{"id":1414,"date":"2021-08-23T15:05:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T05:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.89.31.130\/~thehors5\/thm\/?p=1414"},"modified":"2025-02-10T16:43:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T05:43:53","slug":"jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2021\/08\/jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jazz<\/a><\/p>\n

1991 – 2020 170 cm Chestnut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breeder: H. van Helvoirt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jazz was a second generation Grand Prix dressage horse, following in his father, Cocktail\u2019s footsteps \u2013 and like Cocktail, there is not a lot that says \u2018dressage\u2019 about the pedigree, he comes from an era when specialisation was just beginning, and breeders tended to breed for an all-round horse, and let the talents of the horse decide it’s career.<\/p>\n

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Cocktail competing with Anky van Grunsven<\/em><\/p>\n

Jazz is the product of the breeding program of Huub and Tiny van Helvoirt, a program that began with mares by Amor.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Amor – the Holsteiner Stallion (Herrscher \/ Loretto) was imported to Holland in 1961<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr van Helvoirt explained to Karin de Haan for her article, Endy \u2013 the mare makes the difference (iDs\/6):<\/em><\/p>\n

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Huub and Tiny van Helvoirt and their mare, Endy<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time we were looking for good Amor foals that we could use in our breeding business. We were pretty big fans of Amor because many of his offspring are good movers, which is why they often finished first at the selections. We\u2019ve always considered movement very important in our breeding program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Amor foals were up north, so that\u2019s where we went. The first foal we looked at that day was Warmante, Jazz\u2019s grand dam. Initially we dismissed her because we were concerned that she wouldn\u2019t grow big enough: Amor could sire a small foal now and then. We\u2019ve always considered sufficient size important. We looked at more foals at several locations that day, and our last stop was Mr Lucassen\u2019s place in Wehl. That\u2019s where we found Wendy. We liked her and bought her immediately. On our way home, we started talking about Warmante again, the first foal we saw. We then decided to buy her too so that the two foals could grow up together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between them the two mares would be responsible for the KWPN stallions, Zudenwind, Zhivago, Viento Uno W and Jazz \u2013 and they need not have worried about Warmante\u2019s height: \u201cInterestingly enough, Warmante and Wendy ultimately ended up the same height,\u201d Mr van Helvoirt recalls. \u201cSo you see, you can\u2019t predict exactly how a foal will turn out. Wendy grew to 16 hands, which is actually a bit smaller than we have expected. As far as the stallions we choose for our mares, we always look for those that pass on size to their offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warmante was out of Parmante who was by the Thoroughbred, Pericles, and out of a mare by a son of that other giant of early Dutch breeding, the French import, L\u2019Invasion.<\/p>\n

The van Helvoirts bred Warmante to Ulster (by Nimmerdor) to produce Charmant, who bred to Cocktail, produced Jazz.<\/p>\n

Master trainer and KWPN Stallion Commission member, Johan Hamminga, rode Jazz during his performance test in 1994:<\/p>\n

\u201cI rode Jazz in the performance test for the first three weeks.\u201d Johan told me, \u201cHe was afraid, tense, not relaxed. For the first two weeks I rode him in a very small arena, starting just five metres by ten metres, and each day, we made the arena a little bigger. Then he started to trust the rider. That is very important with a horse, when a horse trusts you, he relaxes, and then you can get something from him. With Jazz at first, he didn\u2019t trust anyone, and we had to make a good relationship. After 14 days he felt better, and I gave him to one of my riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJazz was lucky to get through the performance test, every day there was discussion about him \u2013 yes \/ no \/ yes. But after the first three weeks he showed what a big mover he was, he was a good horse, and now he is the stallion of the century with eighty horses in Grand Prix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally Jazz received 9 for the riding test, 9 for the training report, 9 for stable behaviour, 8 for temperament, but 5\u2019s for jumping for a 71 total. Walk \u2013 8, canter – 8.5, trot \u2013 9.5.<\/p>\n

And the comment:<\/p>\n

Honest, reliable, temperamental, likes to look at everything. Very willing to work and works well. The walk is easy with a long stride. He carries himself well in the trot, has very good use of the foreleg and has sufficient power. The canter is sufficient in scope and carriage but it should be more powerful. He raises the forehand during dressage and he works well. He has a great deal of talent for dressage and gives his rider a good feeling. <\/em><\/p>\n

