Heraldik 1982 – 2013

Christopher Hector, with assistance from Adriana van Tilburg, examines the life and times of the great eventing sire…

The stallion came from a mysterious, and not particularly auspicious background, a riding school in Czechoslovakia, but imported to Germany, Heraldik became the most successful eventing sire of all time. Heraldik was crowned Number One WBFSH Eventing Sire in 2009, and held top spot until 2013, though it might be noted in 2014, he was 2^nd, 3^rd in 2015, 2^nd again in 2016, 6^th in 2017 and 7^th in 2018.

So, what made the stallion such a success?

For starters, his offspring were the first choice of some of the world’s very top riders, in particular the Germans, whose eventing squad under the guidance of Christopher Bartle was conquering the world. The German team between 2004 and 2019 won 27 championship medals, riding horses that were on average 70% Thoroughbred.

The superstar combination of this team was Michael Jung and La Biosthetiqe-Sam, the gelding was by Stan the Man xx, out of an Heraldik mare. Here showing his characteristic crossed front legs..

In 2013, the last year Heraldik headed the WBFSH eventing sires standings, his highest tally of points were accumulated by Halunke FBW (out of a mare by Jugol, a son of the influential Trakehner, Julmond), ridden by – you guessed it – Michael Jung, while the second highest, Tabasco (out of the Trakehner mare Titania III) was ridden by one of America’s frontliners, Marilyn Little. Third ranked in Heraldik’s team was TSF Karascada (out of another Trakhener, this time by Andoc) and Kai-Steffen Meier – since Karascada’s dam is listed with two more foals, including the 3-star eventer, Karambeau M, both of them by the eventing Trakehner stallion, Windfall, we may assume she was sent to Heraldik with the aim of producing an eventer…

Halunke and Michael Jung on their way to a win at Malmo

This is another important thread, breeders deliberately setting out to produce eventers. Most breeders in Germany at the time, if they used a Thoroughbred stallion, did so hoping for a half-blood mare to add to their broodmare band, so they did not send their very top mare to the Thoroughbred. Not so the little band of eventing enthusiasts, they sent their best mares, hoping to breed an eventer. And this worked in reverse, eventing breeders went looking for Heraldik mares, and then sent them to stallions who had produced eventers, boosting the chances of Heraldik as an eventing broodmare sire.

It also underlines the opportunity Germany’s Trakehner mare population offers the breeder of eventers…

With the next two Heraldiks on the 2013 rankings we find the breeder, who more than any other, gave Heraldik his chance to shine, the late Friedrich Butt.

Ingrid Klimke and Abraxxas at the Beijing Games. Braxxi went on compete successfully with Ingrid’s daughter, Greta.

Butt was the breeder of the 4^th highest scoring competitor, Ingrid Klimke’s FRH Butts Abraxxas and also the 5^th, Andreas Dibowski’s  FRH Butts Avedon – both geldings were by Heraldik, and out of mares by the Thoroughbred, Kronenkranich. Dibowski rode another Heraldik, FRH Butts Leon (Star Regent xx) into seventh place.

Butts Avedon and Andreas Dibowski at Malmo

While the Hanoverian Verband was happy this group bore the FRH prefix, the truth is they were only 1/64 Hanoverian, the rest was straight Thoroughbred. For example, in the case of Abraxxas, the only non-Thoroughbred blood comes in the shape of his great, great, great grand-dam Alte Liebe – who was by the Thoroughbred, Fockenbach xx, out of an un-named mare.

Andreas Dibowski and Butts Leon at the 2010 WEG in Kentucky

Mr Butt had started his breeding program to support his hobby, beach racing, and he established two mare lines, that were to provide half the German Gold Medal team in Hong Kong for the 2008 Games. There was Abraxxas with Ingrid Klimke, Andreas Dibowski and Butts Leon. Four years later at London, another German eventing gold medal team, featured Sam and Michael Jung and Abraxxas and Ingrid Klimke once again.

Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam, and Ingrid Klimke and Butts Abraxxas, medal winners in London

While other eventing breeders turned to Trakehner blood, Mr Butt’s dictum was to breed to Thoroughbred, Thoroughbred, Thoroughbred. Sadly Mr Butt died a few years before the 2008 Games, and he never had the chance to see his dream realized.

