Born 1941 - died 1970
Height - 16 1/2 hh, breeder Gustave Hansing
One of the all time great performance sires, with earnings of over one and a half million deutschmarks.
Ferdinand sired 12 approved sons, 194 competition horses, and 165 Main Studbook mares, even though he was 18 years old before his first offspring, Ferdl made him famous. As a seven year old with just one year of jumping experience, Ferdl went to the 1960 Rome Olympics with Alwin Schockemöhle and was a member of the gold medal winning German team. Another Ferdinand son Pomme d’Api, earned over DM100,000 and held the European puissance record of 7 foot seven inches. The 15.2 hand Flipper, ridden by Hugo Simon, won 75 Advanced classes, including 12 Grand Prix, for a total of DM290,000. But it wasn’t only in jumping that Ferdinand excelled as a sire, his son, Mehmed, won the World Dressage Championship with Reiner Klimke in 1974, and at the 1976 Olympic Games, won individual Bronze in the Gold Medal winning team. The Ferdinand son, Wendekreis was another enormous influence, with over 50 approved stallions and 400 main stud book mares. The Wendekreis son, Werther is famous for producing horses with a wonderful trot, and attitude to dressage. Recently a decision was made to return this line from the letter W to the letter F, to distinguish the Ferdinand line from the Woermann line, and a number of very nice ‘F’ Werther progeny are reinvigorating this wonderful line.
Ferdinand is by Ferrara, a descendent from the mighty Feiner Kerl by Fling. The dam of Grande is also descended from Fling on her sire’s side as from Feiner Kerl on her maternal side. Gotthard, Fruhling and Duellant also descend from Fling.