Julio Mariner xx

Born 1975, died 2004, height 165 cm
Breeder - Cobhall Court Stud (GB)

This horse, an English Thoroughbred, was a fine example of Bernard le Courtois’ observation, that sometimes a change of locale is vital in a stallion’s career. In his native Britain, Julio Mariner was a superstar on the track, winning the St Leger, but he was no great success at stud. His luck changed when he was imported to Holland by vet and jumping horse breeder, Jan Greve in 1988, and soon set about carving himself a niche in jumping breeding history.
According to Dr Greve:
“Julio Mariner produced extremely careful horses, and very quick from the ground, amazing quick reactions. And of course, when you breed to the Thoroughbreds, the main goal is to produce mares. You don’t use a Thoroughbred to produce good sport horses, mainly it is to produce good half blood mares, that is the main purpose of using the Thoroughbred. The problem is that a lot of his mares are not too big, but the small ones are the better ones, 15.3 hh, 16 hh from Julio make excellent mares – but lots of people didn’t want to use them because they were too small. I have lots of Julio mares, and you can use them with a bigger stallion.”

Julio Mariner was soon approved by the KWPN and then in Hanover, Oldenburg, Westfalia, Belgium, and even in France.

His progeny include Marinero (Gilbert de Roock), Resolute (Molly Ashe), Harley (Bruce Goodin) and Dinky Toy (Michael Whitaker). His son, Pythagoras was the first licensed by the KWPN, while Jefferson was his first licensed son in Holstein - and was out of his first crop there.