It’s one of the myths of sporthorse breeding that you can’t breed eventers, this is quite untrue, aside from Friedrich Butt, there was a small band of breeders who set out to breed eventers, and even with less than stunning foundation stock, they were remarkably successful, in England there was Sam Barr, in Ireland, Patricia Nicholson and in Australia, Bud Hyem.

Bud Hyem and her Kibah Tic Toc, a Gold Medal winner with Matthew Ryan at Barcelona. Here waiting to be Torch Bearers of the Olympic Flame for the 2000 Games in Sydney.

For all his success, Heraldik was a mystery horse, with little known about his background, or how he arrived in Germany. Equestrian journalist, Adriana van Tilburg was doggedly persistent and eventually uncovered ‘most’ of the story.

This is what Adriana discovered:

“Heraldik xx was born in Czechoslovakia in 1982, his mother line is a combination from mares born in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. In Heraldik’s pedigree we find the Thoroughbreds who have influenced the modern sport and Warmblood breeding: Nearco xx (by Pharos xx), Chief xx (by Nearco xx), Cranach xx (by Coronach xx), Hurry On xx (by Marcovil xx), Fairway xx (by Phalaris xx) and Tourbillon xx (by Ksar xx).”

“Heraldik’s mother Heraldika xx (by Cale xx), his grandmother; Helga xx (by Marsel xx) and his great grandmother; Heja (by Detvan) were born in Czechslovakia. Heraldik was born at SOUP Šala, this is a school and stable for jockeys in what is now the Slovakian Republic.”

The sire – Caramel

“His sire Caramel xx had 68 starts on the racetrack and won 13, he is known for making excellent sporthorses in Slovakia.”

“On the other hand, Heraldik’s mother Heraldika xx was a very bad racehorse. She has handicap 34kg as a two-year-old and when she was three, she was fifth two times over the wicker hurdles with 53kg. But on the flat she was amongst the last. When she was four, she had several placings in steeplechases. In her last season she represented her lifelong owner, the university SOUP Šala, and she was given a rating of 58.5kg.”

“Although she was a failure on the racecourse, she was great in breeding. This mare, described as little, subtle, black as a coal, with a little mark on her forehead, gave us, along with Heraldik, the good showjumper Háje and the mare Herka, who was exported to Germany, where she gave birth to two licensed sons. Royaldik and Meraldik.”

Meraldik – a successful competitor at the German Young Horse Championships

“Zdeno Malík worked for more than 25 years at the university, SOUP Šala and he recalls: ‘The University bought Heraldika as a broodmare in the package, we bought two yearlings and the seller wanted to sell Heraldika too. We bought her to bring more horses to the yard. She died at the age of 24, in 1995 at our school. Her son, Heraldik was not popular as a stallion at that time in Czechoslovakia, the breeders didn’t find him pretty enough.”

Heraldik xx – His sports career

“Heraldik stayed loyal to his mother’s ‘qualities’ on the racecourse. He ran as a three-year-old in Slovakia three times, he was 4th at his last start. He did not place in a race when he was four-years-old and in the 4th category he was 5th in the steeplechase.  He was not evaluated with a steeplechase handicap, on the flat he rated 43kg.”

“A tendon injury finished his career as a steeplechaser and he moved to the sport stable where he was used as a school horse. Mr Kontár (as a young rider) competed with him his first competition in showjumping. Then he was sold to another sport stable where Viliam Naštický competed with him. Heraldik xx was successful in the showjumping ring and Viliam Naštický made him shine. A lot of people remember that duo, because they were very popular. Heraldik jumped at 1.50m for some years, including CSIO level, he was 4th in GP CSIO-W Bratislava in 1991. He was 8^th in CSIO-W Kiskunhalas in 1992 and altogether with his rider they were the most successful Slovak pair in the GP of Bratislava in 1993. The people who worked with Heraldik remember him as an absolutely great character and with a very good nature. The stallion was very easy to ride.” 

Heraldik xx – His start in Germany

“It is a bit of a mystery how Heraldik really came to Germany. The people in Slovakia said he was traded for a mare named Limara, that had jumped at 1.45m level in Germany. However the story from Georg Clausen is that he bought him for a lot of money.”

