolution-ERME18L56836-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1494. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Revolution</em></p>
1495. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Revolution was a Young Horse star with Andreas Helgstrand, since then he has commenced his Grand Prix career with Portuguese rider, Roberto Brasil.</p>
1496. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It’s something of an irony, that the Dutch who were newcomers in the world of dressage breeding, showed at their 2024 licensing that they are no longer dependent on imported blood, but have consolidated their own successful lines. But they are always on the lookout for new blood, demonstrated this year by the success of the stallion, Lantanas who presented three colts, all of whom were approved, with one, Rumble VDK, out of a Negro mare named premium.</p>
1497. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68636" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Lantanas.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Lantanas.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Lantanas-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Lantanas-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1498. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lantanas </em></p>
1499. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The breeding of Lantanas is very much left field.  He is by Sir Donnerhall I by Sandro Hit, out of a Donnerhall mare, conventional enough, but her mare line traces to the Danish carriage breed, the Frediksborg.  Lantanas is out of a jumping bred mare, Lantana V, by the Holsteiner (and 1.40m jumper) Hemmingway, out of a mare by the 1.30m jumper, Zuidhorn, whose pedigree reflects the early days of Dutch sporthorse breeding. He is by the Thoroughbred, Le Val Blanc, out of a mare by foundation sire Sinaeda. His dam line traces back to Amor through his son, Eros.</p>
1500. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68637" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/kwpnRohan.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/kwpnRohan.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/kwpnRohan-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/kwpnRohan-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1501. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Rohan</em></p>
1502. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Prominent Dutch breeder, Gert-Jan Van Olst, took home two premiums, one for Rumble VDK (Lantanas / Negro), and the other for Rayano, by the star of the van Olst stable, Glamourdale, out of a mare by the Apache son, Cum Laude. While another of the super stallion keepers, Joep van Uytert, also claimed a pair, one for Rohan (Jameson / Easy Game), the other with Rome USB by Vaderland out of a Zambuika mare.</p>
1503. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Dutch based British breeder and horse dealer Rebecca Dudley saw her Rockstar Millionaire<strong> </strong>(by D&#8217;Avie x Sandro Hit) become premium.</p>
1504. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>I suggested to KWPN stallion commission member, Floor Drooge that their Premium selection they had quite a mix, Glamourdale, Monte Carlo even Vaderland were all fairly predictable but we were stepping into slightly stranger territory with Lantanas and D’Avie…</em></p>
1505. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“What do you mean with ‘stranger territory’? The horses you were seeing, or the fathers…”</p>
1506. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68621" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Davie.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="613" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Davie.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Davie-269x300.jpg 269w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1507. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>D&#8217;Avie competing at Ermelo</em></p>
1508. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The bloodlines. If we look at D’Avie, we are looking at Don Juan, Londonderry, Walt Disney, not a famous combination…</em></p>
1509. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“Okay, but for us it is different blood, so then the level of in-breeding in the population, is lowered, that’s a good thing, and the dam line is a really strong dam line with a lot of sport horses in it, and in the end you are trying to select sporthorses. We also take the mother’s side of the pedigree, really into consideration.”</p>
1510. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>And the other one, Lantanas, I saw his sire, Sir Donnerhall at the Bundeschampionate, that was his only competition, he was slow and out behind, and he’s got that weird Danish harness horse blood in his background, but his name keeps popping up on the pedigrees of nice horses…</em></p>
1511. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62567" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SirDonnerhallTrotTU.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="518" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SirDonnerhallTrotTU.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SirDonnerhallTrotTU-300x222.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SirDonnerhallTrotTU-405x300.jpg 405w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1512. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Sir Donnerhall</em></p>
1513. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s why you just have to test it and see it, and we really really like this horse, so you don’t let that influence you, and you take the horse. And in the end, the dam line of Lantanas is a really good one with Grand Prix horses, and you take that into consideration as well.”</p>
1514. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Jameson had a premium and several accepted, I’ve always been in love with that horse, what do you think he is putting on his progeny?</em></p>
1515. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think we are seeing horses, where the parts of the body are very good, they are even and the connection is good, although he, himself, is slightly down in the topline. Look at Proud James, the high scorer we had in the Fall in the performance test, he’s got the body of a riding horse, the connections are really really strong, the hind is built under the body instead of what we sometimes see, longer behind. And in the end, that makes it so much easier. He was in the test for twenty-one days, and every day he was the same. Every day easy to ride, you could put him a little lower, or up and he was the same. In the end, you are shooting for horses with the conformation that makes it that easy. If it’s that easy, we’re still riding them in twenty years.”</p>
1516. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67597" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Proud-James.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Proud-James.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Proud-James-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Proud-James-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1517. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Proud James (Jameson / Johnson)</em></p>
1518. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Vaderland, he’s a new stallion for you, what do you think he offers?</em></p>
1519. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“For us it is a new horse, but nothing new in blood, we have that blood.”</p>
1520. <p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>You sent that blood away! (his sire, Vitalis was repeatedly rejected by the KWPN)</em></p>
1521. <p style="font-weight: 400;">“We took it back later, sometimes you have to say, come back, the door is never closed. We saw offspring by Vaderland from yearlings to three years old, and you see a lot of Contango in the foundation, really solid, with good bones, good feet underneath, and I think nowadays with the modern horses we can use that a bit again. The topline was good, and, of course, the Vitalis front, it’s nice in the neck and the head.”</p>
1522. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67602" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vaderland-jpg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vaderland-jpg.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vaderland-jpg-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vaderland-jpg-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1523. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Vaderland</em></p>
1524. <p style="font-weight: 400;">For a long time now, jumping breeding has been ‘breed society blind’, taking their blood from any stallion that could produce foals that leave the poles up, now it would seem that dressage breeders have opened their minds and hearts to the brave new world of the universal sporthorse.</p>
1525. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-67878" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="450" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy.jpg 750w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy-300x180.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /></p>
1526. ]]></content:encoded>
1530. </item>
1531. <item>
1532. <title>Crime and Punishment: The FEI gets it wrong, AGAIN</title>
1533. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/12/crime-and-punishment-the-fei-gets-it-wrong-again/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=crime-and-punishment-the-fei-gets-it-wrong-again</link>
1534. <comments>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/12/crime-and-punishment-the-fei-gets-it-wrong-again/#comments</comments>
1536. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1537. <pubDate>Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:54:24 +0000</pubDate>
1538. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1539. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1540. <category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
1541. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68584</guid>
1542.  
1543. <description><![CDATA[Charlotte Dujardin has been disqualified, but does the punishment fit the crime, or has the FEI got it wrong again?
1544.  
1545.  
1546.  
1547. ]]></description>
1548. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-68586" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteHEADERwhip.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="381" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteHEADERwhip.jpg 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteHEADERwhip-300x127.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteHEADERwhip-768x325.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1549. <p style="font-weight: 400;">So Charlotte Dujardin is disqualified for 12 months for what most riders would regard as a distasteful, but not outrageous offence &#8211; I would hazard a guess that a normal training session with the horse&#8217;s regular rider &#8211; or worse, her pal who took the video &#8211; would be more distressing for the animal. I doubt there is one of us who can honestly claim that they have never lost their temper with a horse and done something they later regretted. I can’t. For mine, Charlotte’s real crime was that her training technique was so wrong.</p>
1550. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve seen some absolute artists with a long whip working from the ground, and they all stressed that you had to make sure the horse was not afraid of the whip, or you would lose the relaxation and beauty of the movement. Trouble is, once again, that the FEI judges are rewarding tense and ‘spectacular’ movements, so they are complicit in the crime. They are encouraging this sort of ‘training’.</p>
1551. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68587" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteFreestyletail-1.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="492" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteFreestyletail-1.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CharlotteFreestyletail-1-300x211.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1552. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-68588" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Dujardin-Freestyle-TRYO1trot.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="452" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Dujardin-Freestyle-TRYO1trot.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Dujardin-Freestyle-TRYO1trot-300x212.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1553. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Charlotte and Freestyle at Tryon</em></p>
1554. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It should have happened at the 2018 WEG in Tryon when Charlotte Dujardin rode Freestyle so aggressively that the work was horrible, nothing free or stylish here, and did the judges mark her down for it? No way, instead they gave her a Bronze Medal.</p>
1555. <p style="font-weight: 400;">At the time, I wrote: “She scored 8s for the big trots, but 6s for the piaffe and that was generous, and the passage looks a bit manufactured. Lovely big canter, but a mistake in the ones.  For mine, Carl’s test on Delicato was far nicer. Still the judges go wild, a score of 77.764%, it makes the Ground Jury look like a gaggle of star struck schoolgirls.”</p>
1556. <p style="font-weight: 400;">After that WEG, Freestyle was so shattered that she needed a long long period of TLC with her breeder, before Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour could put the mare back together again, and show her to be the best in the world, I suspect that is really punishment enough for Charlotte.</p>
1557. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Back in  the days when the FEI was run by horse people, not by bureaucrats who see their role as pandering to animal liberationists who really believe that the horse should never be asked to do anything it doesn’t want to do, Ms Dujardin might have been given a quiet talking to, and be advised to pick the people she associates with more carefully.</p>
1558. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The real problem is that we lack judges who can recognize negative tension or if they can, have the guts to punish it. It was great to see the Germans fast track half a dozen <strong>real </strong>Grand Prix dressage riders into their judging program, if something is not done soon, then the liberationists will have their way and equestrian sport, and with it horses, will disappear…</p>
1559. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Christopher Hector</p>
1560. <p style="font-weight: 400;">PS Back in 2016 I had the privilege of watching Charlotte Dujardin train two horses – Valegro and Barolo &#8211; for about two hours a day for five days in a row, at the Sunshine Tour show in Jerez.  The training was exemplary, tactful, logical, wonderful to watch.</p>
1561. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-68594 alignnone" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1ABarolo.jpeg" alt="" width="480" height="552" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1ABarolo.jpeg 480w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1ABarolo-261x300.jpeg 261w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></p>
1562. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1563. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>with Barolo</em></p>
1564. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-56793" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/16CharlotteValegroCas.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="566" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/16CharlotteValegroCas.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/16CharlotteValegroCas-300x243.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/16CharlotteValegroCas-371x300.jpg 371w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1565. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>and Valegro&#8230;</em></p>
1566. ]]></content:encoded>
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1569. <slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
1572. </item>
1573. <item>
1574. <title>WBFSH 2024 stallion rankings</title>
1575. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/12/wbfsh-2024-stallion-rankings/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=wbfsh-2024-stallion-rankings</link>
1577. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1578. <pubDate>Wed, 04 Dec 2024 02:23:47 +0000</pubDate>
1579. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1580. <category><![CDATA[Breeders Club]]></category>
1581. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1582. <category><![CDATA[Eventing]]></category>
1583. <category><![CDATA[Show Jumping]]></category>
1584. <category><![CDATA[christopher hector]]></category>
1585. <category><![CDATA[Sporthorse Breeding]]></category>
1586. <category><![CDATA[WBFSH 2024 Sires Rankings.Stallion rankings]]></category>
1587. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=68537</guid>
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1589. <description><![CDATA[Do the WBFSH sires rankings need a change of format? Christopher Hector looks at the recently released standings and asks, are we measuring quantity or quality?
