{"id":20179,"date":"2015-01-09T11:51:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T00:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=20179"},"modified":"2018-01-14T14:03:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T03:03:02","slug":"egbert-schep-the-man-who-sold-big-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/01\/egbert-schep-the-man-who-sold-big-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Egbert Schep \u2013 the man who sold Big Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Story \u2013 Chris Hector & Photos \u2013 Arnd Bronkhurst<\/h3>\n

Egbert Schep is another of that wonderful Dutch breed: the super dealer. But Mr Schep is a dealer with a difference, he breeds many of his horses, and has strong \u2013 and quite individual \u2013 views on that topic. I met up with him at the KWPN stallion show, where he was there in his capacity as a board member of the KWPN \u2013 and a major exhibitor of stallions at the selection. Mr Schep had mixed feelings about the result and was still non-plussed at the decision of the commission to reject his young stallion by Big Star \u2013 the stallion he sold to Nick Skelton\u2026<\/p>\n

You seem to have presented about half the young jumping stallions at this licensing\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr Schep laughs\u2026 \u201cThat\u2019s not true but we had a lot. We had 12 stallions for the second selection, but actually I sold three before the stallion show, one to Greece, one to England, and one to Germany, so we started with nine here at den Bosch.\u2019<\/p>\n

You are only interested in jumping horses?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the main business for us. We have a few dressage horses, but not too many. A few broodmares, a few stallions now and then, and last year, we had the Dutch champion dressage mare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were horses a family business for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, my father was a farmer, and farmers used to work with horses, so the interest was there, but we were poor, and I wanted to ride. So I had to make a business so I could ride and that\u2019s how I started in horse. I was already a dealer when I was eighteen, and I have been doing it now for forty-four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you a good rider \u2013 or a better dealer?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a normal rider, on national and light international level, I did well. I don\u2019t know if I am a better dealer. All the horses we could not sell, I had to ride myself and get something out of it. That was the only way to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"topP84ES\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the stallion prospects, do you breed them yourself, or do you travel all around looking for them?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe breed ourselves with 35 mares every year. We have top broodmares, so most of the stallions are from our own breeding, half at least, the other half, I buy foals from foal sales, about 30-35 a year. In spring, in April, when they are one year old, we select. We let them jump four days in a row, group by group, then we decide which ones go on, and which, not. That is the first hard selection and it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at that young age\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent, no doubt. The movement doesn\u2019t change, the way of jumping doesn\u2019t change, they have blood or they have no blood \u2013 you can see all that as a yearling, but you must have four days in a row, or even five days, they need to be tired and not fresh, and not scared, they need to know what they have to do. I do it just on one jump, they have to figure it out, they have to be smart, and you can see that with a yearling, perfectly. I don\u2019t have to see them again until they are three years old, and they are then exactly the same as they were as a yearling.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the first really good horse you discovered?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is so long ago. Jumbo Design maybe, that won\u2019t mean anything to you, but 30\/35 years ago, that horse was the Champion of Holland, the last big one was Big Star who I sold to the sponsors of Nick Skelton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI found Big Star as a three year old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was he a big star at three years old?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey threw him out at the KWPN licensing! Just like they did with his son, yesterday. Okay, I do my own thing. Big Star is an amazing horse, the best horse at the Olympic Games. Also at the Pan American Games was won by a horse from me, Take One. We had the winner of the Pan American Games and the best horse of the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The one the commission didn’t like – by Big Star…<\/em><\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t the KWPN commission like Big Star son yesterday?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t even listen to the comments, I had things on my mind. I don\u2019t know why they didn\u2019t like Big Star either, I didn\u2019t own him then. A colleague of mine got the horse to break and train, and he bought part of Big Star, then I bought the other part when I was convinced he was a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n

