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Irco Marco

Irco Marco HERO

1971- 2004 164 cm Bay

Breeder – Hans Bijen

Irco Marco was a successful International show jumper. He competed in Grand Prix, Nations Cups and European Championships. He was Swedish Show Jumping Champion in 1982 and won 22 times in international competition.

This is yet another of those stories that illustrates what a multi-cultural business breeding jumping horses has become. A Dutch stallion, purchased in Britain, who was to become a leading sire in Sweden – mainly on the basis of the offspring of Irish mares! But this journey to the top was not without pain, since when he was first presented for licensing in 1976, the Swedish Commission, headed by Olle Kjellander, the National Studmaster at Flyinge, said they would never license the horse – according to the commission, he wasn’t even a sport horse.

The young stallion was presented again in 1978, and he was yet again refused even though he had been starring in competition, first with Ann Gustavii (who with her husband Lars, had purchased the horse as a four year old in 1975 from Fergus Graham who had in turn purchased him from his Dutch breeder, Hans Bijen) then with Swiss international, Paul Weier who took him into 1.60 classes.

In the light of these performances, the stallion was granted a ‘provisional cover license’, which meant he could produce foals but they could not be registered!

(I am indebted for much of the information in this profile to two splendid articles on Irco Marco written by Pascal Renauldon in Z Magazine, August/October and October/December, 2000.)

Finally in 1982, Irco Marco was admitted to the B-group of Swedish stallions – and the foals born in the previous six years were retrospectively registered, including one of his most famous offspring, the mare, Marcoville.

One Swedish rider who was grateful for the determination of the Gustaviis to promote Irco Marco, was Maria Gretzer who achieved her greatest successes with two Irco Marco products: Marcoville and Feliciano. Marcoville was a grey mare out of Ballymena Park by the Thoroughbred stallion, Menelek who was for two years top of the list of Irish and English jumping horse sires. The stallion, Feliciano is out of a mare by the Hanoverian, Utrillo (Ernö / Anilin). Utrillo was the sire of Chagall (himself the sire of over 130 broodmares and competition horses in all disciplines, including the competition stallions, Gauguin de Lully and Chirac), Kaliber and Maraton.

According to Maria: “I have already ridden many Irco Marcos in my life. All of them with great ability, very good, willing to work and very brave. They jump everything… water, walls, you name it. They are excellent Derby horses.”

Riding Marcoville at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Gretzer finished individually 6th. With Feliciano, she enjoyed a stellar career from 1995 until 2003 – with wins and placings in all the major European shows. The highlight of this career came at the Sydney Olympic Games, when Feliciano won the third qualifying round before finishing in 15th place overall. In 2004, Feliciano was named Stallion of the Year in Sweden, joining such illustrious company as Briar and Robin Z. Feliciano is the sire of two approved stallions, Bel Mondo and Hip Hop.

 

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