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1594. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68553" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/wbfshoriginal.jpg" alt="" width="516" height="400" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/wbfshoriginal.jpg 516w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/wbfshoriginal-300x233.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px" /></p>
1595. <h3 style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Christopher Hector examines the latest sires rankings…</h3>
1596. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Over the past 30 years, the annual WBFSH stallion rankings have become something of an institution, but as with all institutions, there comes a time when we have to ask – is it working? In the early days, the rankings were very heavily weighted for high level success, thus a stallion like Rebus could be crowned world number one dressage sire on the basis of one star – Rusty, Ulla Salzgeber&#8217;s multi medal winner – despite not producing anything else of note.</p>
1597. <p style="font-weight: 400;">More recently, the wheel seems to have turned full circle, with the horses topping the list &#8211; the ones with the most international competitors &#8211; not necessarily the sires of the best competitors.  In fact, you only have to scroll down to 40<sup>th</sup> on this year’s dressage rankings to find a stallion who would have been the shining star at the top of the list on those early rankings.</p>
1598. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Is it quantity or quality we are measuring?</strong></p>
1599. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68543" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Johnson3-copy-1.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="640" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Johnson3-copy-1.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Johnson3-copy-1-300x240.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Johnson3-copy-1-768x614.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1600. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Johnson and Hans Peter Minderhoud competing at Aachen</em></p>
1601. <p style="font-weight: 400;">For example, the Dutch stallion, Johnson (Jazz / Flemmingh) heads the standings again, yet his top competitor, Great Escape Camelot (out of a mare by the Cabochon son, Turbo Magic) ranks only 27<sup>th</sup> in the world, although he has recently proven just how good he is, when ridden by Raphael Netz, he placed 4<sup>th</sup> in the Grand Prix and in the Freestyle at Stuttgart, with scores of 72 and 78.</p>
1602. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-55966" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/JObeiWStephen-Mowbray.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="750" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/JObeiWStephen-Mowbray.jpg 500w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/JObeiWStephen-Mowbray-200x300.jpg 200w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/JObeiWStephen-Mowbray-300x450.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
1603. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Windermere J&#8217;Obei and Melissa Galloway &#8211; Stephen Mowbray image</em></p>
1604. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Johnson’s second ranked offspring, New Zealand team horse, Windermere J’Obei  W (Pompeii Court xx) comes in at 41<sup>st</sup> in the world, and underlines why Johnson progeny are regarded with suspicion by many, they tend to be a bit wild. Indeed <em>Windermere J’Obei W (alias Johnny) was, in the words of his owner/rider, Melissa Galloway “</em>particularly difficult &#8211; he was the first horse in Australasia by Johnson. He didn’t get a very good reputation because he bucked and had to go to three breakers. He bucked me off six times in the first six months. He was very difficult.”</p>
1605. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68544" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/QuaterbackBundes2.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="578" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/QuaterbackBundes2.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/QuaterbackBundes2-300x248.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1606. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Quaterback, a winner at the Bundeschampionate as a three-year-old</em></p>
1607. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Ranked second on the dressage stallions list is Quaterback (Quaterman / Brandenburger), and this one does have elite progeny. Quaterback’s highest point scorer is the 6<sup>th</sup> ranked Touchdown (Sack) with DSP Quantaz (Hohenstein) and Isabell Werth just out of the top ten in 12<sup>th</sup>.</p>
1608. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68554" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Quantaz.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Quantaz.jpg 799w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Quantaz-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Quantaz-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px" /></p>
1609. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Quantaz and Isabell (FEI / Lukasz Kowaski)</em></p>
1610. <p>The next stallion with progeny in the world’s top ten, is the 9<sup>th</sup> ranked Bordeaux (United / Gribaldi) represented by world number 7, Bluetooth (Riccione) and  world number 9 Fame (Rhodium).</p>
1611. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29706" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bordeaux.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bordeaux.jpg 750w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bordeaux-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bordeaux-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /></p>
1612. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bordeaux (United/Gribaldi)</em></p>
1613. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68546" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Wandres-F-Bluetooth-1024x683-1.jpg" alt="" width="840" height="623" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Wandres-F-Bluetooth-1024x683-1.jpg 840w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Wandres-F-Bluetooth-1024x683-1-300x223.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Wandres-F-Bluetooth-1024x683-1-768x570.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /></p>
1614. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bluetooth and Frederic Wandres at Aachen</em></p>
1615. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Although there is little doubt they would have been joined in the top ten by Bohemian (Samarant) if he were still being ridden by Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, as it is, the gelding ranks 54<sup>th</sup> with his American rider.</p>
1616. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Of recent years, the buzz has been around the new V line, but on these 2024 rankings, we find Vivaldi’s best in 46<sup>th </sup>and he has dropped from seventh last year to tenth, while his influential son, Vitalis in number 11, has Vayron (Gloster) at 8<sup>th</sup>, though his next best is 64<sup>th</sup>.</p>
1617. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68555" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Vayron.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="533" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Vayron.jpg 799w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Vayron-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Vayron-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px" /></p>
1618. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Vayron (FEI &#8211; Pernilla Hägg)</em></p>
1619. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Numbers? Or the best? </strong></p>
1620. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Consider the case of Easy Game (Gribaldi / Schwadroneur), ranked 40<sup>th</sup> but the sire of the world’s number one, Dalera (Handryk) and Hermes (Flemmingh), currently ranked 19<sup>th</sup>, who would have ranked higher, but for injuring himself travelling to the Omaha World Cup.</p>
1621. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61017" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EasyGame.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="538" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EasyGame.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EasyGame-300x248.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EasyGame-362x300.jpg 362w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1622. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Easy Game</em></p>
1623. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Easy Game has also established a sire line, through his son, Millennium (Ravel). This is something the rankings stars of the past, like Jazz, Donnerhall, De Niro and Gribaldi did over and over again. However we are yet to see notable stallion sons of the 2024 champion and reserve.</p>
1624. <p style="font-weight: 400;">As usual the has not been a lot of movement in the rankings. Johnson is 1<sup>st</sup> for the second year running. Quaterback moves from 4<sup>th</sup> to 2<sup>nd</sup>, while Blue Hors Zack drops from 2<sup>nd</sup> to 3<sup>rd</sup>. Totilas moves up from 6<sup>th</sup> to 4<sup>th</sup> and Jazz slips from 3<sup>rd</sup> to 5<sup>th</sup>. Apache moves from 8<sup>th</sup> to 6<sup>th</sup> and Ampere from 5<sup>th</sup> to 7<sup>th</sup>. Bordeaux stays at 9<sup>th</sup> while Vivaldi drops from 7<sup>th</sup> to 10<sup>th</sup> The only newcomer in the top ten is San Amour I (Sandro Hit / Plaisir d’Amour), up from 12<sup>th</sup> last year to eighth, with his best Jibraltar de Massa (Hohenstein) ranked 141<sup>st</sup> in the world.</p>
1625. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-48386" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1San-Amour-6-07ernst.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="441" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1San-Amour-6-07ernst.jpg 618w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1San-Amour-6-07ernst-300x214.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1San-Amour-6-07ernst-420x300.jpg 420w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
1626. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>San Amour I </em></p>
1627. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Obviously the initial system that produced one horse wonders, needed to change. In the very first rankings 1995/96, it was Graditz in 6<sup>th</sup>, thanks to Gigolo, in 2000 / 2001, it was Rebus sire of Rusty, and in the 2002/3 rankings, there were three stallions, Freudentanzer, Argument and Tiro earning their fifteen minutes of fame on the basis of one clever foal each. Right now it seems we have gone too far, and the jumping rankings may well show the way out of the dilemma.</p>
1628. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Jumping Rankings</strong></p>
1629. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The Dressage Rankings are based on percentages scored in international Grand Prix at CDI 3/4/5*/CDI-W events.  While bonus points are awarded for special competitions such as the Olympic Games, and the World Cup Final, all the other competitions are treated as equal, a win in Australia provides as many points as a win at Aachen. The jumping calculations are more sophisticated. Jumping competitions are divided into groups, mostly based on their prize money, and type of competition. Each group has its own scale of points. The higher and more difficult the competition, the more points a horse can accumulate. This is very different from the dressage formula, and you might expect that the stallions at the top of the jumping lists, were the sires of the stars of international competition.</p>
1630. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Well, not really</p>
