It is amazing to see the sort of stallion show one single breeding station can put on in Germany. On the way to the arena, there is a huge hospitality tent, filled with local mare owners tucking into lunch and downing the odd Pilsner, the more traditional ones add a schnapps chaser. Jens Meyer is warmly greeting visitors, while his wife, Susanne is putting the finishing touches on the decorations she has spent the last few days – seemingly without sleep – preparing. Both Jens and Susanne can relax.
It is a sell-out crowd.
A group of local kids, dressed as Cossacks, kick off the show, with a quadrille – ‘The Ride of Moscow’. It’s a great little show, but ponies will be wicked little ponies at times, and there are a few hairy moments to keep the crowd entertained.
The first stallion of the Show is a nine year old Falsterbo (Fidermark / Brentano) ridden by Inga von Heldorf with a running commentary by Grand Prix trainer, Jonny Hilberath. The stallion has been competing Prix St Georges / Inter I, and will soon commence Grand Prix. All the movements are in place and the horse is as brilliant in his movement as he is in his colour. Effortlessly relaxed sequence changes, great half pass, lovely training pirouettes and baby passage. Any Australian breeder with a foal on the ground by this stallion should count themselves lucky indeed. Sadly his German breeding career has suffered a little by the fashion breeding trend, where the mare owners flock to the newly licensed three year olds, and ignore the older stallions. Hopefully today’s display will cause a few of them to have second thoughts.
Next, a four year gelding by Falsterbo out of a Davignon mare. The voice on the commentary mike is that of Claus Schridde, a journalist with an encyclopaedic knowledge of German horse breeding. You don’t really have to say too much about this youngster – he is simply stunning. Tall, elegant, calm and such a sweet mover – like his dad, he has a huge canter and a striking trot. Then comes a mare with an amazing Falsterbo baby running alongside her.
Next comes the little pony stallion that played such a huge role in establishing this breeding station. Mandingo was Susanne’s pride and joy, and of course Jens promised that he would never ever be sold, and of course, he did just that. Still with the money from the sale, the young couple were able to purchase their first stallion star, DaCaprio, and as an added bonus were able to buy the pony stallion back a few years later at a much reduced price!
Once again, you remember how lucky these young German riders are to get on such fabulous little horses for their first competitions! Passage and extended trot and a round of applause as Mandigo waltzes out of the area.

Left: The pony stallion, Mandingo. In the collage - left to right, Rob Roy, Falsterbo, His Highness.
Right: His Highness - how sad that he died not long after this picture was taken.

Then comes the first of the new stallions, purchased by Doug and Louise Leatherdale at last year’s Hanoverian licensing. The Leatherdales are the sort of owners, breeders pray for. Doug is the President of the American Hanoverian Society and the pair take a keen interest in their stallions and young stock in Germany. They first purchased His Highness, followed by Hertzenzieb, Damsey and now Rob Roy and First Dance.
Rob Roy (by Rubin Royal out of a Glorieux / Sidney mare) is very much the modern type: leggy, beautiful, and an impressive mover. Rubin-Royal is proving a very popular way of getting Rohdiamant blood, without the worrying variation in height and type that he seems to breed. Rubin-Royal comes from Mrs Harli Seifert’s extraordinarily successful mare line and this seems to give stability to the mix.
Rob Roy is ridden by one of the most elegantly effective riders in Germany – Helen Langenhaneberg. Helen started riding at the age of 12 with Ingrid Klimke, and rides with the kind of quiet classical finesse you might expect. Rob Roy is still a baby, but you can see glimpses of the power and movement to come.
DaCaprio is next and sadly this will be his last appearance for Hengststation Meyer. Like so many of the older stallions, even with progeny starring at the Bundeschampionate, and a top twenty dressage ranking, the breeders will not use the older stallions, so he has been sold to the south.
Now the ‘trot machine’ – Damsey. So under himself, so engaged. Great walk, trot and canter. A foal out of a Londonderry mare proves that he is breeding nice types.
Not so long ago, Hengststation Meyer was known as a jumping stud, and even with the swing to the dressage emphasis, Jens and Susanne still stand Cashman (always up near the top on both FN and Hanoverian rankings) and for Franke Sloothaak, Cyrano de Bergerac – an international jumper until injury cut short his career.
Then Dorothee Schneider and one of the guest stallions, Kaiserkult. The stallion stands down south but Jens and Susanne handle his semen for the area. He is such a great mover and so professionally shown – they really look candidates for a place in a German team somewhere down the track.
The little team of Cossack riders are back. Side reins firmly and wisely in place this time, for a quite complicated quadrille.
Time for another of the first season sires, First Dance – by Florestan out of a mare by Donnerhall, in turn out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Aarking. Poor horse, he has had an ingrown tooth removed not long before the show which perhaps excuses a few contact problems – it will be interesting to see him in a few months with a bit more riding.
Once again, Helen Lagenhanenberg is in the ring, this time riding the Trakehner licensing champion, Hertzensdieb. The horse is so light to the ground and such an attractive mover. He really should be a candidate to breed great eventers over Thoroughbred mares, especially as he showed in his performance test a real talent for cross country jumping.
We are presented an excellent young stallion, by His Highness out of the same dam as the McLean’s stallion, DaVinity. This horse has recently been one of the premium stallions at the Bavarian licensing. Then another young Highness stallion, this time out of a Rotspon mare – this one has a great hind end and is a classy mover.
Another guest stallion – this time Hoftanz from the well-known Böckmann stud. He is a licensed Oldenburg stallion, by His Highness and out of a Rotspon / Weltmeyer / Brentano mare.
It’s time for the grand finale, and there is no denying that His Highness has that special something, that star quality. He is shown by his regular rider, Inga von Heldorf, and the work with Klaus Balkenhol, and more recently with Jonny Hilberath is producing wonderful results. He might not be the biggest mover, but he has such fantastic rideability and strength. When he first started working with the black stallion, Klaus declared ‘this horse will go Grand Prix’ – sadly that prediction will never be tested as the stallion had to be put down after injuring himself not long after this show…