He has sufficient take-off during jumping but shows little bascule. He does not show much scope and does not finish the jump from behind. Has little talent for jumping and gives his rider a moderate feeling. Stall and handling behaviour is normal.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Jaap Werners, who gave him his breeding license: \u201cHe stood out because of his amazing forehand, high legs, withers\/shoulders and his hind leg. And of course he had an amazing trot. And that he has Cocktail as his sire, was a plus. In the terminology of then, Jazz wasn\u2019t a true sire. He was narrow and barely met the qualifications for a breeding stallion in the old fashioned philosophy. But he had so much charisma, \u2018presence\u2019 as they say it in England. You didn\u2019t forget him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jazz as a young horse<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1995 the report on his foals noted:<\/p>\n

Jazz presented a collection of sufficient to more than sufficiently developed riding type foals that are refined. The collection was very uniform, both in regards to shape and to movement. The head is expressive and well formed. The neck has good shape and length but the transition into the wither\/shoulder formation should be smoother. The wither should be more developed but the length is very good. The shoulder has good length and placement. On the whole the back has good shape and muscling, the loins are sometimes a little dense. The croup has good shape and is sufficient, the quality is good. The transition of the cannon to the hock is often sharp and the hock should be better developed. The walk is good and sufficient in scope. The foals carry themselves well in the trot, show rise in the front and there is takt and scope with good use of the hindleg. They set their neck and they should relax more through the topline. The foals seldom jump into the canter. One foal that was inspected at home fit into the picture. Most of the mares had good quality. The veterinarian noticed a curb in two cases.<\/em><\/p>\n

In short: a uniform collection of riding type foals with refinement and sufficient to more than sufficient development. They like to trot and show rise in the front. They also have taKt and scope.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jazz commenced his career as an international Grand Prix competitor in 2001 with Tineke Bartels who loved the horse:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not a mean bone in Jazz\u2019s body,\u201d Tineke told Claartje van Andel, for her article, Jazz: One in a million <\/em>(IDS international, March 2011) \u201cWhat\u2019s more, his strength is that he\u2019s so positive. That\u2019s nice, a positive horse! He makes every day enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which wasn\u2019t really the opinion of many early in his career, they thought the stallion was at best \u2018spooky\u2019 at worst \u2018crazy\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Tineke competing at the 2002 WEG in Jerez with Jazz<\/em><\/p>\n

Tineke disagrees: \u201cIn those years, people weren\u2019t accustomed to the positive aspect of a sensitive horse. We also got negative publicity, That\u2019s why I focussed on a ballet show with dances and a torch show back then just to prove that Jazz didn\u2019t have a mean bone in his body and that he was actually a fantastic animal. Jazz didn\u2019t work for me; no, he worked purely for himself. He\u2019s an arrogant guy who\u2019s full of himself. Jazz just played with the ballet show dancers. Nowadays, we don\u2019t think it\u2019s a problem if a fantastic horse is occasionally spooky, like Parzival and Anky\u2019s Salinero used to be. I had to do some work to get that concept across.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople really started taking Jazz seriously as a top sire when he proved he could produce one Grand Prix horse after another. Of course, a lot of Jazz offspring mature late, and they\u2019re often easily distracted.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Jazz moved to Broere stud, he competed with Kirsten Beckers who also enjoyed riding the chestnut:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so nicely schooled, truly a professor. I really learned the feel for the piaffe-passage transitions from Jazz. He can collect like no other. And all that \u2018go\u2019! I can ride all my horses better because of the feeling Jazz gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kirsten Beckers and Jazz<\/em><\/p>\n

Jazz had fourteen licensed sons in Holland and 47 licensed grandsons.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0A world champion by Jazz – Westpoint at Verden 2009<\/em><\/p>\n

As a sire, Jazz has produced the PAVO (young horse) champions, Broere Norway, Patser, Robin Hood and Wynton. His son Westpoint (out of a Michelangelo \/ Le Mexico mare) was World Champion Young Dressage horse at Verden in 2009.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Jazz was granted the Preferment predicate by the KWPN.<\/p>\n

Jazz was ranked 1st<\/sup> in the world on the WBFSH standings for 2008\/9, for the third year running but on the 2013 standings, had dropped to 3rd<\/sup> place. His 2013 points were contributed by 20 horses, the most successful by far being Parzival with almost 3000 points, followed by Tango (1732), Unlimited (1670) and Wynton (1652).<\/p>\n