1631. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-22873" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Kannan.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="390" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Kannan.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Kannan-300x212.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Kannan-423x300.jpg 423w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1632. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Kannan, Jumping Number One</em></p>
1633. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The jumping number one is Kannan, still shining four years after his death. When he died at the age of 28, he was the sire of offspring in 40 countries and had produced team representatives for 50 nations. He sired 202 1.60m jumpers and 194 approved sons, but for all that does not seem to have been a stallion maker.</p>
1634. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42398" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/VenissQuabriDuLisleRolexGP.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/VenissQuabriDuLisleRolexGP.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/VenissQuabriDuLisleRolexGP-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/VenissQuabriDuLisleRolexGP-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1635. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Quabri de L&#8217;Isle and Pedro Veniss</em></p>
1636. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kannan’s best son, certainly best looking since the Kannans tend to be a bit plain, Quabri de L’Isle (out of a mare by the Grand Veneur son, Socrate de Chivre) was a genuine international superstar with Brazil’s Pedro Veniss, but has not been so successful as a sire, there’s fourteen licensed sons, but not one 1.60m jumper to his name.</p>
1637. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68563" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/James-Kann-Cruz-1.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="560" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/James-Kann-Cruz-1.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/James-Kann-Cruz-1-300x210.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/James-Kann-Cruz-1-768x538.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1638. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>James Kann Cruz ridden by Shane Sweetnan</em></p>
1639. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kannan’s top point earner on this year’s standings, is the Irish bred, James Kann Cruz ranked 6<sup>th</sup> in the world. The grey gelding is out of a Cruising / Clover Hill mare, and this does seem to have been one of Kannan’s strengths, his ability to ‘click’ with a wide variety of bloodlines.</p>
1640. <p style="font-weight: 400;">This is perhaps not so surprising since Kannan himself is such an interesting genetic mix, branded KWPN (although he was only licensed in that book at the age of 19) and by Voltaire out of a Nimmerdor mare, he balanced 6/16ths French (from Furioso II and his full-brother’s son, Le Mexico), 6/16ths solid German, Gotthard and Farn, along with a touch of Thoroughbred and a dash of traditional Dutch Gelderlander.</p>
1641. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21685" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Furioso.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="832" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Furioso.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Furioso-198x300.jpg 198w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1642. <p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>Furioso</em></strong></p>
1643. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It is one of those ironic breeding twists that the stallion line of the great French Thoroughbred Furioso had died out in that country, and was only revived, first through the Furioso grand-son, Voltaire, and more recently by the Voltaire son, Kannan.</p>
1644. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-65904" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1aVoltaireA.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="431" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1aVoltaireA.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1aVoltaireA-300x185.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1aVoltaireA-487x300.jpg 487w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1645. <p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>Voltaire</strong></em></p>
1646. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Once again it would seem that Kannan’s pre-eminence is due more to the number of his progeny competing than their quality. Over 200 of his get contributed to this year’s points tally, and they soon fall away after James Kann Cruz, the next best is Nickolaj de Muze (Nabab de Rêve) in 38<sup>th</sup>, then Derby de Riverland (L’Arc de Triomphe) 94<sup>th</sup>, and we are in the hundreds…</p>
1647. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58090" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ChaccoBlueIHB.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="431" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ChaccoBlueIHB.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ChaccoBlueIHB-300x185.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ChaccoBlueIHB-487x300.jpg 487w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1648. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Chacco Blue</em></p>
1649. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It&#8217;s much the same with number two on the jumping standings, Chacco Blue (Chambertin / Contender). His best points earner was Veneno (Baloubet de Rouet) ranked 13<sup>th</sup> – his highest payout in the current cycle being €15,000 at Frankfurt with Britain’s Graham Gillespie. After that it’s 44<sup>th</sup>, 84<sup>th</sup>, 99<sup>th</sup>, and we are back to the 100s.</p>
1650. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68568" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blood-Diamond-du-Pont-1.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="512" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blood-Diamond-du-Pont-1.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Blood-Diamond-du-Pont-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></p>
1651. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Blood Diamond du Pont</em></p>
1652. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Third ranked Diamant de Sémilly’s best is Blood Diamond du Pont (Arpege  de Pierroville) ranked 21<sup>st</sup>. Even the great Cornet Obolensky, who returns this year to the top ten in 4<sup>th</sup> place, is represented best by the 56<sup>th</sup> ranked Millfield Colette (Clearway), while Mylord Carthago in fifth, has as his frontliner the 54<sup>th</sup> ranked Dexter Kerglenn (Diamant de Sémilly).</p>
1653. <p style="font-weight: 400;">It&#8217;s a relief to find that at least one of the Jumping Sires Rankings top ten has a horse in the world’s top ten competitors. Comme il Faut (Cornet Obolensky / Ramiro) is the sire of the Olympic gold medallist, second ranked Checker (out of a Come On / Baloubet de Rouet mare) but his next best comes in at 173<sup>rd</sup>.</p>
1654. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63053" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Christian-Kukuk-GER-riding-Checker-47.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="800" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Christian-Kukuk-GER-riding-Checker-47.jpg 800w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Christian-Kukuk-GER-riding-Checker-47-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Christian-Kukuk-GER-riding-Checker-47-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Christian-Kukuk-GER-riding-Checker-47-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
1655. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Christian Kukuk and Checker</em></p>
1656. <p style="font-weight: 400;">We have to scroll down to the stallion ranked 17<sup>th</sup> to find Cascadello, the sire of the world number seven Cydello (Forsyth), further still to the great Baloubet de Rouet languishing in 22th spot, but the sire of the third ranked Iron Dames Dubai du Cedren (Diamant de Sémilly), the bronze medallist at the 2023 European Championships.</p>
1657. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Enough! I think I have made the point, that the jumping standings, like the dressage ones, are also measuring quantity rather than quality.</p>
1658. <p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><strong>Let’s see how the eventing sires standings shape up.</strong></p>
1659. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68188" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Diarado-2016.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="500" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Diarado-2016.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Diarado-2016-300x214.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1660. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Diarado</em></p>
1661. <p style="font-weight: 400;">This time it’s BINGO! The number one WBFSH Eventing Sire, Diarado is also the sire of the world’s highest ranked eventing competitor, JL Dublin, despite his name, the horse is German, bred by respected breeder Volker Göttsche-Götze. The gelding is solidly Holstein bred, out of a Canto / Lombard mare, though, thanks to his sire, Dublin carries 25% Selle Français blood.</p>
1662. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68571" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin-1024x665.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="416" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin-1024x665.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin-300x195.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin-768x499.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin-1536x997.jpg 1536w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/JL-Dublin.jpg 1540w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1663. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>JL Dublin</em></p>
1664. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Diarado’s second highest ranked competitor, Diabolo (23<sup>rd</sup> in the world), has already had two four-star wins in 2024 with Will Coleman. He is out of a Holsteiner mare by Aljano, but in the last line we find the secret ingredient, his grand-dam, Memory is by the greatest eventing sire of them all, Heraldik xx.</p>
1665. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-66766" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/HeraldikConfTU.jpg" alt="" width="529" height="456" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/HeraldikConfTU.jpg 529w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/HeraldikConfTU-300x259.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/HeraldikConfTU-348x300.jpg 348w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px" /></p>
1666. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Heraldik XX &#8211; the greatest of them all&#8230;</em></p>
1667. <p style="font-weight: 400;">I’m sure that when the Holstein Verband crowned Diarado champion of their 2007 Licensing, their mind was on success in what has always been the focus of their breeding program, showjumping. Trouble was, while he looked classy, Diarado was no star in the jumping arena, and when he was retired from competition in 2016 he had lifetime earnings of €7,175. As a showjumping sire, Diarado produced one superstar, Don Diarado who took home €595,668 with Maurice Tebbel, and 29 others who jumped 1.60m or better, but the comparative lack of success was a worry for masses of breeders who had sent mares in their hundreds to the young stallion who was marketed jointly by the Holstein Verband, Paul Schockemöhle and Joop van Uytert, each with their own crowd of loyal mare owners. Luckily, Diarado turned out to be a very good sire of eventers, at a time when the eventing showjumping demands were reaching new heights, and eventing riders were discovering in the modern lighter style of Holsteiner, just what they needed for clear rounds the showjumping phase.</p>