Londonderry Mare and a foal by the power machine, Damsey

That’s it. Time to catch up with the latest gossip in the refreshment tent, time to marvel, that according to the equestrian photographer, Kiki Beelitz, there were at least SIX other stallions shows in northern Germany that weekend alone. How important is the stallion show in attracting mares?
Jens is not sure: “The stallion shows what do they bring? I guess it is the same if I ask you, what is the result if I advertise in your magazine? It is difficult to say, but for the breeders it is important to identify with the stallions they send their mares to. We had people at our show from France, Holland, Italy, Denmark, they like to look at the stallions and talk about them. Everyone has a stallion show, so we keep doing them, and we still have a good party at the end.”
And now we have the new development – the super stallion parade with stallions from all the big studs?
“Stallion parades are now like an exhibition, now we have the new style shows at Affalterbach, that is a big business and they invite all the big studs, there is maybe 16 stallion owners, the big ones like Schockemöhle and Sosath. The organizer leases a big indoor, big cater ing, andfor each stallion they pay about one thousand euros to enter. So with two days of this exhibition, that is a big business. But in these big shows there are only two or three winners, two or three stallions everyone is talking about, for the rest it is not so great. With your own show you can handle it, decide what to do with the horses – we can make it work for us, because we know our horses.”
“When I started as a stallion keeper, we just led them down the street, on each side, stood fifty persons. An older guy went around with the hat, and that was my cigarette money – at each stallion show, I would get a hundred deutchmarks for putting on this show. We just put a little sand on the street, and a little rope each side, and that was our stallion show. Then a big party and that was it.”
“Then in Oldenburg they started to ride and present the stallions and in the late 80s we start to show them under saddle. When I was at the State Stud Celle, that’s when I started with the new presentation.”
What is Rob Roy going to offer the breeders?
“They use him because he is new one but until he has his foals, then we cannot be sure. He’s a very pretty horse, a good mover, but we have to wait and see which mares work well with him. I hope that he gives the foals, his type. We don’t have so much Rubin-Royal blood in Hanover, it is more in Oldenburg – it is good to have the R blood with athletic ability and with a good type. On the mare line, we have a horse from Werner Schockemöhle – two times Werner Schockemöhle, Glorieux and Sidney and Grundstein I. I know this mare family for a long time – it’s great to have four generations of proven breeding.”

First Dance - another very modern young stallion...

And with First Dance?
“Again this is difficult to say. He comes from a famous family too. His dam by Donnerhall, won many times at the mare shows. What I must always have in my station is a stallion to produce trot, and this was the idea with First Dance, he is a trot maker.”
Ingo Pape was saying to me after your show, that he cannot get mares even to a stallion like Davignon – he has been very successful but he is old. Do you find the same problem with your older stallions?
“That is a real problem and I don’t see any chance to change this in the future. Jumping breeding is completely different, in Holstein to get to the old stallions, first you must use a young one. In dressage it is completely different. At the end of the eighties we tried to say for each stallion just 200 mares, and no more, but we had legal problems to do that. I wonder how they can do it in Holstein without trouble with the law. In dressage, everyone lives from the hope – the hope that the new stallion will be better.”
“I do a bet with you. I ask you which stallions were the licensing winner for the past ten years – I even asked Dr Wilkens – and he does not know the answer. It shows us that while the breeders think to win a licensing is very important, maybe in the long run, it is not so important. If you ask me ‘who are the best stallions in the last twenty years?’ then I don’t think we find too many licensing winners on that list.”
“What is important is that all the horses we showed under saddle of our breeding, the breeders had seen them as foals in our show. They saw them as foals, as two years old, and now under saddle – it gives a real feeling of how the horses develop.”