He’s done it again! King Edward the star of Tokyo, now the star of Herning, we examine the champion’s somewhat whacky breeding…
Now if there is one rule in sporthorse breeding that is repeated over and over, it’s that while you can breed dressage horses with jumping blood, the reverse is not true – dressage horses do not breed jumpers, that’s the rule…
Analysis – Christopher Hector
Seemingly no-one told the standout star of the Tokyo Showjumping, Henrik von Eckermann’s King Edward about the rule, as the chestnut went through the competition without a single rail to take home a Team Gold medal.
Talking about King Edward, at Herning, von Eckermann said, “he has jumped so many clear rounds and done so many good things, it’s just a privilege to ride him. I knew Jerome was clear so I could have no mistakes….I had a really good feeling from the first round so that gave me confidence and the horse felt as fresh as he was the first day.
“I knew before I went in a fence down can happen so easily, but if I ride well and have a fault I can live with it. But I didn’t want to go in there and not go by my plan, so I stuck to it and it worked!”
Edward, the dressage horse…
Yet his sire, Edward, was a dressage horse – and a successful one at that, carrying German young rider, Charlott-Maria Schürmann to victory at the Hagen CDI-Y in 2013 with a score of 76.84! Click the link below to see Edward in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nc-hVr1o_g&t=39s
In 2018, Edward won the Hanoverian Grande-Prize:
Offspring from his first crops of foals qualified for the Bundeschampionate in all three disciplines, dressage, show jumping and eventing. The Grande-Prize is an award that is linked with the hope that the honoured stallion will sustainably improve the Hanoverian breed. Edward was described as a worthy winner.
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Embassy ll, an international star
Admittedly, Edward comes from a solid line of jumpers. His sire Embassy I was not so successful as his younger brother, Embassy II who was an international star.
Ingrid Klimke and Escada, by Embassy l
Embassy l has been a solid sire of showjumpers and really top eventers, like Ingrid Klimke’s Escada and the French star, Entebbe de Hus.
The Embassy full brothers, l, ll, and lll are by Escudo, the Hanoverian stallion who always impressed not just with his jumping prowess but with his rideability and better than average movement – qualities he passed to his offspring.
See Escudo in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gahlheDwSvY
If we look at the mare line that produced Edward, over the three generations, we find lots of jumpers, but he was the only dressage horse.
King Edward is branded BWP and his dam has a suitably Belgique name, Koningin de Lauzelle but in truth his blood is all Hanoverian. Her sire, Feo is by Wendekreis, her dam by Garibaldi II.
So let us celebrate the fact that rules were made to be broken – and that Henrik and King Edward provided us with such wonderful jumping action at the Games and at the World Championships…
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Interested in these bloodlines in Australia for next season? You can breed to King Edward’s sire, Edward. Go to www.ihb.com.au