1668. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-56400" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obosquality.jpg" alt="" width="496" height="330" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obosquality.jpg 496w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obosquality-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obosquality-451x300.jpg 451w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px" /></p>
1669. <p style="text-align: center;"><em><br />
1670. Obos Quality</em></p>
1671. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The second ranked eventing stallion, Obos Quality, is one of those European imports that saved the Irish Sporthorse from the dead-end of a closed book. The stallion was a nice balance of blood, on the top the French sire, Quick Star, solid old Hanoverian stock on the bottom. Obos Quality has been a consistent sire of top class eventers, thanks in large part to the excellent Irish broodmares he covered, though the breeding of the dam of his 2024 frontliner, MGH Grafton Street, is forever shrouded in mystery – breeding unknown.</p>
1672. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1673. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45954" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/JaguarMailWater.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="366" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/JaguarMailWater.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/JaguarMailWater-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/JaguarMailWater-451x300.jpg 451w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1674. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Jaguar Mail </em></p>
1675. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The third ranked Jaguar Mail (Hand In Glove xx / Laudanum xx) has always had what looks like the perfect pedigree to breed eventers – three-quarters jumping Thoroughbred, with the other 25% shared between two of Sporthorse greats, Almé and Gotthard. He was a member of the Swedish Olympic showjumping team, but as a sire he has made his mark on the world of eventing. His leading points earner this year is a five-star eventing star with Austin O’Connor, Colorado Blue (out of a mare by Rock King, a son of Just A Monarch xx).</p>
1676. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-68573" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/coloradoBlue-1024x647.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="404" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/coloradoBlue-1024x647.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/coloradoBlue-300x190.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/coloradoBlue-768x486.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/coloradoBlue.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p>
1677. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Colorado Blue (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)</em></p>
1678. <p style="font-weight: 400;">The fourth ranked stallion, the Trakehner, Grafenstolz (Polarion / Camelot) is the first on the list that has actually evented himself, winning the Six Year old World Championship at Lion d’Angers, and competing three-star with Michi Jung. His top horse this year is Ros Canter’s recent Burghley winner, Lordships Graffalo (Rock King), but Grafenstolz has produced many many top eventers, even though he covered only a fraction of the number of mares served by Diarado.</p>
1679. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68574" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LORDSHIPS-GRAFFALO.webp" alt="" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LORDSHIPS-GRAFFALO.webp 900w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LORDSHIPS-GRAFFALO-300x200.webp 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LORDSHIPS-GRAFFALO-768x512.webp 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p>
1680. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lordships Graffalo and Ros Canter</em></p>
1681. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Kannan’s top showjumper was ranked sixth in the world, and his top eventer, Dao de l’Ocean (out of a mare by Heraldik xx) is also sixth in this year’s eventing standings, ridden by the Swiss rider, Felix Vogg. Again, one suspects that the huge pool of mares Kannan covered provided a legion of nice jumpers that were not quite good enough for the showjumping arena, but perfectly adequate eventers.</p>
1682. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45955" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CARLILeUpsilonBC.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="542" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CARLILeUpsilonBC.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CARLILeUpsilonBC-300x232.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CARLILeUpsilonBC-387x300.jpg 387w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1683. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Upsilon</em></p>
1684. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Sixth ranked Upsilon won five three-star eventing competitions before he almost died from a mystery illness, luckily he was nursed back to health by his talented rider, Thomas Carlile. His success as a sire is also a stroke of luck for the French Anglo-Arab, a breed that was in danger of disappearing when it was finally realized what a super source of eventers it could be. Upsilon is classified as an Anglo stallion, and the most popular in that book,  even though his sire, Canturo is solid Holsteiner, because his dam O’Vive comes from a distinguished AA line. Sure enough, he has seven AA progeny amongst his point earners for this year’s standings.</p>
1685. <p style="text-align: center;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59432" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fischerChipmunk.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="466" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fischerChipmunk.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fischerChipmunk-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fischerChipmunk-451x300.jpg 451w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1686. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Fischerchipmunk FRH and Michael Jung</em></p>
1687. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Contendro I  died at the age of 27 just seven days after the close of the current rankings year. He is seventh on the 2024 eventing sires rankings, but has topped them four times in the past. The stallion is Holsteiner bred, by the great Contender, out of a mare by Reichsgraf, but he was most popular in the Hanoverian breeding district before his sale to France in 2013. The versatile stallion produced showjumpers and even dressage horses, but was most successful as a sire of eventers. His best eventers came from Hanoverian mares, many by Heraldik xx, indeed three of his top four points earners this cycle are by that great stallion, including his number one, Fischerchipmunk FRH. This year however, they are joined at the top of his team by the Selle Français Gaiete d’Agenais by Oberon de Moulin.</p>
1688. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59576" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/joost.jpg" alt="" width="465" height="347" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/joost.jpg 465w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/joost-300x224.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/joost-402x300.jpg 402w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px" /></p>
1689. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Joost, one of the original star stallions at Stal Roelofs</em></p>
1690. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Of recent times, the Dutch breeders have shown an interest in a growing market for eventing horses, with some success. The eighth ranked Tolan R is by Namelus R (Concorde / Joost) out a Dutch mare by the Almé son , Aramis Z with another cross of Joost on the last line, not surprising since Tolan  R is a product of Stal Roelofs whose star stallions for many years were Joost and Abgar. Toland R’s most successful competitor of 2024 is HSH Blake who adds more Dutch blood through his dam sire, Kannan, but his ISH brand from his grand-dam, Mount Cashel Queen.</p>
1691. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46715" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/VigoDArsouilles2010.jpg" alt="" width="702" height="437" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/VigoDArsouilles2010.jpg 702w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/VigoDArsouilles2010-300x187.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/VigoDArsouilles2010-482x300.jpg 482w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px" /></p>
1692. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Vigo D&#8217;Arsouilles competing at the 2010 WEG in Lexington</em></p>
1693. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Belgium too is getting into the act, with master breeder Joris de Brabander  producing a handful of eventers out of his Thoroughbred mare, South Gale, bred to the stallion that has produced so many showjumping superstars for Joris, Vigo D’Arsouilles who is ninth on the eventing standings. This time, Vigo’s number one is another bred to event, Belgium’s first five-star winner Hooney d’Arville who carried Lara de Liedekirke-Meier to victory at Lumühlen in June of this year. Hooney is home bred, out of Lara’s first eventing star, Nooney Blue, who is by the Jalisco son, Jet Set du Residal.</p>
1694. <p style="text-align: center;"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68578" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/ZavellVDL.tif" alt="" /></p>
1695. <p style="text-align: center;"><em> Zavall  VDL</em></p>
1696. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Rounding out our eventing top ten we have one of the stallion stars of the mighty Dutch Stud, VDL, Zavall  VDL (Casall / Emilion) who is the sire of the world’s number three, Ros Canter’s frontliner, Izilot DHI (Marlon).</p>
1697. <p style="font-weight: 400;">So there we are, of the three WBFSH sires rankings, the one that best combines quantity and quality is the Eventing list. It’s somewhat ironic since for so long those who claimed to know, would repeat over, and over and again, you can’t breed for an eventer.</p>
1698. <p style="font-weight: 400;">Ends</p>
1699. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-67878" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="450" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy.jpg 750w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HeroesADros-copy-300x180.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /></p>
1700. ]]></content:encoded>
1704. </item>
1705. <item>
1706. <title>Working with Lisa Wilcox and Ernst Hoyos &#8211; and a tribute to Relevant</title>
1707. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/11/working-with-lisa-wilcox-and-ernst-hoyos-part-two/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=working-with-lisa-wilcox-and-ernst-hoyos-part-two</link>
1709. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1710. <pubDate>Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:29:34 +0000</pubDate>
1711. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1712. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1713. <category><![CDATA[Ernst Hoyos]]></category>
1714. <category><![CDATA[Gestüt Vorwerk]]></category>
1715. <category><![CDATA[Lisa Wilcox]]></category>
1716. <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=25332</guid>
1717.  
1718. <description><![CDATA[Ernst Hoyos works with Lisa Wilcox and the stallion that won her a Medal at the WEG in Jerez, Relevant...
