I guess Paul Schockemöhle is the only person in the world to have turned an ability to ride, into a billion dollar corporation. Both Paul and his elder brother, Alwin, were showjumping riders, Alwin perhaps even more successful than Paul, but both competed and won at an Olympic level.
Alwin Schockemöhle gave up jumping horses to pursue his passion for harness racers while Paul Schockemöhle built an equine empire: breeding, selling, training horses, along with a retail equestrian chain and his own branded equine products before diversifying into half a dozen other successful enterprises. He is without doubt the most powerful breeder in Germany today, with strong links to the Oldenburg Verband, where he was the founder and major inspiration behind the newly formed Oldenburg Jumping Studbook, which will probably end up functioning as a world-wide book for jumping horses. So strong is his influence that the suggestion is that his stallion barn has become a de facto National Stud.
Paul Schockemöhle acquired his great international showjumper, Diester from a Verden auction rider, Ulrich Kasselmann who had noticed the horse’s talent while preparing him for a sale. Today, Mr Kasselmann is in partnership with Mr Schockemöhle, with Kasselmann operating the dressage training and sales barn, while Schockemöhle has the jumping and breeding operations, including standing the stallions at stud.
Above: Stakkatol!
Through spectacularly expensive purchases, Mr Schockemöhle is able to set the tone of the market. Thus a horse by the comparatively obscure Trakehner stallion, Hofrat, after winning the Hanoverian licensing, goes under the hammer, knocked down for a cool million to Schockemöhle, and is suddenly he is Hotline, the hot new horse on the scene.
Not surprisingly, his stallion show, in the Oldenburg Auction Centre in Vechta, is a slick, well-oiled production. Schockemöhle puts on not one, but two stallion shows, both to sell out audiences, and when all the seats are sold, people buy standing room tickets and they arrive well in advance of the starting time to grab their places. They even fill the aisles. It is just a touch claustro.
The show opens with a parade of the mounted band of the Oldenburg Cavalry. There’s the odd moment when one wayward bay keeps shooting out of the line with its stout rider in real danger of swallowing his trumpet. The crowd is clapping along in fine form as they leave, more or less in formation.
Paul Schockemöhle might be the most powerful force on the dressage breeding market right now, but his first love is jumping horses, and the first horse into the ring is Stakkatol, a spectacular son of the Hannoverian super sire, Stakkato, out of a Capitol mare. He jumps like a stag, effortlessly clearing the rails.
The big screen in the corner records some edited highlights of a win in the Hamburg Derby before Champion du Lys is paraded in hand.
Left: Champion du Lys; Right: Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool is the first dressage horse in. The young stallion’s sire, Don Davidoff was an absolute star, black, exceedingly beautiful, and a real mover. With Ulf Möller in the saddle he took home Bundeschampionate and World Young Dressage Horse titles – alas in the breeding barn he was a dismal failure with a tiny conception rate. He is now being ridden by the young British dressage rider, Laura Bechtholsheimer. Like many of the Schockemöhle dressage stallions, Daddy Cool has ‘jump’ on the mare line – Calido and Sandro. He’s a very nice young horse, but a bit jazzed and into the hand for my taste, but yes, he can move – he is not quite so attractive as his dad, hopefully he’s better at getting mares in foal. World Dressage Special Champion, Isabell Werth is in the ring, mike in hand, extolling the virtues of the youngster, and cracking jokes with the man on the mike, super-auctioneer, Uwe Heckmann.
Ten year old Sunny Boy must be from one of the very early crops of Sandro Hits. He is out of a Donnerhall / Pik Bube mare, and the work is nice enough, he’s just a bit heavy in the neck like his dam sire. One of his sons under saddle looks flasher than dad.
