Burggraaf

Born 1983 died 2006, 173 cm
breeder - I. and J. Block, Hagen, Germany

			Sailing Light xx
		Ladykiller xx	Lone Beach xx
	Landgraf I		Aldato
		Warthburg H	Schneenelke H
Burggraaf
			Rantzau xx
		Cor de la Bryère	Quenotte SF
	Loanda		Mandarin
		Urbine	Lisene H

 

One of the great showjumping sires of modern times, Burggraaf, passed away in 2006 at the age of 23.
In his first season as a breeding stallion, Burggraaf covered only 40 mares, but from that year, two foals went on to become international showjumpers, under the Austrian rider, Thomas Frühmann and Holland's Roelof Bril.
Roelof Bril was also the rider who started Burggraaf in national and international competitions. The pair cleared the puissance wall at Indoor Brabant at a height of 2.10 metres!
According to Bril: "Burggraaf is a great horse to ride, and he knows what it is to work. The fine character he has in the sport, he passes on to his children, and that gives him the possibility to grow and become one of the important Dutch stallions."
Burggraaf combines two of the most successful Holstein jumping lines: Landgraf and Cor de la Bryère. On his maternal side he goes back to the famous Holstein lineage 7126, a family which has produced the approved stallions: Acord I & II, Acrobat I, II, III, Arico, Fra Diavolo, Chicago and Freeman.
Burggraaf’s most successful jumping progeny have included Leslie Howard’s S’Blieft, Roelof Bril’s Burggravin, Peter Wylde’s Kuno, Piet Raymakers’ Now or Never, and Thomas Fruhmann’s Procobs Dumbo.
Licensed sons include: Graaf, Habsburg, Kroongraaf, Manhattan, Mermus R, Murano, Budweiser and Orion Fortuna.
Burggraaf seems to pass on his size, power and jumping ability and has produced a many many top class broodmares.
He is also the sire of several Grand Prix dressage horses, including Denis Calinin’s Florijn and Leunus van Lieren’s Louiseville.
But Burggraaf almost did not get the chance to become a stallion! While he was undertaking his KWPN stallion test at Ermelo, he was sent home in very controversial circumstances. A blood test showed that Landgraf 1 could not be the father of Burggraaf. The German breeder was contacted but was sure that no other stallion could have covered the mare – so the Holstein Verband was contacted and asked for a blood sample – whereupon it was revealed that the Holstein Verband had made an error in the recording of their leading sire's blood type! And the young stallion was back into the 100 day test.
He was successful in that test and received 8.5 points for his jumping and 9 for his character (on a scale of 1 to 10).
Burggraaf has a very high jumping index with 152 points.

Burggraaf stood for many years at the Nijhof Stud, according to Jeanette Nijhof: "Burggraaf stamped a lot of his babies with the nice Landgraf face. Most of them were good movers and jumpers. His best combination was with some Thoroughbred on the mother line, for instance, he crossed well with Furioso xx bloodlines, through the stallions, Voltaire and Le Mexico."