1719. Plus some great work with young Rubinstein stallions with both Ernst and Lisa riding...]]></description>
1720. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3></h3>
1721. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40007" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1LisaPiaffeInsde.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="536" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1LisaPiaffeInsde.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1LisaPiaffeInsde-300x230.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1LisaPiaffeInsde-392x300.jpg 392w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1722. <p><strong>If Ernst Hoyos is a genius, Lisa Wilcox is an inspiration. Living breathing proof that no matter where you are born if you have the talent, the drive and the capacity to hang in there, you can make it in the world of international dressage.</strong></p>
1723. <p>Reli practising relaxed piaffe at home with Lisa</p>
1724. <p>But then again grit and determination have been pretty well a Lisa Wilcox thing since her dad handed her that first horse &#8211; ‘green broke’ but complete with a bridle and a rope around its girth to hang on to!</p>
1725. <p>Lisa is also warm, friendly and great fun to work with&#8230;</p>
1726. <p>We left Ernst and Lisa last month working in the indoor school. For our second and third days, the German sun decided to shine, and it was possible to work in the huge outdoor arena at the Gestüt Vorwerk. This is an additional test for the young stallions because there are mares and foals going past on their way to the breeding clinic all the time. As Lisa explains, it makes them pretty well mannered when they get to a horse show.</p>
1727. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40028" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulCanter.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="490" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulCanter.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulCanter-300x210.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulCanter-429x300.jpg 429w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1728. <p>In the outdoor arena, Lisa starts again with Raoul, once more asking him to be very submissive in front while maintain max activity behind. Lisa is working on the canter, and Raoul is now strong enough to handle the canter walk transitions with ease, and looks ever so balanced as he goes through a series of counter canter circles. Just how useful the counter canter is, is shown when Lisa takes off for one enormous straight canter down that incredibly long long side, and every single stride is deadly straight.</p>
1729. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-40029 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulHP.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="607" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulHP.jpg 450w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RaoulHP-222x300.jpg 222w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></p>
1730. <p>Now she is really asking the young stallion to bend, really tight angles for the half pass and an extreme travers, showing four tracks in the lateral work, again with total engagement but never ever rushing the horse, and when the big trot comes it comes slowly, smoothly, out of the engagement, and what a trot it is, and so even.</p>
1731. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40008" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2aRaoulTU.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="513" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2aRaoulTU.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2aRaoulTU-300x220.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2aRaoulTU-409x300.jpg 409w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1732. <p>“He has to be even in the hand for that, unevenness in the trot comes from an uneven connection in the hand.”</p>
1733. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40030" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RevanBigTrot.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="482" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RevanBigTrot.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RevanBigTrot-300x207.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RevanBigTrot-436x300.jpg 436w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1734. <p>Usually when you see a trot as big as this it looks a bit fragile, as if it has come from tension, but this is sheer power. Ernst demonstrates the technique later on another exciting youngster, Relevant’s three-year-old little (full) brother, Revan. I remark to Ernst that he has waited ‘til right at the end of the working session, and let the extension come as a reward rather than out of pressure &#8211; okay we’ve done the hard work now you can have a bit of a stretch&#8230;</p>
1735. <p>“That is correct, in his head he was comfortable and he wanted to move forward. If I asked this too early in the work, then he would have started to run, but once he started carrying himself, then it was a natural thing to let the energy go, and the horse developed the trot, and I just played with it so the horse felt good about the trot rather than cranky with it.”</p>
1736. <p>Ernst teaches that you can help the horse go forward by loosening your leg. It is almost a paradox: to make the horse go forward, take off the leg, loosen the leg. Most books say to make the horse go forward, squeeze with your legs&#8230;</p>
1737. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40031" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2position.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="532" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2position.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2position-300x228.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2position-395x300.jpg 395w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1738. <p>Lisa explains: “It is the natural instinct of a horse, when you press down on him, he is going to tighten himself up. If you had someone sitting on top of you and squeezing your ribs, you would not be in a position to take off and run as fast as you could. If someone sits loosely, lightly, then you can move. It is the natural instinct of the horse &#8211; aaah &#8211; he opens up. You squeeze, and he gets tight. We exaggerate it, and the horse also thinks you are coming with the leg. It can be that you take your leg away, so you can come very quickly with your leg. The rider opens up, the horse thinks, oh she is coming, and so they go forward. You are teaching this horse to react to the lightest of aids. This is the level we need to get to where no one sees what you do to cause the reaction.”</p>
1739. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40032" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2PositionOpenHand.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="506" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2PositionOpenHand.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2PositionOpenHand-300x217.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2PositionOpenHand-415x300.jpg 415w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1740. <p>Ernst amplifies the point: “I also ride with my seat and my legs, but the mistake a lot of riders make is that they clamp down with their upper leg, and that brings the horse back, but they don’t realise this, and then they get going with their lower leg to get a forward reaction.”</p>
1741. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1742. <p>“They don’t realise that they are asking two opposite things. I also have a nice contact in the forward, but the pressure I make, I have also got to let out again. This is the ever-changing task of maintaining the energy &#8211; it goes back and forth over the back, this is the bridge, and the energy is going from the hind end and the hocks over the back through the neck and into the mouth, and then back again. You are just maintaining the energy. If you brace with dead hands, then the energy flows out the back. If you sit and send the horse forward and throw it away, then the horse falls on the forehand. You have to have the horse’s level in your mind, and you have to make it as easy for that particular horse as possible. The pressure one horse needs, the other horse does not. Then the horse will work for the rider &#8211; but every rider has to be individually sensitive to the particular horse he is riding at the time. The theory doesn’t change but the pressure changes.</p>
1743. <p><em>And a lot of that forward charge comes from the stomach?</em></p>
1744. <p>“A rider needs to learn to breathe from the lower stomach and everything will relax &#8211; the most important thing is that the shoulders of the rider relax.</p>
1745. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-40037 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LisaStomach.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="534" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LisaStomach.jpg 350w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LisaStomach-197x300.jpg 197w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
1746. <p>Most of the riders ride with their upper body very stiff &#8211; especially their shoulders. If the stomach is in balance and in the position it should be, the shoulders are allowed to relax, and should relax. You need to be loose in your shoulders. As long as the rider is breathing in the upper body he is going to be too tight, too cramped to get the horse to go forward from a relaxed seat. The rider learns to breathe in the lower stomach and everything will relax. The weight will come into the saddle and the horse moves away from the aid of the weight. But if a rider cramps in the upper body, he cramps everywhere and is effectively unable to ride his horse.”</p>
1747. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40034" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ErnstBalanced.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="522" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ErnstBalanced.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ErnstBalanced-300x224.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ErnstBalanced-402x300.jpg 402w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1748. <p>The other interesting thing about Ernst’s position on the horse, is the way he rides with his elbows slightly away from his side:</p>
1749. <p>“I want to help the young horses with their straightness through the wide hand carriage making a channel into the hocks, when you get too narrow with your hands, then you don’t have the hocks any more. I try to make the horse round &#8211; if there is tension then the energy goes up and outwards &#8211; we are trying to make it stay low and direct in the channel. By staying a little wide I help the horse to balance. When I am correcting the horse &#8211; also the older horses &#8211; then my hands are wider. It is all about balance. When we are riding nicely, then I go back to the classical position &#8211; but when you are correcting it is better to go wide and help the horse find his balance more quickly and easily as the correction is happening.”</p>
1750. <p><em>Watching you ride, your feet are incredibly still and the angle to the horse is always the same&#8230;<br />
1751. </em>“The rider has to be disciplined with the body &#8211; the rider must be able to hold the body, the most important thing is that we stay still, and that the rider should be able to hold his position. We should be able to hold our bodies in this light position, it doesn’t matter what the horse is doing the rider should be able to stay in the centre of balance and hold his balance independent of what the horse is doing. We must learn to work independently of the horse &#8211; you can’t be holding onto the horse’s mouth to keep yourself in position. It is important that we develop our own body balance.”<a href="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2Revancanter.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25338" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2Revancanter.jpg" alt="2Revancanter" width="550" height="367" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2Revancanter.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2Revancanter-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2Revancanter-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p>
1752. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ernst comments: &#8220;Again perfect balance and showing how the rider supports a three-year-old in the canter. The rider is supporting the horse by sitting lightly, because one should be very careful with the backs of the young horses.&#8221;</em></p>
1753. <p>As we drool about Revan, Lisa points out that like all the Rubinstein line, he will take time to develop his full-potential in the trot:<br />
1754. “The Rubinsteins are known to develop their trot at the age of five or six, they are not generally horses for material classes. Relevant had even less trot than his little brother at the same age &#8211; the trot develops out of consistent training six days a week. Day in day out the horses are confronted with the same information. My goal is to ride as similar to Ernst as possible. I am working every day on my seat, in another 30 years I’ll have it. Horses must not be confused, they must be confronted with the same information, you mustn’t frustrate them. That’s why our horses progress, consistent work every day.”</p>
1755. <p><em>And no grooms to walk the horses in or cool the horses down?<br />
1756. </em>“No we do it ourselves. The walk is an extremely important gait, and you can so easily screw it up. I’d rather ride them myself and keep control of the walk.”</p>
1757. <p>“We have a girl and she takes some of the horses out for their hacks on the Saturday but only three people ever sit on these horses, and I am very particular about that. I like to go out with them on their hacks too, because that’s when they learn to trust you. We run into deer and we run into pheasants, all sorts of wild life, and they learn to trust me. We are a partnership, and when it gets to the nitty gritty and they start to stress, they say ‘okay it’s Lisa’ and they are with me.”</p>
1758. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40035" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2RubExLibrisCanter.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="515" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2RubExLibrisCanter.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2RubExLibrisCanter-300x221.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2RubExLibrisCanter-408x300.jpg 408w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1759. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>&#8220;Showing full potential to canter and step underneath the centre of gravity, perfectly. Very relaxed, inside rein giving &#8211; a picture book illustration of the inside and outside hands, the horses is stepping under, bending offering everything he can offer.&#8221;</em></p>