On the 2020 WBFSH rankings, Jazz has dropped from 1st in 2019 to 2nd, while his son, Johnson, moves from 2nd to 1st.<\/p>\n

\"Parzival<\/a><\/p>\n

Parzival with Adelinde Cornelissen won the GP\u2008Special at the 2009 Euro Champs(pic) and were part of the gold medal winning Dutch team and after collecting many more European and Olympic Games, medals, retired at the Rio\u00a0Olympic Games\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

On the 2014 KWPN dressage stallion breeding index, Jazz is in first place with a rating of 196 points (Reliability 97%) in the list of stallions with a reliability of over 90%. Amazingly his son, Chagall D & R, who heads the group of stallions who do not have offspring in competition, has an even higher breeding index \u2013 199! Although the reliability of this index is assessed at 46%.<\/p>\n

On the 2021 KWPN rankings for stallions with a reliability of 90+, Jazz is still in first place with a value of 176, his son, Johnson, is 4th on these rankings with a value of 158. Jazz has also been successful as a broodmare sire – Vivaldi in 3rd on these rankings is by Krack C out of a Jazz mare, while Charmeur in 7th, is Florencio over Jazz.<\/p>\n

Jazz was the most used Dutch dressage stallion for 2007 with 304 mares. In 2011, he had slipped to 6th<\/sup> place with 100 foals born in 2012. In 2020 the Dutch stallion with the most foals on the ground was Kjento with 303, while the stallion is by Negro, he is out of a Jazz mare. By 2020, Jazz had dropped out of the top five.<\/p>\n

At the 2008 Olympic Games, Jazz was represented by Orion in the Canadian team, and the Dutch reserve, Parzival. At the 2012 Games, Parzival was his sole representative. At Tokyo, Jazz had one direct offspring, Carl Hester\u2019s En Vogue while his son, Johnson, had two. Jazz is also the dam sire of Vivaldi (Krack C) who had one representative.<\/p>\n

Jazz was discovered by Dutch dressage dealer, Nico Witte, in 2010 he told us:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI bought Jazz as a foal \u2013 I saw him first when he was three or four months old, and then I bought a half share of the horse. In my roots, I was a showjumper and rode in the international shows for four, five, six years, and I had some money left, and I bought a foal, and that was Jazz. He was an unbelievable mover, very skinny but he moved really really well. As a three-year-old he was approved by the KWPN. When I first made an advertising prospectus for him at stud, the text was \u2018one in a million\u2019 and now he is the number one of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept him for fourteen years. In the beginning they said, oh the Jazzes are spooky and not reliable for normal riders, but I always said, he is such a talent and the offspring are unbelievable, for the professional riders, he will be top. I think at this moment there are a lot of Jazzes, not only in Holland, but in Germany and Denmark, also in Australia and America, doing really good things \u2013 especially in the Grand Prix. Tineke Bartels used to ride him for me and I sold him as a fourteen-year-old, and for me, the story was over, but I still have a lot of Jazzes, because I am really proud to have had Jazz for myself, and to have the Jazz offspring in my stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jazz at home in 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

