Christopher Hector checks out one of Hanover’s new stallion stars…
Ingrid Klimke’s Franziskus is officially a Hanoverian star! At the 2022 Elite Auction in Verden, Ingrid Klimke’s German World Dressage Championship team horse, Franziskus, was rewarded for winning team bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Herning with the FRH suffix.
Franziskus (Fidertanz/Alabaster) was bred by Elisabeth Albers and is owned by Wilhelm Holkenbrink. The licensed stallion has proved himself in sport, and his offspring are outstanding. His son Final Dream is a winner of the Bundeschampionat for five-year-old dressage horses with rider Kira Goerens-Ripphoff, and Final Dream also received the FRH suffix at the gala evening.
The 2022 Hanoverian Stallion book records Franziskus with personal winnings of €105,558, while his 371 progeny have won €93,764, with twenty four competing at S* and two at S**.
On the FN breeding values, he has a young horse value of 126, but on the highest level achieved standings he has a value of 139.
On the Hanoverian values, he has a respectable 126 for type, enough to claim a place on the topliste. His dressage value is a rather modest 111 with 122 for trot, 104 for canter, 95 for walk, and 115 for rideability. He is the sire of eleven licensed sons.
Fidertanz at the Bundeschampionate
Franziskus is by the 2022 Hanoveraner Stallion of the Year, Fidertanz. The nineteen-year-old Fidertanz is by Fidermark out of a Ravallo mare. Ravallo is a grandson of the Holsteiner, Ramiro, and there is plenty of jump on his pedigree, Ravallo descends on his mare line from Gotthard.
Fidermark, one of the best sons of Florestan…
Although he died young, Fidermark is shaping as one of the very best sons of Florestan, he was out of a mare by the ‘trot machine’ Werther. Fidertanz’s dam, Reine Freude carries the pioneering dressage blood of Romadour II on her mare line.
Foundation
Fidertanz himself won €3,804, but his 1000 competitors have accumulated €1,096,064, with 13 of his progeny winning over €10,000 in dressage competition. He is the sire of 21 licensed sons, including the very popular, Foundation (out of a mare by De Vito, a De Niro son)
Alabaster
Franziskus is out of a mare by Alabaster, out of a Rubinstein mare.
I have no doubt that it was this Rubinstein blood that caught the attention of master breeder, Eugène Reesink, since he is a great fan of R blood on the mare line, but according to Eugène, you didn’t need to look at the papers to realise you were in the presence of something special.
“I bought Franziskus when he was ten days old, I was blown away when they showed him to me. I had to buy another foal also, otherwise I was not allowed to buy Franziskus.”
“I bought him from the Albers family, and they asked me if he could go to the German Foal Championship, I said yes, and a few months later Franziskus won that competition, he was the German Champion.”
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“When he was two-and-a-half years old we presented him at the Westfalien Studbook licensing, of course he became approved, and that’s where we sold him to Mr Holkenbrink.”
What was it about him as a foal that made you say, this is something special…
“Long long legs, a real uphill front, totally uphill, such an attractive foal, a real eye catcher. He was so brilliant he just blew me away.”
“After he won the championship, I could have sold him ten, fifteen times, everybody wanted him.”
Have you seen any of his progeny, what are they like?
“His foals have a little bit the same as he has… the wow factor. They are also uphill with a lot of presence.”
Is there any particular mare he needs?
“I think he needs a little bit a modern mare, not a heavy clumsy mare. He needs a refined mare.”
Were you surprised he has gone as far as he has?
“Surprised, but I knew he was special, but no-one could predict that he will be a member of the German team, there are so many factors, health, the rider, but you could see he was special when he was three years old.”
And that is what Ingrid Klimke discovered when he came to her stable, but it was not always plain sailing…
“Franziskus has so much quality, everything is easy for him, so much power, and from his build he is so much sitting on his hindquarters, so uphill, everything is easy for him.”
The five-year-old Franziskus
“He is quite tall and he is really full of himself. I got him at the end of his five-year-old year, he was already determined to have his way, it took quite a while and some really big discussions, and he has realized that it is not only his choice, which way to go, which gait, what we do.”
“I had three months when I was not really sure if he is not a man’s horse – he is quite tall and strong and has such a presence – will he realize that it is nicer to be in a team with me, a team player?”
Luckily, he decided he was…
“He had so much quality, so much power, and from his build he is so much sitting on his hindquarters, so uphill, everything is easy for him. I asked for a change, and it was a wonderful change, I asked his owners, did anyone teach him changes? No, but he could do one change. Then I taught him four, three, two times changes, now I teach him the ones, because I didn’t know what else to do.”
Will he piaffe?
“I think so. Passage is very easy because he has such a nice front. In the piaffe steps he was a little bit quick, but now he starts to learn. He is seven and while he is breeding so much, I haven’t competed him too much.”
Since then Franziskus has gone on to be a key member of the German Dressage Team…
