Corrado I
Born 1985 Grey 173 cm
Breeder – Eduard Struve

In the days of Landgraf, Lord, Capitol and Cor de la Bryère, there was speculation as to where the new stars would come from to take their place. One spot has been admirably filled with a combination of two of those lines, by Corrado I who joins Cassini and Contender as part of the new Holstein Holy Trinity.
Corrado is from the bloodline 6879, which has also produced Campus (Carthago Z / Lord), Chellano Z (Contender / Cor de la Bryère), Corrado II (Cor de la Bryère / Capitol I), Landlord 4 (3rd at Spruce Meadows) and the Hamburg Derby winner, Lausbub (both by Landgraf).
Corrado combines the blood of the two great Cs – Cor de la Bryère and Capitol, with a healthy dose of Thoroughbred on the dam line through Maestose xx and Frivol xx – and yes, all those familiar names appear on their pedigrees. Frivol has two crosses of Bay Ronald, while Maestose has Pharos on both sides of his pedigree, along with Bayardo, Hurry On and Son-In-Law. Maestose was the sire of the advanced showjumper, Maracaido.

Frivol

Maestose

The grand-dam Kürette produced the showjumper, Lutschino (by Landego) and the shojwumping and dressage horse, Fandarina (by Fantus).
Claus Schridde in Berndt Eylers’ Leading Stallions of Germany 1998/99, remarks “Corrado I is free of Ladykiller xx blood, and for that reason alone, is invaluable for improving the partly impoverished blood of Holstein mares.”
Right from the start, it was apparent that Corrado was something special, and at his performance test he scored 10s for his free jumping and jumping ability / training. He also scored 8 for rideability. He ended with a jumping score of 137, the highest of his year and finished 3rd overall.
Corrado was ridden by the Holsteiner Verband riders, Thiess Luther and Bo Kristoffersen on the young horse circuit, and was a finalist as a six year old at the Bundeschampionate in 1991. The next season he commenced his international jumping career.
Under an agreement between the Verband and Franke Sloothaak’s sponsors of the time, San Patrignano, he was campaigned by Franke – but at first Franke had to work hard.
According to an interview with Sophie Renauldon in Monneron 2007 – “It was very hard at first; he had a very strong temperament. He was not easy to ride and his qualities were difficult to channel. It was one problem after another. His first show with me was the CSI-W in Antwerp and frankly, I found him very hard to ride, as he was weaving all over the place. The following week, at another show, I changed his bit and tried a small hackamore. My aim was to keep him straight, and to obtain a more regular stride. But it was not easy either, because he had a very long stride and was very strong. But he was intelligent, fast and careful, so he learnt and improved rapidly.”
The pair won the Grand Prix of Leeuwarden in 1993, and were second in the Nations Cup at La Baule. In 1994, Corrado won the World Cup Qualifier at Dortmund and finished third in the Nations Cup at Aachen. He also won the German Championship that year. In 1996, he won the Danish World Cup Qualifier at Aarhus, and the Grand Prix of Neumünster and Kiel. In 1997, Franke and Corrado were third in the Hamburg Grand Prix and fourth in the Grand Prix of Göteborg.
As a sire, Corrado was again, an instant success. His international jumpers include: Classic H with Helena Persson, Cher with Piet Raymakers, Corrada with Peter Charles, Cosmina with Markus Fuchs, Cosmos Star with Evelyne Blaton, Caramia with Espen Johannsen, Canyon with Tim Grubb, Think Twice with Leopold van Asten, and Cabrio with Felix and Toni Hassman. Perhaps his most spectacular son is the grey stallion, Clinton, who was individually 4th at the Olympic Games in Athens, and second behind Shutterfly at Aachen in 2005.
By the end of 2006, Corrado I is recorded with 95 progeny who had jumped at an international level.
However Franke Sloothaak suggests that Corrado might be better in the second generation: “Even if I feel that first generation Corrados are not the easiest to use, I am convinced that his second generation products are excellent horses. I think that Corrado is good in a second generation breeding paper.”