1760. <p>Ernst is riding a really brilliant baby now but until the three-year-old passes his performance test he is only known as black colt by Rubinstein from an Ex Libris mare. I suggest they call him Rhapsody because when he gets going he is like a piece of music, and when he spooks on me sitting in the corner, he suddenly grows a couple of hands and up comes his neck and we have a preview of what the future holds for the horse. Once again, none of the work is ‘different’, it is just all so focussed &#8211; the rider’s response so swift and sure, leaving the horse in no doubt about what is right or wrong. Every step is a learning experience for the horse.</p>
1761. <p>“Because our training is consistent, the horses are comfortable,” says Lisa, “We don’t want our horses to ever be stressed. But we have to be careful because we are working with stallions &#8211; breeding stallions &#8211; and Ernst says ‘don’t ever put a stallion into a situation where you show him he is stronger than you. Wait &#8211; don’t put him in that situation where he learns what you don’t want.”</p>
1762. <p>Over the three days, the star of the working sessions has been Relevant. On the first two days, Lisa rides him, on the third, it is Ernst in the saddle. This work is critical because we are into the final month before the World Championships at Jerez, and at Aachen, Relevant did something he had never done before with Lisa in the saddle &#8211; he freaked out and tried to get away in the piaffe. It was a problem he had shown with his previous rider, but Lisa had not had to deal with it before. She actually worked on it at Aachen, using the freedom of the freestyle to ask for the piaffe in a no pressure situation, and the impetus of a piaffe pirouette to take some of the tension out of the movement. At home, both she and Ernst are working hard to reinforce the message, riding the horse even in the most collected of movements, in a forward seat, just toying with the piaffe but letting it come in seemingly endless waves&#8230;</p>
1763. <p><a href="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2GoodtoUse.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25333" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2GoodtoUse.jpg" alt="2GoodtoUse" width="550" height="367" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2GoodtoUse.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2GoodtoUse-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2GoodtoUse-450x300.jpg 450w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p>
1764. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ernst and Relevant at home: This is one of the first times we have asked for the piaffe in the work that day. We are asking the horse with very little aids, it is coming mostly from him, getting him to relax and want to go over his back, deep, long and low basically. He isn’t long but I would like him to stretch and go over his back in the piaffe, maintaining the hind end but with very little direct aids from me. In the very beginning playing softly, letting it come from him. I’m not asking, I’m not pressuring, no direct pressure on the mouth, we are playing basically, like it is just for fun. </em></p>
1765. <p>And interestingly, Lisa starts early in the training session into piaffe with Relevant:<br />
1766. “I’m just playing with him,” Lisa says, “give contact, let go, softening in the piaffe itself so he’ll relax.”</p>
1767. <p>Relax he does, and is into a series of magnificent movements &#8211; half pass, the angle so steep, the horse so correct, breath-taking passage and out into spine tingling extended trot, a canter that motors down the track then shortens almost on the spot, keeping the rhythm so perfectly through the pirouette, and out and into a series of effortless one times changes. What a privilege it is just to sit beside the arena and watch. For me, this is modern competition dressage at its best, and I mention to Ernst that it has always been my impression that in the Spanish School they feel dressage has been going downhill since about 1750, and what we see in the competition arena is not pure&#8230; do you feel this way about competition dressage, do you like to watch the modern dressage horses?</p>
1768. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-34934 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Relevant1.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="560" /></p>
1769. <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ernst: Correct in the half pass, Relevant is correctly on the aids. Out of riding half pass with extreme bend and angle the horses will have it lighter, easier, in the test. Now they ask for the double half pass and that is extremely difficult, for the horse to bend its body and maintain a rhythm &#8211; how often do you see this movement performed well?</em></p>
1770. <p>“The competition dressage world looks critically at what the Spanish Riding School does, and the Spanish School looks critically at what competition dressage does. The Spanish School is 430 years old and they try to keep their line alive, but in general in the Spanish Riding School the level has gone up, the same as the level in competition dressage has gone up. Look at the dressage sport twenty years ago, and look at it now, the quality is so much better. Look at Schultheis twenty years ago and the horses they had, then look at the horses of today. The riders of twenty years ago couldn’t win a class today. The standard has changed and the quality improved.”</p>
1771. <p>“The class and the preciseness of every movement has been perfected.”</p>
1772. <p><em>Are you glad you came out of the museum?<br />
1773. </em>Ernst laughs a lot before answering the question.</p>
1774. <p>“My interest lies with the sport of dressage, of course I am still interested in the Spanish School but now I am concentrating on the sport of dressage. This is what I am interested in&#8230;”</p>
1775. <p>And for that we can be truly grateful.</p>
1776. <hr />
1777. <p><strong>Relevant and Lisa at the WEG in 2002, and some more at home pics</strong></p>
1778. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34933" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FileRelevant.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="672" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FileRelevant.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FileRelevant-246x300.jpg 246w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></p>
1779. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34932" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DiaryRelevant.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="514" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DiaryRelevant.jpg 450w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DiaryRelevant-263x300.jpg 263w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></p>
1780. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34935" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RelevantRelax.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="497" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RelevantRelax.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RelevantRelax-300x229.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RelevantRelax-392x300.jpg 392w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1781. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34936" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Relevantm.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="579" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Relevantm.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Relevantm-300x267.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Relevantm-337x300.jpg 337w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1782. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34937" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WebLisaRelevantPiaffe.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="830" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WebLisaRelevantPiaffe.jpg 650w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WebLisaRelevantPiaffe-235x300.jpg 235w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" /></p>
1783. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-34938" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LastLisaWilcoxRelevant.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="676" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LastLisaWilcoxRelevant.jpg 750w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LastLisaWilcoxRelevant-300x270.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LastLisaWilcoxRelevant-333x300.jpg 333w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /></p>
1784. <p><strong><a href="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LisapassageFantastic.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25341" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LisapassageFantastic.jpg" alt="LisapassageFantastic" width="550" height="472" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LisapassageFantastic.jpg 550w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LisapassageFantastic-300x257.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LisapassageFantastic-350x300.jpg 350w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a>Lisa’s story</strong></p>
1785. <p><em>When we did the story twelve months ago, here you were in solitary splendour in your indoor school, not wanting anyone else around, concentrating all by yourself on ten horses a day &#8211; now it is a bit different in the hall?</em></p>
1786. <p>“But it is a nice difference, it is nice to have someone of Ernst’s quality to look at. There I can always learn, you can learn with your eyes, you can learn with your ears, every moment is a learning process. What I was saying last time was if it was someone else conflicting with my ideas and ways, then I don’t want it around me in my private working place. Then I am a little bit stubborn &#8211; but this is enhancing the working place.”</p>
1787. <p>“I have the feeling that I have the tip of the iceberg, and I am trying to learn everything, to absorb everything that Ernst has to offer.”</p>
1788. <p><em>It’s not hard living with your teacher?</em></p>
1789. <p>“Not at all, and I think we have done it in quite a clever way, he is not here the entire day, then I have the possibility to be free to think and be creative on my own, in the frame of our working context. I’m not jumping out doing anything wild, but I am able to think for myself and learn. That’s the kind of learner I am. I like to get the information and apply it. I have a couple of days, then he comes back and sees how I have applied the information, how I interpreted the information with the horses. Ernst is here until two o’clock. He goes and I finish the rest of the horses and think about things that I have to do.”</p>
1790. <p>“When he is at Ulla’s that is a break in the sense that I can work on things that needed work on, that had to be corrected. I often do a lot of my own seat corrections then, it is a good time for me to really work on my seat for three days. I’ve got a 1000 things going on in my head, and he would just the thousand and oneth thing in my head. Then he comes back after three days, okay let’s see if I have improved? What has he got to say? Nothing! Aaah!! No, that’s what makes it so positive because I have an immense respect for him. If I didn’t have that respect then maybe that would be too many hours a day together. At the same time he respects me, and in a learning situation he doesn’t belittle &#8211; he is very careful with the words he uses to correct me, and that is of course very motivating and it is constructive, he can be very strict but it is a constructive criticism.”</p>
1791. <p><em>And at a horse show, do you draw on him?</em></p>
1792. <p>“Because of the way it has been, I can also relax when he is not there. I feel really good when he is there, you just feel like the picture is complete, the pie is filled, there are no pieces missing when he and Ferdinand are there. People ask do you have any lucky things that you must take to a horse show? Well, there is Ferdinand the groom, and Ernst at the big international horse shows. Ernst couldn’t always be there so that trained me to be able to think and work without him, it’s very good. It frees you up, you know you can do it without him because you’ve done it before. But when he is there he gives you the fine touches just before, things to think about when you go into the test, when you are in this corner do this, he gives me things, and then I go in with my plan. I’ve done this before when I was on my own, but he can do it perfectly. He might see things that I wouldn’t notice preparing by myself, and he just brings that snap into it, so I didn’t ride a half pass seven, he showed me something real quick just before I rode in, so I rode an eight.”</p>
1793. <p>“This information I download &#8211; this is the challenging stuff for me, I can get excited just talking about it, because I want to challenge myself to make it better than it was last time. I remember all my mistakes, where I had them, and what I am going to do to correct them. You challenge yourself to make it better&#8230;”</p>
1794. <p><em>This article first appeared in the December 2002 issue of THM.</em></p>
1795. <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333399;"><em><strong>Want to breed a Grand Prix star? Consider Sir Donnerhall available from International Horse Breeders: <a href="http://www.ihb.com.au">www.ihb.com.au</a></strong></em></span></p>
1796. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-43226" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SirDonnerhallTrot.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="553" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SirDonnerhallTrot.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SirDonnerhallTrot-300x237.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SirDonnerhallTrot-380x300.jpg 380w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1797. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1798. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1799. <hr />
1800. <p>For more articles with Lisa and Ernst:</p>
1801. <blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="8MPNEImREd"><p><a href="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/whos-who/wilcox-lisa/">Wilcox, Lisa</a></p></blockquote>
1802. <p><iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted"  title="&#8220;Wilcox, Lisa&#8221; &#8212; The Horse Magazine" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/whos-who/wilcox-lisa/embed/#?secret=by4un7OZd6#?secret=8MPNEImREd" data-secret="8MPNEImREd" width="600" height="338" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
1803. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1804. ]]></content:encoded>
1808. </item>
1809. <item>
1810. <title>At Home with Ulla Salzgeber</title>
1811. <link>https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/10/at-home-with-ulla-salzgeber/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=at-home-with-ulla-salzgeber</link>
1813. <dc:creator><![CDATA[horsemagazine]]></dc:creator>
1814. <pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2024 01:21:23 +0000</pubDate>
1815. <category><![CDATA[Breaking News]]></category>
1816. <category><![CDATA[Dressage]]></category>
1817. <category><![CDATA[Dressage training]]></category>
1818. <category><![CDATA[Ulla Salzgeber]]></category>
1819. <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/?p=15071</guid>
1820.  
