Born 1974, died 1991, 167 cm

Pilot was born into what should have been optimum conditions, at the clinic of former FEI chief vet, Dr Cronau, as his breeder, Christa Geldbach wanted her foal to have the best right from the start. At his first foal show, little Pilot caused a sensation and was recommended for stallion status. His breeder asked Kunibert Munch, the owner of Pilatus, to prepare him for the stallion licensing, and it was here that his difficult temperament became apparent - and even today his progeny have strong difficult characters.
Pilot was purchased by the Westfalien State Stud in 1977, and sent to the breeding station at Sande where the local breeders were not too keen to use him since his reputation for erratic behaviour had proceeded him. There was no denying that he was an elegant horse with great conformation, and he behaved well enough at the performance test at Warendorf to finish in 5th - and his foals were wonderful.
But the breeders in the area still didn’t want him - but Warendorf director, Dr Gerd Lehmann refused to budge, and the stallion stood at Sande until 1988, and by then the breeders were queuing for his services! Alas they were not going to have him for long.
Pilot was the first showjumping stallion with progeny to earn one million deutschmarks -
in fact by the end of 1999, Pilot progeny had earned a staggering DM6,250,000.
Unfortunately, his career was coming to the end at the height of his powers.
When his son Pedro was starring with Wolfgang Brinkmann in the gold medal winning
German showjumping team at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the fourteen year old Pilot was
already suffering from serious - and mysterious - problems with his back and hips.
Instead of being sent out with the other stallions in the breeding season, remained ‘home’ at Warendorf where he was available through AI only. However his fame continued to spread thanks to the exploits of Pirol (Lesley McNaught), PS Priamos, Prinzregent 7 (Norbert Koof) and many others.

Pirol and Lesley McNaught

Priamos

Pilot, like the other famous jumping ‘P’, Polydor, is by Pilatus, a private stallion, by Perseus, a son of another private stallion, the Thoroughbred, Pluchino, who stood at the Werthmann stud from 1958 to 1975. Pluchino was by the Italian sire (and Derby winner), Niccolo Dell’Arca who is a grandson of Hurry On - the sire of Precipitation!
On his dam’s side, Pilot is out of Gratia by Graphit by the great Grande. On her dam’s line we have Kornelia the daughter of one of the last of the original Trakehners, Keith.
Sadly Pilot’s health continued to worsen and he was put down in early 1991 at the age of 17 with an untreatable hip injury. His influence lives on - literally - due to stocks of high class frozen semen - and as late as 1998, there were two Pilot progeny in the Westfalien foal auction.
As with Polydor we have yet to see the emergence of a dominating stallion son of Pilot, and some of his sons had fertility problems.
One son, Prestige Pilot is the sire of Placido (below), who carried Ulf Möller to victory in the five year old dressage horse championship at the 2000 Bundeschampionate.