What attracted you to him when he was a foal?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHis trot was unbelievable. I said, I have to buy that one, because I had never seen trot like that, and that is how I became a dressage man. I married a dressage wife who was riding Grand Prix and so I became a dressage man, and at this moment I have more dressage horses than showjumpers. I think 80% are dressage horses, and 20% are still showjumpers because I like the showjumpers as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there a particular bloodline that Jazz works best with?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNot really. We have a lot of stallions where you say, oh he needs a high and long legged mare because the stallion has got short legs, or whatever \u2013 but I think Jazz will fit on a lot of horses. The only horse you don\u2019t want to use with Jazz is when you have a very spooky, small, electric mare \u2013 then don\u2019t use Jazz. But Jazz will also fit in Germany on a lot of horses. I don\u2019t think they have used Jazz enough in Germany, they have horses at this moment that are perhaps lazy in the hind leg, not electric in the hind leg, and if they had tried to use Jazz, five, six, seven years ago, then they would have a better, more modern dressage horse in Germany now, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think you can either breed for the top sport or the amateur, but not both?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think most Jazzes are not for the amateur, especially the mares, they are more spooky and more electric. For the professionals, or semi-professionals, Jazzes are really top \u2013 most of them, not all of them, but most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who do you think will prove to be the best son of Jazz as a breeding stallion?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAt this moment it is Wynton. He is a black Jazz out of a Matador mare \u2013 that\u2019s the stallion with Kyra Kyrklund, then comes Rubinstein and Welt As \u2013 Welt As is the sire of Bonfire from Anky. I think at the moment he is the best approved Jazz son in Holland. He was the winner at the Stallion Show, the winner of the 70 day test, and up to now he won all the stallion competitions, and in the normal sport, he is scoring 70\/71% in his tests. He is a very talented horse. I have ten yearlings from Wynton and they are all black and beautiful with unbelievable hindlegs, and an easy character. The German dam line is good for the character\u2026 we had a prize giving a few months ago and there were 14 horses on the line, 5000 people started clapping, 13 horses ran away, and Wynton stood like a statue, that is very good, especially for a Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Another stallion star by Jazz, Wynton…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For a while it looked as if everyone was going to breed very specialized dressage or jumping horses, but now it looks as if you need a bit of jumping blood in the mare to breed a good dressage horse \u2013 Parzival, Totilas \u2013 they both have strong jumping blood in their pedigrees\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays we have the specialization and I think that is good. I think we have to make sure the dressage horses are built uphill, and they have longer legs, but not too long. I think the specialization is good, but in the beginning, all the dressage horses came out of jumping lines, because they had a good hind leg, and they were strong. But within ten years, I think there will be no more directly jumping mothers in the pedigree anymore in the dressage breeding \u2013 it will be in the third or fourth or fifth generation, because of the specialization.\u201d<\/p>\n

I discussed Jazz and his likely successor(s) with the late Wim Ernes, the Chairman of the Dressage Selection Committee at the 2014 KWPN Stallion show:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Looking at the wonderful line up of colts by Jazz at the 2014 stallion show, is it a disappointment that there doesn\u2019t seem to be a son of Jazz who is taking over his mantle?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know, because when we approved Jazz, fifteen or sixteen years ago, there was also a lot of discussion about Jazz himself, about his conformation. But I think we, as the KWPN, are lucky that they approved him at that time because he brought us a lot and you never know at this stage which horse will be the new Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

But would you agree that we didn\u2019t see a group of colts by a son of Jazz that were as good as the colts by Jazz?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe at this stage, but you never know in the future what they will bring when they start to breed. I think Johnson brought several good horses, maybe not as nice as the Jazz ones, but Jazz is an extraordinary horse because he brought us to the top of the rankings. It is not so easy to find a second Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the stallions with a lot of colts in the selection was Apache \u2013 are you worried that this stallion that did not have a temperament to cope with his Grand Prix career should be so influential?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a point of discussion. His temperament was always a little bit difficult, but we will see where he ends up. He was a really good small tour horse, he won almost everything in the small tour and at the moment he is making the step up to the big tour. He started once, it was not really a success but okay, Jazz was not always a success in the beginning, we will see what Apache will bring in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Apache<\/em><\/p>\n

I thought they had stopped competing him\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo they competed him a couple of weeks ago in the Inter 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was good?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo it was not good, 62 or 63 but this was his first time for a while. I don\u2019t know why he got such a low score, if he was tense or he was scared or whatever, I haven\u2019t spoken yet with the rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you see any outcross \u2013 will the Ferro influence grow to balance the influence of Jazz? For a while Ferro was in the back seat behind Jazz\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNow you can see him really coming up. You can see it in the combination with Lord Leatherdale, a really nice colt, and you can see Ferro and his son, Negro, in a lot of lines. They bring a lot of power, activity and strength in the hind legs, and I think that\u2019s very important for a Grand Prix horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buzz around for another son of Jazz – \u00a0Vivaldi<\/a> continues to grow. Former long time head of the KWPN stallion committee, Arie Hamoen remarked to me at the 2017 Young Horse champs when I asked him who was the heir to Jazz:<\/p>\n

\u201cVivaldi is coming up. The rideability is good and the first sons are knocking on the door of Grand Prix. The only problem for Vivaldi is the quality of his semen. Vivaldi\u2019s sons are also knocking, Dream Boy for example. Vivaldi is putting the next step in the line of Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Vivaldi<\/em><\/p>\n

