Gotthard

Born 1949 Died 1978 - Grey, 16.11/2 hands
Breeder - Richard Kords
Gotthard is truly one of the greats. For seven years he was the leading sire of showjumpers in Germany - and his influence continues to the present day. During his time he sired over 34 licensed stallion sons - the most highly rated of which was Goldberg who was based in Westfalia alas for only four seasons. In Hanover, Gardestern I was the most important, while the private stallions, Goldpilz, Goldstern and Godehard were all influential.
Gotthard was also influential as a mare sire and he was responsible for 26 States Premium mares.
He was the sire of international showjumpers, Goya, Goldika, Gonzales, Galipolis, Queensway Big Q, Goldfink, Golden Gate, Graf Sieno and Graf 2. Gotthard’s son, Genever sired Genius, the World Cup Showjumping Champion of 1992. Another son, Goldpilz is the sire of John Whitaker’s Gamon. Gotthard has also been influential as a broodmare sire, another World Cup winner, The Natural (by Diskus) is out of a Gotthard mare, and Voltaire, the hugely influential Dutch based Hanoverian jumping sire, was similarly out of a Gotthard dam.
Gotthard’s progeny were wonderful jumpers, but were rather stiff and untalented for dressage.
Gotthard was by Goldfisch II who was the sire of nine licensed stallion sons and who is the grandsire of another great, Grande. Goldfisch II descends from the nineteenth century Thoroughbred sire, Goldschaum. Goldfisch II had a reputation for producing beautiful horses and good movers, yet neither of his most famous sons had exceptional conformation - Graf was a small chestnut, like his son Grande, while Gotthard was not the most elegant of horses.

The great breeding expert, Werner Schockemöhle described Gotthard as ‘lucky’ to be accepted into the stallion ranks at Celle. "At the time he was not really ready. He looked weak and lacking in his expression - he was not developed sufficiently in the shoulder and in the formation of his neck. No-one could guess at the time how lovely and expressive the horse would be ten years later. The fully matured Gotthard impressed through his perfect shoulder and his perfect neck, and even his head could be classed as nice - even though he had a few too strong cheek bones from his Arabian ancestry, otherwise the head was clear and dry with a wide forehead and a lovely big eye. His croup could have been a little longer and a little bit more sloped in the top line. His hind legs were quite good but you have to admit that his hocks could have been better."
On his dam’s sire, Gotthard descends for the Shagya Arab line of Amurath - also influential on the dam line of another influential sire of jumpers, Ramzes.
When he was approved in 1951, Gotthard seemed short framed, insignificant and stocky and it is not surprising that he was not particularly popular (indeed he was put over all sorts of mares, including cold bloods and Norwegians) - from 1956 to 1960 he was not used at all. It was not until his daughter, Goldika (out of a Mecklenburg mare with no papers) started her sensational jumping career with Gert Wiltfang that the breeders found him attractive. Eventually he was to produce over fifty horses to compete internationally and when in 1975, a list of top stallions was published, Gotthard was number one in terms of prizemoney won. Eventually his competing progeny numbered 398, with earnings of almost two million deutschmarks.