{"id":1807,"date":"2010-08-31T13:39:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T03:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.89.31.130\/~thehors5\/thm\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2021-09-15T10:23:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T00:23:57","slug":"le-tot-de-semilly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2010\/08\/le-tot-de-semilly\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Tot de S\u00e9milly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Le<\/a><\/h1>\n

1977 \u2013 2009 167 cm Chestnut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breeder: Jules Mesnildrey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stood at Haras de Couvains<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fantastic success of the French all-stallion showjumping team at the 2002 WEG in Jerez put the focus back very firmly on French blood and none was more representative of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais heritage than Le Tot de S\u00e9milly.<\/p>\n

Like so many stallions Le Tot de S\u00e9milly is bound up with the fortunes of one horse breeding family \u2013 in this case, the Levallois family. The man who \u2018made\u2019 Le Tot de S\u00e9milly is Germain Levallois, whose father before him, Louis was also a stallion owner and horse dealer between the wars. However M. Levallois senior, dealt in work horses not showjumpers, mainly selling Normandy Cobs. After the war, the trade shifted away from agriculture. According to Germain Levallois:<\/p>\n

“The farm horses went to the butchers by the truck load. The farmers kept only the most luxurious types to breed hunters. That was the first step towards the riding horse. Horses that displayed a great aptitude for hunting laid the basis for the Anglo-Norman horse.” (quoted by Pascal Renauldon, in Z magazine<\/em>, Feb\/April 2000)<\/p>\n

Germain\u2019s advice was often sought by breeders in the Saint-L\u00f4 region, and when Jules Mesnildrey was looking for a brood mare, Germain found him Venue du Tot. The mare has a double cross of the great Thoroughbred, Ultimate. Her sire is a son of Ultimate, while her dam is a grand-daughter.<\/p>\n

Ultimate was born in 1941 and arrived in Saint-L\u00f4 in 1946. His main influence in the male line is through his Selle Fran\u00e7ais great great-grandson Grand Veneur (1972). However, of far greater importance to modern showjumper breeding were Ultimate’s many daughters, most importantly Girondine, the dam of Alm\u00e9 and grandam of Quastor. Thus his name can be found in the pedigrees of thirteen of the 100 leading show jumping sires of the 1990s. The 1990 World Champion Quito de Baussy (1982) was inbred 3 x 4 to Ultimate, while Le Tot de S\u00e9milly (1977) is inbred 3 x 4 x 5 to him.<\/p>\n

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

Ultimate \u2013 still a hugely influential sire\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The following leading show jumpers descend from Ultimate in four or less generations: Apricot D (1984) ZwB, Olympic team Silver; Ashley (1988) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, leading showjumper; Baloubet du Rouet (1989) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, triple World Cup winner; Galoubet A (1972) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Championship team Gold; I Love You (1974) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Cup winner; Ideal de la Haye (1974) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Championship Bronze; It’s Otto (1986) KWPN, World Championship team Bronze; Norton de Rhuys (1979) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Championship team Gold; Otterongo (1991) BWP, European Champion Silver; Quidam de Revel (1982) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, Olympic team Bronze; Quito de Baussy (1982) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Champion (inbred 3 x 4 to Ultimate); Ratina Z (1982) Hanover, World Cup winner and Olympic Silver; Razzia du Poncel (1983) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, Olympic team Bronze (inbred 3 x 4 to Ultimate); Rochet M (1983) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, Olympic Bronze and European Champion; Rocco (1983) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Championship team Silver and Roxane de Gruchy (1977) Selle Fran\u00e7ais, World Cup runner-up. (I am indebted to the article, The Thoroughbred Roots of Modern Show Jumpers<\/em> on the website www.tbheritage.com for this list.)<\/p>\n

Germain Levallois makes the point that when he selected the filly the fashion in horse selection was rather different: \u201cShe looked very much like her dam and in those days one paid more attention to the conformation of the dam than they do now, when one is relying too much, I think, on genetics and indices. I always bought my horses for their conformation, their suitability, their balance and movements, and I have never changed my views. I am not against indices, but it is just one piece of information among many other important aspects. If I buy a colt, my main criterion is: is he an athlete?\u201d<\/p>\n