Eurodressage carried a report on a number of Vivaldi offspring on just one weekend, January 19\/21. Hans Peter Minderhoud took out ten-year-old Dream Boy (Ferro) in his first GP at Nieuw en St Joosland, for a win with 78.8%, while at another Dutch show, Bunschoten, Diederik van Silfort brought back small tour star, Expression (Vincent) to win the Inter II with a score of 75.29.<\/p>\n

On the 2015\/16 KWPN breeding values, Jazz was once again\u00a0at the top of the list for stallions with a predictability of 90% or more. This time his breeding value is 192 (down two points from three years ago). The statistic I find really interesting on the Dutch values (it\u2019s not there on the German ones) is the number of progeny over the age of four, and the number of them that have competed. For Jazz, the figures are 2807 horses over four, with 990 \u2018in the sport\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s a percentage of 35.268, which perhaps backs up the feeling that the Jazz progeny are more likely to be top quality Grand Prix horses for the professionals, than a pleasant pony for Adult Riding clubbers.<\/p>\n

The problem with this thesis is that there are only two GP stars who contributed to Jazz\u2019s current 3rd<\/sup> place on the WBFSH dressage sires rankings, but they are mega stars, Johnson and Parzival. The next most successful Jazz is Bonzango (dam sire, Contango) ranked 44th<\/sup> in the world, while four of Jazz\u2019s 15 points earners picked up their placings in competition in Australia, which is not quite the cutting edge of dressage competition.<\/p>\n

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Vancouver at Rio – Photo Kenneth Braddick<\/em><\/p>\n

On the 2016 WBFSH rankings, Jazz was in 5th place with his most successful competitor, Vancouver K, ridden by Ireland’s Judy Reynolds.<\/p>\n

Jazz once again headed the 2016\/17 list of KWPN dressage stallions with a reliability of over 90%, with a dressage breeding value of 191 (conformation – 109, free movement – 113, free jumping 97. He has sired 2918 progeny over 4 years, for 1060 competitors – 36.32%. He has a negative OCD value – 97.<\/p>\n

On the 2018 German FN rankings for sires of horses in open competition, two horses \u00a0tied on 164 \u2013 Don Schufro<\/a> (Donnerhall \/ Pik Bube<\/a> I, 93%) and Jazz (Cocktail \/ Ulster, 87%). \u00a0Jazz is richly represented by the gelding, Vancouver\u00a0K (Ferro<\/a>) with Ireland\u2019s Judy Reynolds.<\/p>\n

In October 2018, the KWPN released an evaluation of the most successful KWPN stallions ‘in the sport’, and not surprisingly, Jazz topped the list with 666 offspring competing at Z1 level or higher. The next most successful was Gribaldi<\/a> with 477 followed by Flemmingh<\/a> with 378. Jazz was also the most successful sire of progeny competing at Grand Prix level with 4.2% or 131 GP representatives. The next best ratio went to Contango<\/a> with 24 offspring (3.4%). However when the number of progeny were taken into account, the most successful sire of Z1 level progeny was Sir Sinclair (Lord Sinclair \/ Flemmingh) with 21.9% of his offspring, followed by Jazz’s sire, Cocktail (Purioso \/ Le Val Blanc), with Jazz in equal 3rd place with a ratio of 21.2%.<\/p>\n

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Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n

On the 2020 WBFSH rankings, Jazz was second to his son, Johnson…<\/p>\n

Gemma Alexander examined the strike rate of the top ten WBFSH dressage sires of 2020, and this is what she found:<\/p>\n

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Jazz died in January 2020, the KWPN obituary records:<\/p>\n

“No stallion had as much influence on the dressage breeding as Jazz. He was on top of the WBFSH-ranking for years. In the Netherlands, the preferent stallion knew over 3.100 offspring. Thirteen of his direct offspring was approved, from which Johnson is preferent, and Olivi, Wynton and Westpoint were named keur. 43 KWPN stallions carry the Jazz blood in the second generation. At the mare inspections two thirds of this daughters earned the conformation predicate. Jazz gave 99 preferent mares and 62 performance mares.”<\/p>\n

From the KWPN registered offspring, 125 were started in the Netherlands and abroad on Grand Prix level, 195 offspring reached the Small Tour level.<\/p>\n