Ulf Möller has Samba Hit III (by Sandro Hit out of a Brentano II mare – making him a full brother to the late, great Poetin) motoring sweetly, he has a wonderful canter and really stretches out for the compulsory huge trot exit down the centre line. Really it is a miracle that any of these horses go on to compete, they must be waiting for that moment of flight response madness as the audience erupts, howling for movement MORE MOVEMENT.
Left: Samba Hit; Right: For Compliment
For Compliment is one of the nicer young stallions we see all show, and once again proves what a tragedy it was that Fidermark died so early. He too is out of a jumping mare – Compliment / Larome – but it seems to work. Another spectacular exit.
Blink, and there are three jumps in place in the arena joined by the man himself, Paul Schockemöhle, as effortlessly elegant as always to introduce Lord Shutterfly (by Silvio out of the Forrest xx mare, Famm, making him a full-brother to Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum’s mega-star gelding, Shutterfly.) The horse hasn’t such a super canter, but he looks to have great scope over a fence.
The big screen lights up again. Footage of another of the genuine jumping legend, the recently retired For Pleasure (Furioso II / Grannus) and shown in hand, the 21 year old looks grand.
There’s a couple more dressage stallions, before another drum roll and grand entry, this time from the hero of the World Cup Final in Kuala Lumpar last year – Sandro Boy (Sandro / Grannus). He is a stunner even if showing in hand is not really his thing – he’s got a wicked walk and a not much better trot, but I guess no-one is breeding to him to win led classes.
There is a long ceremony in which the successful Oldenburg breeders from the district are presented with their awards, before, well to call her ‘fat’ would be harsh, but certainly a stout young lady with an exquisite voice sings the local anthem and we all stand and enjoy the stretch. But her singing does not mean it’s all over. Over the sound system, a phone rings, and a receptionist answers, in English, ‘hold the line, we present Hotline…’
Left: For Pleasure; Right: Hotline
Anja Engelbart tends to ride all her horses a bit up and short in front and they all tend to look a little similar but this one is undoubtedly a super mover – as is the little foal who circles the arena with her mum – one of Hotline’s first crop. If you were going to be picky, he’s a little plain in the head, but what a trot, and yes, the front legs and the back legs are parallel.
We then have a series of wonderful jumping stallions showing great technique but at this point I’m almost up-to-here with brilliant grey jumpers, or for that matter, spectacular brown dressage stars. To get the fence high enough for Clinton II (Carolus / Calypso II) they actually balance the rail on the top of the stand. Zing, and he clears it for Korean Sang-Wuk Song. The pair were silver medallists at the recent Asian Games.
Sir Donnerhall (Sandro Hit / Donnerhall) looked fantastic when he won the Five Year Old Dressage Horse title, last year at the Bundeschampionate, and he looks even more brilliant six months later. Still there is the occasional failure to track up behind, but he has that real stallion quality. Applause for the big canter, then Ulf Möller stokes him up for the Stallion Show equivalent of the Mexican Wave, the syncopated clapping for the centre line, and this time Ulf is showing some great collected trot (not even a touch passagey) before steaming out, showman that he is, hat in one hand.
Rosario is another dressage / jumping cross, by Rubinstein out of a Castro/Luxus mare, but he is a horse that grows on you as he matures and muscles. Anja shows him on a longer, more open rein. Lovely big walk, uphill light-to-the-ground canter, and big trot – he is even getting the hang of his one times changes. Rosario certainly has 100 times more big trot than his dad ever did, but surely that’s what good breeding ought be about.
Left: Dir Donnerhall; Right: Rosario
Sandro Hit is another jumping bred horse – by Sandro Song out of a Ramino mare – that has carved himself a niche in dressage history. He notched up wins at both the Bundeschampionate and the World Titles before he retired to the breeding barn to a veritable explosion of offspring, producing more foals in a shorter period of time than any stallion in history. It’s hard coming to the end of winter, with a clipped coat, to look as spectacular as he did back when he won his titles, but Ulf Möller has him showing some wonderful half pass and lovely canter work. That stout lady is back, you guess this time, it really is almost all over. The voice is superb, Ode To Joy, as Sandro Hit and his son, Sir Donnerhall (ridden by Ulf’s wife, Eva), execute a stirring pas de deux, the singer is on to the Hallalujah Chorus, and the father and son sweep around the arena, not doing anything complicated, just movement, lights, music, applause – zuper. And it is all over for this year at least. I guess Mr Schockemöhle will be back next year with a bigger, brighter, even more expensive new collection.
