For Pleasure

Born 1986, 166 cm, breeder - Robert Diestel

Born 1986 Chestnut 166 cm
Breeder – Robert Diestel

At the age of 20, For Pleasure was farewelled at a moving ceremony held at the 2006 Aachen CHIO. The chestnut stallion injured a tendon the previous year and although it healed.well it was decided that For Pleasure should now devote his energies full time to his breeding career.

For Pleasure finished his career with staggering lifetime earnings of Euro 1.8 million Behind ET (competing for Austria despite his German birth) with over Euro 3 million, but in front of British legend, Milton who won Euro 1.6 million and over thirty cars!!!
For Pleasure has contributed to four championship victories over the past eight years with the German Showjumping team, and four times has won team gold. At the 1996 Games with Lars Nieberg, at the 2000 Games with Marcus Ehning and at two European Championships - Hickstead and Donaueschingen. At Donaueschingen, he carried Marcus Ehning to his first individual medal - a bronze. With both riders, he won 75 S-level classes, winning his last Grand Prix at the age of eighteen - at the Liepzig round of the World Cup, where he won the class over a massive course ("the highest track I have ever jumped with him indoors" said rider, Marcus Ehning) to beat Frenchman, Jean Marc Nicolas and Modesto..

For Pleasure has the rare distinction of having competed at Grand Prix level against two of his progeny - the stallion, For Keeps and the mare, Farina - in the Grand Prix at Wiesbaden 2005.

For Pleasure is by Furioso II, imported to Germany from France by Georg Vorwerk, out of a mare by Grannus. For Pleasure is now proving himself to be a very good sire and seemingly the sire of sires, and through him the great Precipitation jumping line lives on in Germany.
For Pleasure came 15th in his performance test at Medingen in 1989, coming 46th (out of 68) in the dressage with a score of 91.91 but starring in the jumping where he had the top mark of 145.95.
In the competition ring, For Pleasure was an instant success with Lars Nieberg . In 1995 he became German Champion and was the highest earning German showjumping horse in 1997.

As at 2005, For Pleasure is the sire of twenty stallion sons: For Germany RD, For Life's Memory RD and Fatalis Fatum in Hannover; For Keeps, For the Moon, Forsyth and Fly High I in Hessen; For Play at the State Stud Celle, Forrester in Oldlenburg; Freshman in Sachsen-Anhalt; For Paragon and Futurist in the United States; Farady in the Czech Republic; For Feeling at Flyinge in Sweden; For Future in England; For Joy in Argentina; Fortinbras in Holland and For Kids Only - a registered pony stallion at Celle.
As of 2007 he has produced 187 competitors with 50 jumpers competing at Advanced level. Together they have won 929,582 Euros, with the highest money winner being Farina, who has won 230,277. Farina is already a winner of the George V Cup at Hickstead.The stallion, Forsyth is the winner of Euro 102,679.
The mare, For Fun has already won 8 international S level classes with Marcus Ehning. The stallion, For Keeps is with For Pleasure's first international jockey, Lar Nieberg, in 2005 as a 9 year old, he won the Grand Prix at CSI Neustadt Dosse. Forsyth, another stallion, starred in young horses classes and in 2005 placed 3rd at the Nations Cup at Falsterbo with Toni Hassmann, and 4th in the Helsinki and La Coruna Grand Prix - he is already the sire of one approved stallion out of his first crop.
The 1994 gelding, Firth of Clyde looks like being a star with Christian Ahlmann - he has finished 4 times runner up in 1.50 classes out of 8 classes in 2006. According to Ahlmann: "He is very ambitious, very forward, more than his rider wishes, and has many jumping qualities."
For Pleasure has an FN jumping index of 153 and a similar ranking on the Hannoverian scale - 1536 for jumping as against 110 for dressage. For type on the Hannoverian rankings he scores a modest 97 - and as with many top jumpers, scores a negative score of 90 for saddle position.

For Pleasure retires as one of the great competitors - and despite the scepticism of many at the beginning of his breeding career, he is now proving to be an exceptional sire, indeed a sire of sires.