1821. <description><![CDATA[THM visited Ulla Salzgeber at home in the lead-up to the Jerez WEG. Ulla and Rusty had just become European Champions, and were tipped to win at Jerez. Ulla rides Rusty and talks about the German system...]]></description>
1822. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="justify"><strong>THM visited Ulla Salzgeber at home in the lead-up to the Jerez WEG in 2002. Ulla and Rusty had just become European Champions, and went on to win a medal at Jerez.</strong></p>
1823. <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyFirsttu.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyFirsttu.jpg" alt="RustyFirsttu" width="500" height="762" /></a></p>
1824. <h3 style="text-align: center;" align="justify">Story – Chris Hector, Photos – Roz Neave</h3>
1825. <p align="justify">A twenty minute walk, starting out through the little forest finishing with a few rounds of the indoor school. Then into a big loosening trot, the horse’s front deep and round. But the big liver chestnut being ridden in a snaffle without a whip, is no normal horse. Nor is this any ordinary rider. This was the number one dressage combination in the world, in just a few weeks, if all goes to plan, they will be crowned Champions of the World in Jerez, Spain.</p>
1826. <p align="justify"><strong>This is Rusty, and this is Ulla Salzgeber.</strong></p>
1827. <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rusty2tu.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15095" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rusty2tu.jpg" alt="Rusty2tu" width="450" height="482" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rusty2tu.jpg 450w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rusty2tu-280x300.jpg 280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></a> </span></p>
1828. <p align="justify">There is nothing dramatic in the workout, some twenty metre canter / trot circles, the occasional reminder that ‘you will give to the inside rein’, only the extravagant engagement behind reminds you that this is one of the more extraordinary horses of all time.</p>
1829. <p align="justify"> This Ulla has told me, is how she normally works her number one star:</p>
1830. <p align="justify">&#8220;We ride them very deep and low, but you always have to control the neck and the head. If you can’t control the neck &#8211; that it is long, that it is short, that it is up and it is down &#8211; you have problems. Many people ride with the head down and that is okay, but most riders are not able to control it. You have to be able to control it up, down and to the right and to the left. The riders ask down with the neck, down with the neck, and they pull the neck, pulling the head between the front legs of the poor horse, and the hindlegs are out behind, far behind.&#8221;</p>
1831. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47863" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome.jpg" alt="" width="1401" height="1015" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome.jpg 1401w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome-300x217.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome-768x556.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome-1024x742.jpg 1024w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyHome-414x300.jpg 414w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1401px) 100vw, 1401px" /></p>
1832. <p align="justify">&#8220;It is good to put the horse’s head down to strengthen his back, to make him loose, this is the way I train Rusty in the week where he has no competition, with a long neck, so then he takes the bit and the muscles are very loose and he feels good.&#8221;</p>
1833. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-37346" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter.jpg" alt="" width="1235" height="1237" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter.jpg 1235w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter-768x769.jpg 768w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RustyAtHomeCanter-1022x1024.jpg 1022w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1235px) 100vw, 1235px" /></p>
1834. <p align="justify">When you ask Ulla to name the most important influence on her riding and training, the answer is something of a surprise. Despite the fact that she has worked with ‘all the best teachers in Germany’ the man she looks to for inspiration and advice is 87-year-old General Stecken! (The late General Stecken was the mentor of many greats including Ingrid Klimke)</p>
1835. <p align="justify">&#8220;To find your own style, from every teacher you take something. In my opinion the best teacher was General Stecken. He was so correct. If he says stop at A and you stop too early or too late… you did it for an hour! Until you both could stop exactly on the marker, I think this still helps me a lot. When I was a child, General Stecken came to our stable two times a week for six or seven years, until I moved to the south. He still comes, he was here in the spring, he is 87 now, really fantastic. He was watching Rusty, and that was wonderful because I always ride alone. Sometimes Ernst Hoyos comes, my husband looks, but for most of the day I only have the mirror, and sometimes I say to myself, now ride a very nice half pass to B and if you enter the track half a metre earlier or later, oh the half pass was so good it doesn’t matter. But with General Stecken sitting there, I told you to enter the track at B and not half a metre before B. Okay…. That was very good because I started again thinking about the correct riding from marker to marker.</p>
1836. <p align="justify"><em>There is all the talk about new ways of riding and training, but you are still finding wisdom from an 87-year-old man? Maybe there are not so many new things that are important?</em></p>
1837. <p align="justify">&#8220;The horses are much better than they were thirty years ago, fifty years ago, but the classical riding of dressage will never change.&#8221;</p>
1838. <p align="justify"><em>Do you still have to work on your own riding position or is it built into your brain?</em></p>
1839. <p align="justify">&#8220;I think the position is built into my brain if I ride older horses. When I ride younger horses it is not so perfect sometimes. It was very interesting when General Stecken was here because he was very critical of my seat. My hands were too high, and my toes were too far out, more things for me to think about that I hope when he comes next time he will be happy with. I asked him to come back soon, because I am able to discuss with him everything. He is the one I believe in. I was too young when he taught me the first time. That is the only pity. He always made two hours theory with us, my sister, my brother and me, we were fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and we said ‘oh my god, not THEORY!’ What he tells me now is the same as he told us thirty years ago, but it is so interesting because now I understand &#8211; before I had not had the experience to appreciate these things.&#8221;</p>
1840. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37347 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoRusty2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="664" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoRusty2.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoRusty2-271x300.jpg 271w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1841. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><em>Ulla and Rusty at the 2000 Games in Sydney</em></p>
1842. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37348 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UllaRUSTY.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="537" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UllaRUSTY.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UllaRUSTY-300x230.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UllaRUSTY-391x300.jpg 391w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1843. <p align="justify"><em>This is a huge responsibility of German riders and trainers to maintain this tradition for riders all over the world to draw on…</em></p>
1844. <p align="justify">&#8220;It is necessary, the other countries have to learn it, this is why Germany is so successful because this is our tradition and we want to give it to the next generation. The other countries they have no tradition. They know that there is a tradition, but they don’t ask for it, only a few people think, oh they have to come to Germany to train, to learn what is behind it, but most are not interested. Give me a horse and I will ride.&#8221;</p>
1845. <p align="justify"><em>But you didn’t learn the technique of deep and low from General Stecken?</em></p>
1846. <p align="justify">&#8220;No, this kind of riding I learnt in the last ten/twelve years. The older you get, the more you learn, you are never finished learning. My first Grand Prix horse I had ready when I was thirty, and then I rode my first Grand Prix, so I haven’t been riding Grand Prix so long. With my first horse I had to try a lot of things to get him ready. I’d never ridden the test before, I did not know how to ride piaffe and passage – so he had to learn, and I had to try. Doing this work, I found when I rode him a bit longer that he became very relaxed, so I started riding all the horses very deep, then I take them up again, some horses are very good to work half high, some very high, and some you can work better when they are deeper.&#8221;</p>
1847. <p align="justify">&#8220;They have to get more muscles and the back has to get strong. If you take a young horse up you can put too much weight on the back and the hindquarters. They have to go a little bit more round, but without falling on the forehand. You have to ride it. People are always asking, how can you educate a horse? You can’t explain… that becomes too much theory. Every horse is different, you cannot say, I educate every horse like this, every horse is different, every horse gets another education in my stable. Rusty is ready with everything, he needs only gymnastic exercises every day, He is totally different to the other two horses I ride.&#8221;</p>
1848. <p align="justify">&#8220;I have already had three Grand Prix horses before Rusty, which I made myself. I bought them when they were three-year-olds and they all went Grand Prix. I am able to do it.&#8221;</p>
1849. <p align="justify"><em>You don’t take much notice of blood lines, more movement and character?</em></p>
1850. <p align="justify">&#8220;Movement and character, and they have to be tall enough for me. If they are smaller it’s nice to sell them, but not for me. And they have to be kind, they are not allowed to be piggy.&#8221;</p>
1851. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37351 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Erbe.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="618" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Erbe.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Erbe-300x265.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Erbe-340x300.jpg 340w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p>
1852. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><em>One of Ulla&#8217;s more recent rides, Erbe</em></p>
1853. <p style="text-align: left;" align="justify"><em>With a young horse, is it possible to predict if it is going to do piaffe and passage?</em></p>
1854. <p align="justify">&#8220;You can see it a little bit in the movement, you can feel it a little bit. It gets a little like passage in the trot, if you can bring the young horse back, two or three steps, not more, and when he does that, and you take the whip a little bit, and they elevate one hind leg, then you know, okay, he is electric enough.&#8221;</p>
1855. <p align="justify">All the while, Ulla is working by herself. As she says, ‘just me and the mirror’, but she does have regular visits from Ernst Hoyos, the Spanish Riding School rider who used to work with Jo Hinnemann, and who is now Lisa Wilcox’s partner, and trainer.</p>
1856. <p align="justify">&#8220;Ernst Hoyos is very good with piaffe and passage, he is perfect, He starts with our young horses taking them in the hand. For the first time for piaffe and passage , some of them get very wild, others are easy to start and hold, but some get explosive and he is very good with them because he can hold them and work them in the right way. If I try to hold these horses when they get a little bit too explosive they would run over me. He has been doing this all his life in the Spanish Riding School, so if he does not know how to do it, who would know?&#8221;</p>
1857. <p align="justify"><em>So again you have turned to a trainer from the older tradition?</em></p>