As the sire of her fifth foal, Jules Mesnildrey chose Grand Veneur, then a young stallion and standing at nearby Marigny.\"\"Grand Veneur<\/em><\/p>\n

Germain Levallois purchased the Grand Veneur foal out of Venue de Tot and christened him, Le Tot de S\u00e9milly, and gave him to his son Eric to ride.<\/p>\n

“With hindsight he was far too young for a horse like that. Le Tot was a powerful horse, but they grew together. From their first season together, the whole world wanted to buy the stallion, the Federation, the Americans\u2026 He had a superb foreleg technique. He had steadily grown into his work, without interruption.” (again from Pascal Renauldon\u2019s article in Z magazine).<\/p>\n

Together the pair made their names in the sport. They won 22 international and 63 national Grand Prix between 1988 and 1991, and almost \u20ac200,000 in prizemoney. He was the first French horse to be sponsored by the French Federation. At the age of seven, he was a member of the gold medal winning French team at the European Young Rider Championships, and placed fourth in the individual standings. The next year, he was second at the Nations Cup in Hickstead, and as a nine year old, was second in the Wiesbaden CSI Grand Prix, won the Bois le Roi Grand Prix and finished third in the Gijon Grand Prix and Nations Cup. When he retired in 1991, he had won 183,000 euros.<\/p>\n

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

Le Tot de S\u00e9milly did not commence his breeding career until he was eight years old, but once started he slowly gained popularity. Right until his early 20\u2019s, he was serving 100 mares a year \u2013 the maximum allowed by the French breeding authority \u2013 and in 1999 he was judged one of the 30 best stallions in France and the number per year increased to 150. Amongst his mares, we find Weihaiwej, Franke Sloothaak\u2019s blue eyed jumping star who visited him in 1999. Even in season, 2006, at the age of 29, Le Tot still covered 71 mares to be the 48th<\/sup> most popular stallion in France.<\/p>\n

International competitors by Le Tot de S\u00e9milly include: Michael Whitaker\u2019s Ashley, Fabrice Dumartin\u2019s Coppelia de l\u00c9pine, Rodrigo Pessoa\u2019s Gandini Fidji du Fleury. Bolero de Br\u00e9cey HN, H\u00e9loise de S\u00e9milly (who represented Australia with Jeff Bloomfield at Jerez), Dohitzun Guernica, \u00c9toile du Ch\u00e2teau, F\u00e9tiche du Pas, Fid\u00e9lio de Ravel and Elkintot (who represented Italy at Jerez).<\/p>\n

According to Germain, Le Tot has improved on the conformation of the products of Grand Veneur: “I have never heard anyone say that Le Tots use their back wrongly. They have very supple backs. Admittedly there are Grand Veneur products with a slightly weak back, long and stiff, and that was a problem. But you don\u2019t see that in Le Tot\u2019s offspring.”<\/p>\n

At the 2003 Finals in Fontainebleau, Le Tot de S\u00e9milly, with 29 competitors was second only to Narcos with 33, in terms of representation, while his son, Diamant de Semilly was equal third with 28 of his progeny making the finals.<\/p>\n

On the WBFSH jumping stallion rankings for 2007, Le Tot de Semilly was in 15th<\/sup> place, by 2012, he had dropped to 65th<\/sup> but made something of a re-emergence in 2013, rising to 40th<\/sup>, largely on the basis of points earned by Itot du Chateau and Picsoudu Chene\u2026<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0Edwina Alexander and Itot de S\u00e9milly \u2013 by Le Tot de S\u00e9milly out of a Galoubet mare<\/em><\/p>\n

In the survey of the world’s top 75 jumping sires that appears in the French publication, Monneron 2007-2008, Le Tot de Semilly ranks 11th with 11 CSI winners. His best son, Diamant de S\u00e9milly comes in at 65th<\/sup> with 5 winners. Le Tot de Semilly is ranked 15th<\/sup> on the WBFSH Stallion rankings for 2007.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Le Tot de S\u00e9milly is the sire of some of the most exciting jumping horses in the world today…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[1246,780,223],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-stallions","tag-great-stallions","tag-jumping-breeding","tag-le-tot-de-semilly"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60613,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions\/60613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}