Next month – we visit our friends Jens and Susanne Meyer for their stallion show…
Ulf Möller - on the PSI collection
Above: Eva Möller on Sir Donnerhall, and Ulf with Sandro Hit
Even Ulf is a bit amazed at the way the stallion shows have taken off:
“For our PSI Show, 4000 tickets sold out in half an hour – it’s like Robbie Williams! When people buy the tickets they are not asked if they are breeders - they can buy, and that can mean that in the end, the breeders, the mare owners, miss out. Last year we bred 4 to 5,000 mares, and that means there are about 4000 breeders – and while we keep about 1000 tickets each show for the breeders, then some still miss out.”
Do you think these shows sell a lot of services?
“For sure. Especially the new stallions they want to see. And the way it happens in the hall at Vechta, it is not only us – other studs like Sprehe, Böckmann, Sosath – they show there too, and it is a very good opportunity for the breeders of Oldenburg, and for that matter from all over Europe, to compare stallions under the same circumstances.”
With the dressage stallions in the coming season, will Sandro Hit still be number one for PSI?
“Sandro Hit was the stallion that gave Paul Schockemöhle the idea to run the breeding stud seriously, before he owned Don Schufro, but then he got a good offer, and sold him. That was his idea before – he had good stallions, but if he had a good offer – whoosh – they were gone. Sandro Hit was the first stallion where he got a really really big offer and said, no, I keep him. Then it worked, and gave him the idea that it is worth keeping the good stallions for a while and then to decide what to do – because it is a business, it is not a state stud supported by the government. At the moment I think we can offer every breeder in the world, a stallion for his special mare, because we have such a variety of stallions. Okay there is a bit more Sandro Hit blood – but we believe in the Sandro Hit blood. I think we didn’t make the mistake that we have only Sandro Hit – we have Hotline, the new Fidermark, and I think Rosario is still a very interesting stallion, maybe he is not the foal producer, but he is a producer of very very nice riding horses.”
Left: Sandro Hit; Right: Hotline
Is that a problem that breeders are breeding for foals because the big prices at the foal auctions – and there the money is for the foal with extravagant front legs, but maybe a little hollow in the back and when it grows up, not the nicest horse to ride?
“The whole breeding character has changed in Germany. I often talk to breeders about this. Twenty years ago, the children of the breeders were riding the product for one year, to show them a little bit. And this saved money because it is not so expensive. Now I think half the breeders have no background in agriculture, if they have a three year old horse they have to give it to a trainer, and this is Euro500 and more, a month. That means after five or six months, you have a horse that is nicely broken in, but it cost you Euro3,000, and still, if it is not top quality, it is too young to sell to an amateur. That means that the costs until they are three are not so much, but once you put a saddle on the horse, the cost goes uphill quickly. That means the breeders have to produce a foal that they can sell. That puts the pressure on them to produce a sellable foal – but if you see offspring from a stallion like Rosario, we had a very nice one in our auction, then the breeders see, okay, maybe we won’t get a top foal, but we get a top horse as a three year old. Don Gregory is the same. The Don Gregory foals are tiny, they don’t have big movement, but later on, they are very good riding horses.”
“There are a number of stallions like this – but then with Sandro Hit, you can sell the foals very easily because they are very nice as foals. That’s why he will be there for as long as he lives because he gives you nearly a guarantee for the colour, for uphill movement and for a nice neck. As long as the breeders can get good money – and I don’t mean one hundred thousand - I mean five thousand to ten thousand euro, then they use him.”