1858. <p align="justify">&#8220;That is how it is! I was making a little clinic in Holland and people asked me, what does this mean when you say ‘open the gullet’. I said you need this to get them loose for the shoulder in, and this trainer from Holland came to me and said, ‘we DON’T do this here!’ But you need this for everything – ‘No we never do this in Holland.’ It was so interesting, okay, everybody does it in a different way, but the old principles they really don’t change. The veterinary treatment of the horses, that changes, but not the riding. Not the riding.&#8221;</p>
1859. <p align="justify"><em>Now that you are so famous are you able to get better horses?</em></p>
1860. <p align="justify">&#8220;I never go and say okay I am looking for a young horse, it is always people come and say I’ve got a good horse, and I say, send me a video. I look at the video, and if I like the horse on the video perhaps I jump on a plane and go to see it – but most of the time I don’t go.&#8221;</p>
1861. <p align="justify"><em>There are not many Rustys or Wallstreets in the world?</em></p>
1862. <p align="justify">&#8220;These two are only once in a lifetime.&#8221;</p>
1863. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37359 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WallStreetWU.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="416" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WallStreetWU.jpg 392w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WallStreetWU-283x300.jpg 283w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px" /></p>
1864. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><em>Ulla and Wallstreet warm up at Aachen</em></p>
1865. <p align="justify"><em>How many horses do you like to work with at a time?</em></p>
1866. <p align="justify">&#8220;At the moment I work four to five horses every day. The horses I have in work, I ride them from the first step myself. The girls walk them twenty minutes, then I start. With Rusty and Wallstreet, I do the twenty minutes walk myself. For five horses I need six hours, then half of the day is gone. If the girls exercise one of the other horses, they only ride walk, trot and canter on the track, no more.&#8221;</p>
1867. <p align="justify"><em>You prefer to have girls to guys working in your stables?</em></p>
1868. <p align="justify">&#8220;You don’t get guys. Most of the guys don’t want to come to Bavaria. This is a very big problem in this area, they all want to stay in the north because there are more horses, more stables… more girls.&#8221;</p>
1869. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37352 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoxRustyc.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="328" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoxRustyc.jpg 315w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LogoxRustyc-288x300.jpg 288w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px" /></p>
1870. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><em>Ulla and Rusty at Jerez</em></p>
1871. <p align="justify"><img decoding="async" src="file:///Volumes/Files/WEBSITE%202014%20Remake/WebsiteRescued/horsemagwebsite/CLINIC/S/salzgeber_ulla/LastpicWorldMagic.jpg" alt="" align="left" /><em>You would rather start with an older horse, or start with a three year old and do all the work yourself?</em></p>
1872. <p align="justify">&#8220;We start with the three year olds also. At the moment I have two three year old ones, two four year old ones. For me to work with a horse, I have to like their movement, and the expression they have – and I don’t like mares. With a mare only one person can ride them, if you change the riders with a mare you will always get problems. I am not home enough for this. I have to leave horses at home when I go to competitions, so no mares.&#8221;</p>
1873. <p align="justify"><em>A lot of what you do is based on feeling?</em></p>
1874. <p align="justify">&#8220;Only the feeling. I would not buy a three year old horse that I had not ridden myself. I have to see him, then I have to have the desire to ride him. Normally I am a little bit anxious with young horses. If I am thinking I might fall down and break my leg, then these thoughts are not good in my head. If you get on a horse with these thoughts, then you can’t ride.&#8221;</p>
1875. <p align="justify"><em>Over coffee, Ulla describes how she constructs her famous freestyles…</em></p>
1876. <p align="justify">&#8220;First I look to my horse and I think about the things he loves to do, and I look and see if I like these things too, then I take a piece of paper and I start painting, circles and lines, and after many hours, my plan is ready. But most times I have eight or nine minutes, and then the difficulty starts, you have a very nice freestyle in your head, it looks very good on paper, but it is two minutes too long. Now we have to shorten it, but you have worked so long on what is nice, what do you take out?&#8221;</p>
1877. <p align="justify">&#8220;Finally you shorten it, and everything is fine, then you get a few people to look at it. I take my husband, my girls, and sometimes some friends who have no ideas about horses I just want them to say if it looks nice. Two say perfect, one says horrible – okay start again, change a little bit. Finally I put it all on video and it goes to my musician. I tell him what music I want. So for Rusty we made another Kür with songs from Bony M, but the Bony M Kür is not for championships, for Aachen and the big Championships it is always Carmen Barana, that’s the one, I will never change this music because there is no better in the world, that is Rusty’s music.&#8221;</p>
1878. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-37355 aligncenter" src="http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AAchen04.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="448" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AAchen04.jpg 450w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AAchen04-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AAchen04-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AAchen04-301x300.jpg 301w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></p>
1879. <p align="justify"><em>Do you feel any pressure going into Jerez as the favourite?</em></p>
1880. <p align="justify">&#8220;Not yet! (Laughs) I don’t think I will feel the pressure. I am only a human being and my horse is an animal, and it will go as it goes. I try to ride the best I can, and if it goes right that is fine. And if not…? People come up to me already and say we know you will win in Spain. No-one can know who will win. I don’t know if I win – I will try to win, I’ll try very hard, but I don’t want the pressure, and I don’t take the pressure.&#8221;</p>
1881. <p align="justify"><em>Even at an Olympic Games it doesn’t get to you?</em></p>
1882. <p align="justify">&#8220;At the Sydney Olympics that was whoosh – the first Olympic Games of my life, but still you ride a Grand Prix in Aachen, and you ride a Grand Prix in Sydney and you ride a Grand Prix in Jerez – it is always the same. You have five judges, sometimes you have more spectators, sometimes you have less. The only pressure is that you ride for Germany and you have to be good to get a team medal, after the teams competition, you are on your own. So in the first test, the Grand Prix it is better to be a little bit conservative, no mistakes and a nice ride on the first day. After that the pressure is off because I ride for me.&#8221;</p>
1883. <p align="justify"><em>What has been the highlight of your career so far – what has been your best show?</em></p>
1884. <p align="justify">&#8220;The best show was the freestyle in Verden at the European Championships in 2001. That was really great even though I was wet from my head to my feet from the rain. I had to change for the prizegiving ceremony. This is the best place to ride, I love Verden. They have a little competition in January and if we do not have too much snow I always go to this place to ride because the spectators are so involved, they know. If they see that everything has gone wrong and is destroyed, they applaud to say it doesn’t matter, tomorrow it will get better.&#8221;</p>
1885. <p align="justify"><a href="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1aUllaPres-1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-56228 aligncenter" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1aUllaPres-1.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="473" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1aUllaPres-1.jpg 700w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1aUllaPres-1-300x203.jpg 300w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1aUllaPres-1-444x300.jpg 444w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></a></p>
1886. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><em>Winning at the Euros in Verden with Rusty</em></p>
1887. <p align="justify">&#8220;I think when they learn how to soften a horse and how to get a horse round, this is the most important thing of all. To get the horse round and through the neck, the hindquarters underneath, then everything is great. If I can show an audience how we do it so they can understand what I mean, then I will be very happy.&#8221;</p>
1888. <p align="justify"><em>You were a teacher? A trainer of young riders…</em></p>
1889. <p align="justify">&#8220;I loved to teach and that is what I always wanted to do from the beginning, and then I met Rusty – if he hadn’t crossed my life, then I would still be teaching because with teaching you have success every day – most of the time anyway. And if not, there are always my fields outside and I say, ‘okay, today, forget it, go out and have a ride’ – because when the head is closed and the pupils don’t listen, sometimes you have days when you can’t work with them. There are some days, the horses are not good, the riders are not good, sometimes I’m not so very good either, and on these days we say, okay, not today. When we work, we work hard, it is better to work hard twenty minutes than one hour soft. I don’t mean hard with the stick, I mean hard in the head, concentrating. That is training for me – to be really concentrated and say, okay twenty minutes now – head and horse has to be one thing, not thinking about the coffee or the cinema, they have to be with their horse. When I am riding Rusty if I am somewhere else with my head, then suddenly he sees things and starts to react. For me working with the horse is a mental thing, it gets stronger when you have the horse for longer because you have to know them, and they have to know you. I always get the feeling with Wallstreet and Rusty that they know exactly how I feel&#8230;</p>
1890. <p style="text-align: center;" align="justify"><strong>Share a gallery of Ulla and Rusty:</strong></p>
1891. <p align="justify"><em><strong>If I am very tired, Rusty knows, and he is like me, if she is tired, then I am tired also, that’s fantastic, and when I get a little bit wound up, then he is with me all the way. There will be other great horses I hope, but there can never be another Rusty.&#8221;</strong></em></p>
1892. <p align="justify"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68504" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RUSTY-CHANGE-HORIZ.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="545" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RUSTY-CHANGE-HORIZ.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RUSTY-CHANGE-HORIZ-300x273.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1893. <p>&nbsp;</p>
1894. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68505" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LastRusty1.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="476" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LastRusty1.jpg 392w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LastRusty1-247x300.jpg 247w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px" /></p>
1895. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68506" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Rustyc.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="424" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Rustyc.jpg 350w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Rustyc-248x300.jpg 248w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
1896. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68507" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyChange02.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="758" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyChange02.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyChange02-237x300.jpg 237w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1897. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68509" src="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyCircleAach04-1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="449" srcset="https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyCircleAach04-1.jpg 600w, https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RustyCircleAach04-1-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></p>
1898. <p style="text-align: left;" align="justify">
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