Lauries Crusador

Born 1985 Brown 170 cms

Lauries Crusador raced as a 2 and 3 year old in England. In his first season he raced 6 times and won twice with two placings. As a three year old he raced three times and was placed three times. He finished his career with stakes winnings of almost twenty thousand pounds.
His sire, Welsh Pageant was a good racehorse winning 11 races and £53,527. He was even better as a sire, with his progeny winning 342 races, and £1,920,000. His dam, Square Note won over hurdles as well as on the flat, and produced five wniners - Aventina Lady, TSW Homes, Nippy Chippy, Chimera and Lauries Crusador.
Lauries Crusador's great grand-dam, Umbrette is out of Equitation (by Fair Trial) - Equitation is also the dam of the stallion. Ecuador (by the Hyperion son, Hornbeam) who stood at the State Stud Celle where he sired many good Verden auction horses, and the state stallions, Egerlander, Eklatant and Eldorado.
The five year old British born Thoroughbred Lauries Crusador came to the State Stud Celle in 1991, via the Dutch stallion owners, Henk Nijhoff and Jan Greve, and the former Director of the Holstein Verband, Maas Hell – who later became one of Germany’s biggest private stallion owners.The story is well told in the article 'There is only one Laurie' by Gerd Gauger in The Hanoverian, 6/2006.
According to Mr Gauger, Nijhof and Greve - both Thoroughbred fans in the 1980's when the full-blood was not popular amongst Warmblood breeders - went to Newmarket in search of a stallion for the KWPN breeding program. They didn't find the stallion they were looking for, but were told about a stallion, in a barn, on the way to the airport.
Gauger quotes Nijhof: "When we arrived it was totally quiet, no human or horse visible. We snooped around a little and found in a remote part of the stable a row of box stalls, where a horse was looking out." Nijhoff was immediately taken, "If that's him, the we've found the right one!" he said to Greve. "This head, this eyes - I was immediately filled with enthusiasm. We finally located a groom, who pulled the colt out of the box stall. Jan and I were convinced: the stallion had a lot of neck, a beautifully developed body wiht an impressive croup. When he cantered forward upward with great ease in spite of his minor injury, we knew that we had found what we had set out for."

When the horse arrived in Holland, the Dutch licensings had already taken place. The KWPN suggested presenting the horse the following year. Nijhoff instead offered him to Maas J. Hell in Holstein - where he was rejected by the Holstein approval committee. He was then offered to Dr Burchard Bade at Celle, who leased him right away, and his breeding career commenced in Hanover in 1990.

Stationed at the Landesbrück breeding station, the Thoroughbred was met with the suspicion that all ‘full blood’ stallions face in Germany but convinced the local breeders with his presence, quality and exceptional movement. His career as a breeding stallion has exceeded all expectations.
In 1993, his son, Lancier (out of a Wendekreis mare) was purchased by the State Stud at the ‘first lot’ and he is still based at the Dorum breeding station.
In 1994, six of his sons were licensed, including Longchamp (out of a mare by Eisenherz) who was purchased by the state stud. Longchamp was an easy winner of the dressage section of his performance test, and was reserve champion at the Bundeschampionate in 1995.
In 1995 a dark bay colt, by Lauries Crusador, out of the dam of Wolkenstein I and II was presented by the famous breeder, Dr Max Schulz-Stellenfleth. When he was not licensed, he was gelded and competed at FEI level with Falk Rosenbauer under the name, Little Big Man.
In 1996, Susanne Rimkus, the head of the state stud at Warendorf, purchased the colt Laurentianer (below, out of a mare by Grande). Larentianer went on to win his performance test and the world six year old title ridden by Michael Farwick. Since then Laurentianer has competed at FEI level with Marlies van Baalen.

In 1997, another Lauries Crusador son, the handsome chestnut Londonderry (out of a mare by Warkant) won the Stallion Licensing in Verden. Two years later he won the Riding Stallion Championship at the Bundeschampionate, and was reserve champion at the 2001 Bundeschampionate.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the Lauries have gone on to be successful Grand Prix horses - there's Carola Koppelmann's Le Bo (third in the German Female Championships in 2005); Lesotho with Ellen Schulten-Baumer, and Le Primeur, an international competitor with Swiss rider, Marie-Line Wettstein.
Lauries Crusador is now proving himself as a sire of brood mares. The champion of the 2000 Hanoverian licensing, Don Crusador (by Donnerhall) is out of a daughter of Lauries Crusador.
In the 2007 Hanoverian Stallion Yearbook (which features Lauries Crusador on the cover as Hanoverian stallion of the Year) he is listed as having 1736 registered progeny in Hanover with 396 registered broodmares, with 119 States Premiums amongst them.

The results from the mare performance tests confirm his high dressage rating, with a ranking of 132 – while the jumping ranking of 69 indicates that he is purely a dressage sire... and may indicate why those firm jumping blood fans, Nijhof, Greve and Hell, lost interest in him.

Londonderry

Dr Ludwig Christmann, assistant breeding director at the Hanoverian Verband assesses his influence:
"We are very lucky to have in Lauries Crusador a Thoroughbred stallion who in the first generation produces Grand Prix horses. This is very rare. Already there is Lesotho with Ellen Schulten-Baumer, and Le Beau in northern Germany with Mr Koch riding him. Falk Rosenbauer has been very successful at Prix St Georges with Little Big Man…"
Do you think Dr Bade even dared to hope that a Thoroughbred could produce such horses in the first generation – or was he hoping that in the second generation his choice would prove itself?
"We don’t expect this of a Thoroughbred stallion. Often it is the second cross, not the first cross, but we are lucky with Lauries Crusador who has produced good stallion sons like Longchamp and Londonderry, and they will play a big role."
What are the qualities that Lauries Crusador brought to Hanoverian breeding? What is his stamp?
"He improves the frame of the horse. He puts on the long legs that we like, and the big shoulders that we hope from a Thoroughbred. What is also very important is the rideability of his offspring. They are very good in their mind, very co-operative, also good for collection. From their mind, from their interior they are very good horses. They have good movement but they are also trainable so the movement gets better under saddle, which is better than the other way around.".

The 2007 Hannoverian Stallion Book records that up to that time Lauries Crusador had produced 583 competition horses with winnings of Euro 535,207. The most successful so far has been Lesotho with winnings of Euro 118,837.

He has had 294 dressage performers for 6085 placings (39 at S level) and 63 jumpers with 910 placings.He is the sire of 43 licensed sons.

On the FN index he has a dressage rating of 132 and a jumping rating of 69.He was 22nd on the Hannoverian dressage stallion rankings, with his son Londonderry in 9th place. Lauries Crusador is 5th on the Hannoverian list for type with a ranking of 160.

Lauries Crusador at the Celle Stallion Parade - photo Werner Ernst