Would he have had more foals in a shorter period of time than any other stallion in German breeding history?
“You know I am a very good friend of Sandro Hit, but you have to remember that his breeding really starts in 2000. That means that Sir Donnerhall – for example – is one of the first big group of Sandro Hits. Before that he was only breeding 20/30 mares. All the older horses, Poetin, Samba Hit, Sunny Boy, they were all out of a group of 25-30 mares. Then in 2000 the hype starts, and then you get the big groups. Sometimes there is the discussion, where are his Grand Prix horses? It’s not possible to have Grand Prix horses out of a group of 75 horses! Now, for sure, they will come, more because the big groups are there.”
You’ve seen the foals of Sir Donnerhall – what are they like?
“I bought several foals by him, and in January we visited Levitz, and I looked at a group of eighty two year olds, and I think there were 15 Sir Donnerhall – outstanding movers, and not one offspring has his croup. You can ask everyone in Germany, and they will tell you, not one has his croup, which is positive, but they all have the movement – and specially, the uphill movement. They have this presence… sitting on the horse you have a good feeling, but I think looking at him is totally different. It must be much more impressive than you feel it. You feel good on him, but I think it is
his presence that makes him special.”
“Last year there was a big discussion about his hind legs, but the whole time I rode him, the horse was able to carry himself, and I think a horse is only able to carry himself when he is in balance and when he is using his hindlegs. That feeling is the most important thing, and I think as a rider, there are always things you can fix – but the quality of the horse must make this work worthwhile. Also with Don Schufro, or Ahlerich, whatever, all these horses had a weak point, every horse in the world has a weak point but the rider who is going to invest himself in the training, he must know if he can live and work with that weak point..”
Left: For Compliment; Right: Rosario
“Last year in the final round at the World Young Horse Championships, you could see that he was able to use his hind leg, and for sure, in the development, it will become better and better. And also the muscles are changing now, and this is what we want – but the main thing is that the horse is able to carry his weight on the hind legs and for sure, this is possible.”
Hotline by the Trakehner Stallion, Hofrat introduces another bloodline alternative?
“Yes, I think that was our idea. For sure we liked him, there is no-one in the world who didn’t like him because this is an outstanding horse in my opinion, but our idea was that we need the next generation after Sandro Hit, and hopefully this year in the foal shows we will see some Hotline foals out of Sandro Hit mares.”
“Hotline has very interesting bloodlines with Hofrat, that’s an outcross, then this famous mother line that produced Alabaster, and one very good Grand Prix horse, a full brother to Alabaster with Jurgen Wirths. Hotline is by Hofrat, then De Niro, then Brusoni, the Thoroughbred. And Alabaster is Akzent II / Brusoni. It is an interesting bloodline – a little bit Trakehner, Donnerhall, Thoroughbred, so it is a very good mix. And I think this is why they used him so much last year – for sure, one reason was that he was so expensive, but also he showed unbelievably, and he is a new line.”
A lot of stallion owners say it is very hard for the stallions that are not young or new, and they are not old and famous – that it is hard for them to get mares even if they are producing nice foals. Everyone wants to breed to the latest licensing champion so they can send fashionable foals to the auctions?
“Okay I think also the young stallions are often cheaper because they are new. If you have a proven stallion, with good offspring, and with his own performance, he shows he is a very good horse, then they go up in price. This is what makes them use the young stallions. At the foal auctions, the buyers have these new names in their minds, but for example, if you go to the Young Horse Championships, you still see the established bloodlines, you see some of the young ones, but you also see a lot of De Niros, Sandro Hits, Donnerhalls, Rubinstein, Fidermark… it is not so much the younger ones. Also when you go through the foal catalogue at Verden, with 300 foals, I think it is a very sound mixture between young ones and old ones – not only the young ones.”
This article first appeared in The August 2007 Horse Magazine