Éphèbe For Ever
Born 1992, 178 cm

This stallion once again demonstrates the importance of a strong mare line – in this case, a mare line that surely cannot be bettered! The story of Éphèbe For Ever’s illustrious sire, Galoubet A is available elsewhere on this data base, so we will just concentrate on his dam, Geisha N.
Geisha was a national and international Grand Prix winner with Jeannou Lefebvre and Eric Navet, with an ISO ranking of 150 before she was purchased by Gérard Favré with the specific intention of breeding a jumping super star.
Her breeding was exceptional. She is by the Thoroughbred, Night and Day (the sire of international jumpers, Shogoun II, ridden by Jerome Chartier, Quina des Bruyères with Patrick Martin, and Night Fever with Barney Ward), out of Tanagra, by the great Thoroughbred sire of jumpers, Furioso, out of the Selle Français mare, Delicieuse. Delicieuse (by Jus de Pomme) was herself a showjumping winner, and the dam of Phébus (by Furioso) a CSI winner.

Night and Day has the classic jumping Thoroughbred pedigree, with three crosses of Teddy (Dark Ronald on the dam side), one cross of the Dark Ronald son, Son In Law as well as the influential, Tourbillon.
The great Tanagra produced the jumping competitors, Danoso (by Night and Day) Escurial (also by Night and Day), Geisha N and when bred to Almé, Jalisco B, a great sire of winners and of stallions. Bred with Galoubet, Tanagra produced the mare, Quanagra who is the dam of Viking du Tillard (competitor at the 1996 Olympic Games, and a French national champion) and the international jumper, and currently one of the leading stallions in France, Cabdula du Tillard (by Abdullah).
Aside from Éphèbe For Ever, Geisha N produced the stallion sons: Kissovo (by the Rantzau son, Starter), Urous HN (by Elf III) and Veneur de Defey (Grand Veneur). Geisha also produced the mares: Quisquis (Dynamique) who is the dam of Eisha For Ever (Galoubet A),Bilitis du Defey and For Ever Geisha (Galoubet A) who is the dam of Margot For Ever and Never For Ever (both by Cor de la Bryère), Souleiado (Arrtichaut) and Aspara du Defey, the best seven year old in Sweden in 1995.
Having purchased his mare, Gérard Favré wasn’t going to do anything as easy as breed her to one of the many fine stallions in France, no, he wanted Galoubet A, who had already been exported to the United States, and to make it even more interesting with a surrogate mother and embryo transfer – and this with a stallion whose semen did not freeze! So it was trans-Atlantic chilled semen, AI and ET to produce one of the first successful embryo transplants of the early 90’s.
Éphèbe For Ever was the result.
Even as a three year old, the young stallion demonstrated he had a big jump. As a four year old, he notched up 10 clears out of 12 rounds of the cycle classique.
At the age of five, Éphèbe met up with the rider who was to take him to international success when he moved into the training yard of Valérie and Christian Hermon. Christian took him through the national and then international ranks and into the mighty French showjumping team. According to Christian (quoted in the excellent survey ‘Éphébe For Ever… and ever!’ by Claire Leraillez in the April 2005 edition of Breeding News) “Against all expectations, Éphèbe is a very sensitive horse that needs to be ridden with finesse… He has unusual potential in terms of jumping ability, a very good mentality and is physically very sound. He has both power and suppleness, which is not so common with big SF horses… The only thing missing to be the ‘horse of the century’ is a good front stride, which has nevertheless been compensated by training on the flat and dressage.”
With Christian Hermon, Éphèbe For Ever has been a consistent performer in Nations Cups and major Grand Prix.
Éphèbe For Ever has been standing at stud since 1997, with his first foals, turning five years old in 2003. Out of 10 foals born in 1998, four took part in the cycle classic for 5 year olds, with two double clear rounds at the final at Fontainebleau.
Successful progeny include: Klondelle (La Balkise AA), finalist at 4, 5 and 6; Kappa du Croisy (Eclipse du Croisy) finalist at 4, 5, and 6; Lady de Riou (Volcanique de Feu) finalist at 4; La Geisha de Saunoir (Tamie de la Croix).
The owners of Éphèbe For Ever have now joined with the Mexican breeder, Alfonso Silla, the founder of the La Silla Stud in Mexico, and the horse is now known as Éphèbe For Ever La Silla.