How soon did you know he was very very good?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as we rode him, we knew he was special. We had him for one-and-a-half years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it hard to sell a horse as good as that?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was five and a half when we sold him, but we sold him for good money, for a five year old it was a lot of money and we have to pay our bills, so we have to sell now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which of the modern jumping stallion lines do you prefer?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a hard question because we always talk about stallion lines, but I would say it\u2019s better talk about mare lines because the mares are much more important than the stallion. If you look nowadays at the horses in the big sport, they are all by, of course, a good father, because there are enough good stallions, but they all come from mother lines that are dominant. The top horses all come from a good mare line. Every country in Europe has a few \u2013 only a few, like 10 or 20 \u2013 super mare lines. Belgium has four or five, Holland has maybe twenty, Germany the same story. It is always certain good mares that bring the good sport horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

You have those lines in your mare band?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise I wouldn\u2019t breed! For example, the mother of the two-year-old Big Star, that they didn\u2019t take in the licensing, she has produced already seven horses for me, and she is in foal with the eighth one, and the first four are all Grand Prix horses, Ben Maher is riding one of them, by Heartbreaker. I bought the mare as a sport horse but she was too hot and too difficult at the higher level so I decided to breed with her, it\u2019s a really hot, strong mare. She comes out of a very good family, out of the same mare line as Zapatero \u2013 that\u2019s a very good mare line that produces many sport horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is your criteria when you look for a stallion? A proven stallion or do you take a chance with a younger stallion\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI take a chance on younger ones if they have jumped good themselves, if I think they are good jumpers. Most important is the mother line, I have to know the mother line and know that there are sport horses out of that line, otherwise I don\u2019t want them. It is always the same story, out of certain good mare lines, you can expect the jumpers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you pick them as foals?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWith a foal, what can you see? Only if he is an elastic mover, if it is an athletic horse, that\u2019s the only thing you can see \u2013 and you can see something of the type, if he is long lined or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

What stallions will you use in the coming season?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know yet. I have three or four foals from last year from Gemini, who is a clone from Gem Twist, who was a super jumper and a Thoroughbred. It is an experiment that I try.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t mind breeding to a clone?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI said, it is an experiment, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Will the KWPN register the foal?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have decided that we register a horse with a clone father exactly the same \u2013 it just says that it is by a clone on the papers.\u201d<\/p>\n

more on stallions follows<\/em><\/p>\n

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

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

At the 2014 KWPN licensing – by Falaise out of a Calvino Z mare…<\/em><\/p>\n

Any other stallions?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have myself one stallion, Falaise du Muze, out of Walnut du Muze, that is ridden by Harrie Smolders. That horse is eight years old and jumps 1.40, I think he will go on to be a real Grand Prix horse. The first children are two-and-a-half years old, two mares, two stallions \u2013 and both stallions were selected for the stallion show and one was one of the best jumpers yesterday, an amazing good horse. For sure I breed a lot of mares with Falaise. The rest I have to think about\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

You have been dealing horses for 44 years, is it still a fun game?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI still like it, not only the dealing part, more the whole horse business. We do everything. I like the sport, I\u2019m actually crazy about jumping sport, then there is the breeding, and the young horses, and I like it all \u2013 I still like it, and I hope to like it for a while now.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t feel that international jumping is becoming too commercial?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Too much money, that is true but it is not too commercial, it has always been commercial, but not like it is now. Now it is globalizing over the whole world and there is a lot of money involved. It is exactly the same what is happening with our sport now as what happened fifty years ago with the Thoroughbreds. For eighty years you could not imagine that an Arab Sheik had a Thoroughbred to race, and now it is very normal that they have a hundred horses to race, and very expensive horses. The same is happening now in the jumping sport, they want to compete, and they have money, so they buy the best horses, they have a good education and that\u2019s how it goes nowadays. It is different from forty years ago but it is still fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n

Kanndarco, combining two great stallions and available from IHB –<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0www.ihb.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Egbert Schep is another of that wonderful Dutch breed: the super dealer. But Mr Schep is a dealer with a difference, he breeds many of his horses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[722],"tags":[795,1035,780,394],"class_list":["post-20179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-breeders","tag-dutch-warmblood-breeding","tag-egbert-schep","tag-jumping-breeding","tag-sporthorse-breeding"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20179","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20179"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39075,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20179\/revisions\/39075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}