Bolero

Born 1975, died 1987, 16.11/2. Breeder - Heinrich Behmann
Stood at Landesbrück 1979 until his death from heart failure in 1987
at the age of 12.

Licensed sons: Bacardi, Bacardi Dry, Bachus I and II, Balou, Banter, Barbarossa, Baryshnikov, Batavio, Batido, Batum, Beauvalais, Beethoven, Bellini, Beltain, Belucci, Bergkristall, Biagiotti, Biathlon, Bismarck, Bogenshütze, Boheme, Bold Grande, Bolero Son, Bolino, Bolschoi, Bon Bonaparte, Bonsoir, Bordeaux I and II, Borneo, Borodino, Brutus, Boroschino, Boruschkin, Boss, Brandenburg, Bentano I and II, Brilliant I and II, Bruderherz and Buenos Aires.

Bolero was one of the new dressage sires in the Hannoverian studbook, with his abundance of Thoroughbred blood contributing to the elegant quality of his descendents. Actually his breeding was officially prohibited by the Hanoverian Stud Book regulations of the time which regulated against the breeding of a mare by a Thoroughbred to a Thoroughbred stallion.

Bolero is by the elegant English Thoroughbred, Black Sky, imported to Germany in 1972, Black Sky’s grand-sire Djebe was a son of Djebel, sire of the great stakes winning sire, My Babu, who when exported to the United States established a winning line of hunter/jumpers. In Australia the My Babu son, Better Boy has been an influential sire of jumping horses.
Black Sky stood at the private stud of Schmidt-Ankum, where he was somewhat in the shadow of Cardinal xx. Black Sky’s progeny were always very rideable dressage horses, but with no jumping ability.
Bolero’s dam, Baroness is by another English Thoroughbred, Bleep (described as 'unusually large framed for a Thoroughbred') who traces on her dam’s side, to Hyperion and then of course to Bay Ronald. Her dam’s sire Athos was regarded as a good sire of dressage broodmares. The damline, Athos-Fliegerstern also produced the popular sires, Grenadier (Celle State stallion) and Hitchcock (Celle and Radegast state studs) as well as the private stallion, Winner.
At his performance test, Bolero performed only moderately, placing 6th out of 30 stallions in his 100 day test at Adelheidsdorf with a score of 111.
In his lifetime Bolero was a useful sire in a career cut short far too quickly, but he is now proving a wonderful sire of broodmares. He was stationed Landesbrück where he clicked wonderfully with the daughters of Grande and Duellant.
In his nine seasons at stud, he sired 47 licensed stallions, including the champion of his year, Buenos Aires. Perhaps his most influential stallion sons have been the Brentanos I & II and Bismarck.His son Beltain was the sire of the Champion Six year old horse at the 2005 Bundeschampionate, Bellissimo.

Brentano II

Bolero is the sire of 317 registered broodmares, of whom 96 were awarded State Premium status. The mare Baccarole was the Champion mare at the Louis-Wiegels Show in 1989, and European Champion mare at Brussels in 1990. Baltengracie was again Champion of the Louis-Wiegels Show in 1991.
Bolero sired three winners in the three year old Riding Horse class at the Bundeschampionate, Boruschkin (1984), Bini Bo (1987) and Bocaccio (1988). All three went on to advanced level dressage. The gelding son, Borsalino was a successful Grand Prix horse with Heike Kemmer, another son, Bossanova looked sensational at Grand Prix with Anna Merveldt-Steffan before his untimely death. As of the year 2000, Bolero was represented by 412 competition horses, with collective winnings of DM1,282,504. Bolero's son, Beauvalais, ridden by the Spanish rider, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, won the indiidual silver medal and team bronze at the 2002 WEG, and the team silver and individual bronze at the Olympic Games in Athens, 2004.
In the calculation of breeding values on the basis of the Hanoverian mare performance test, Bolero daughters give him a dressage ranking of 139 - as against a not unexpected 57 for jumping.
Bolero’s sudden death at the age of only 12 reduced his chances to shine as a breeding sire, but nowadays, he is proving an exceptional sire of broodmares.

The Bolero influence: Wenica (on the right) is by Weltmeyer and her two daughters are by the Bolero son, Brentano II - they won the family championship at the Ratjie-Niebuhr Mare Show in Verden in 2000