Grande

Born 1958 died 1989 - height 162 cm Chestnut
Breeder – Robert Grothmann

He was little (just a touch under 16 hands) and not terribly impressive to look at. In truth, if he was born today he would firstly never be licensed to be a stallion, and secondly, even if he were, would never get any mares! These days, when chilled semen makes any stallion available anywhere in Germany, it is only the very top stallions that attract decent books of mares.
Back in the 60’s the Hanoverian horse breeders were more likely to trust the judgement of the Stud Director in Celle, and if he sent a horse to their district, they used him. And, because they had basically only been using local based stallions for the last couple of decades, the local mare band was one of concentrated blood, and if the stallion had one good result then he was likely to have a large number of successful foals.
As it turned out Grande went on to produce 33 approved sons, 34 states premium mares and sent three of his showjumping progeny to the Olympic Games – Grande Giso (Holland), Grande (USA) and Gute Sitte (Belgium).
His grand children seem to have been the real stars – Galapagos with Gabriella Grillo represented Germany at the 1982 World Championships, and was one of the first stars of the ‘new’ class, Freestyle Dressage to Music. Grandeur (Gralsritter) won over a million Deutschmarks in a spectacular showjumping career, and since then has proven himself as a superior sire. Grande’s son Graphit sired winners of over almost two million DM and sired one of the most important jumping stallions of them all, Grannus. The Graphit son, Grundstein was one of Germany’s leading stallions before his export to the United States. Another son, Graditz sired Isabell Werth’s Olympic and World Championship star, Gigolo, although this seems to have been a one-off performance and his other claim to fame seems to have been that he drew a chariot in the stallion performances at Celle – not a task allocated to the more irreplaceable stallions at the Stud. Grande’s son, Garibaldi II sired the American dressage star Gifted who carried Carol Lavell to a team bronze at the 1992 Games and placed 4th individually. Garibaldi II died at the age of only 14 which was a great loss.
Grunnox (by Grunewald) was another top dressage horse, this time with Monica Theodorescu, and together they were members of the 1992 Gold Medal team in Barcelona, sadly the horse went unsound at the time when he was just entering the peak of his career.

Goldfisch II

Grande represents the old Hanoverian Goldschaum xx line, carried on through the foundation sire, Goldfisch II (1939 – 1958). It is not a very influential line nowadays. Graf Grannus (out of a Goldlöwe / Goya mare) carries on his jumping sire’s legacy, while Grand Cru (out of the dam of World Cup dressage winner, Walk on Top, a mare by Absatz out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Valentino) may yet prove himself the sire of dressage horses.