He came to Germany where he stood at the stable of breeder Georg Clausen. His daughter Martje Clausen recalls:

‘My father noticed Heraldik together with Jasper Nissen at a showjumping show in Slovakia and recognized his quality right away and they bought him. The Holsteiner Verband showed no interest for Heraldik and my father could sell him for a lot of money to the family Casper. My father still says today that there was no Thoroughbred like Heraldik before him and there will never be a Thoroughbred like him again. I remember that I was standing as a little girl in front of him in his box and that I looked with surprised eyes because he was so beautiful and very kind.’

Gestüt Birkhof

Thomas Casper and Heraldik

Heraldik came to Stud Birkhof in 1995. Thomas Casper from Stud Birkhof has very fond memories about Heraldik, he recalls:

“My father, Alfred Casper, found Heraldik in Westfalia at Stud Attendorn. The owner of this stud Mr Plate did a lot of business with Georg Clausen and Peter Nagel-Tornau. My father called me in the middle of the night to tell me that he finally found the stallion that he was looking for. There wasn’t a lot of money paid for Thoroughbreds in that time, but now I can tell you that we paid more than 100,000 DM for Heraldik and that was a lot of money. He was already approved in Westfalia and after his approval in Baden Württemberg he came to us, to Gestüt Birkhof. He was extremely intelligent, very sound and always wanted to work. I had the pleasure to jump him at the stallion show from the Süddeutsche Hengsttage in Alsfeld, he did it all and he loved the excitement from the audience. Also his offspring are excellent in all three disciplines; jumping, dressage and eventing. I see this also in the offspring from Heraldik’s full sister, she produced very good dressage, eventing and jumping horses.”

In his first year at Birkhof, Heraldik covered more than 100 mares and later on that became 150 mares.

Heraldik also played a very important role for the Holsteiner breed.

Gunnar Mohr from the Haselauer stallion station remembers: “Thomas Casper had to go with Heraldik to the January approvals from the Holsteiner Verband to be approved in Holstein. He asked me if he and Heraldik could spend the night in Haselau (we have in Haselau also a restaurant with a hotel). I helped to unload Heraldik and I told Thomas we should have a talk over a beer that evening about Heraldik, because the moment the ramp came down, I knew Heraldik was something special. It was my wish to distribute the semen from Heraldik if he was going to be approved for the Holsteiner Studbook and so that happened for two years.”

Thank you Adriana the sporthorse world is indebted to you.

So although Heraldik was owned by Gestüt Birkhof in the south of Germany, his influence spread to Holstein in the north, and his semen was used by canny breeders who could see that eventing horses were becoming a serious part of the market.

Hanoverian breeding expert, Ludwig Christmann is another fan, I asked him, What made Heraldik such a special sire for eventing?

“It looks like he was a very versatile stallion with a strong emphasis on jumping. He was successful in international classes and counted among the best jumping horses of his time in Slovakia. On top he seemed to be really rideable, but with a good competitive attitude. You find good statistics about his progeny in Hannoveraner Jahrbuch Hengste 2016. It clearly shows that his top progeny were eventers, but he had also sired 16 dressage horses who were successful on fourth level.”

“So he was a great package for a Thoroughbred stallion – great jumping ability, but also dressage talent with the kind of canter you need for eventing. He was a very popular Thoroughbred stallion with almost 1700 progeny in Germany.”

fischerChipmunk and Michael Jung – another star with Heraldik bloodlines for Michael

Almost a decade after his death, Heraldik’s star continues to shine, on the WBFSH eventing rankings for 2022, the number one horse is FischerChipmunk, by Contendro (Contender / Reichsgraf) out of Havanna (Heraldik / Ramiro) with Michael Jung.

Herald, an honest international showjumper competing for Spain at the 2010 WEG

As with a number of the top German sires, Heraldik failed to produce an heir to carry on his line. French Stallion keeper, Arnaud Evain thought he had found one in the form of the Holsteiner, Herald II. He was by Heraldik out of a Lorenz (by Ladykiller xx) mare, giving him 71.68 blood. He was also an honest international level showjumper ridden by Markus Beerbaum, and then by the Spaniard Lucrecia Cordon Milo, who rode him at the 2010 WEG in Lexington.

The stallion was jointly promoted by VDL and GFE so while he had his chance, has not stepped into his sire’s shoes. He is 25 years old now, and really has not produced any progeny of note.

But Heraldik’s legacy continues, at this year’s Badminton, Tim Price took seventh place riding Vitali by Contender out of a mare by Heraldik.

Copyright Photo: Libby Law Photography

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