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Earlier in 2017 THM asked\u00a0Hanoverian Verband breeding expert, Ludwig Christmann what made De Niro such an exceptional sire:<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “I think you should probably talk to the riders and trainers, I think it is the minds that they like. When I talk to Mr Sprehe about Desperados and he says the horse is always fit, even if it is 35 degrees like in Rio, he always does his job. They have the talent for collection and the higher movements, but it is the mind that makes them so special.”<\/span><\/p>\n Dolf-Dietram Keller had a special relationship with De Niro, here\u00a0<\/i><\/span>winning the German Professional Champion rider in 2001<\/i><\/span>. <\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what he said about the stallion in 2014: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDe Niro was very trainable. He learned the one-tempi changes in only two days as a six-year-old. He did them every day from then on. We tried Piaffe and Passage very early at home. De Niro accepted the aids very well. Because of his great talent, he never really encountered stress during his entire training.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When I interviewed his owner, Burkhard Wahler in 2007, he was rightly proud of his horse: <\/p>\n Mr Wahler liked the cross of Donnerhall on Akzent II: The story of how Burkhardt Wahler acquired De Niro is entertaining, and bears out Burkhardt\u2019s maxim that with every stallion comes a story\u2026<\/p>\n Wahler\u2019s Klosterhof Medingen stud is in the middle of Hanoverian breeding country, but had always stood Trakehner stallions. He found the Hanoverian breeders would only visit his farm \u2013 once:<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought, okay we have so many Hanoverian breeders but they don\u2019t come back \u2013 because they used our stallions to breed F1 \u2013 half Trakehner, half Hanoverian, then they go back to a Hanoverian stallion and not to a Trakehner again. We had to buy a Hanoverian stallion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019d been to the Stallion Licensing in Verden, and in the catalogue, I had three stallions marked \u2013 and one of those three was De Niro.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, Celle (the Hanoverian State Stud) could choose ten stallions for a certain price and it was not possible for private breeders to buy those stallions. When I looked at the stallions, there was only one I wanted to buy, that was De Niro. Then I asked Mr Jahncke, the President of the Hanoverian Association, do you think the state stud will take him? Yes. Probably he goes to Celle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always the same weekend with two stallion licensings \u2013 Verden has the Hanoverians, Neum\u00fcnster has the Trakehners. So I left Verden and went to Neum\u00fcnster. I called the next day after the freejumping \u2013 is he going to Celle? No. They thought Dr Bade didn\u2019t take him because he is by Donnerhall, and Donnerhall was a private stallion, and he didn\u2019t want to make private stallions popular. In this time they took Weltmeyer, Weltmeyer, Weltmeyer\u2026. Every year twelve Weltmeyer stallions. So then I called my partner, T\u00f6nne B\u00f6ckmann from the B\u00f6ckmann stallion station, and I said, I am here in Neum\u00fcnster, you go and buy that stallion\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was in the days when they didn\u2019t have a proper auction for the licensed stallions, just the people who are interested used go into some rooms of the Verband office and bid amongst themselves for the stallions. Paul Schockem\u00f6hle was on the phone to the Hanoverian breeding director, Dr Wilkens who was doing the deal. The price went up to 150, 170, 180 Deutschmarks \u2013 so 80\/90,000 euros \u2013 and Schockem\u00f6hle asked, who\u2019s bidding against me? Oh it doesn\u2019t matter\u2026 No, who is it? B\u00f6ckmann. I want to talk to him\u2026 Okay, Paul said, I stop now, you buy him and we can talk later. But what he didn\u2019t know was that B\u00f6ckmann already had a partner!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen on Monday the telephone was ringing, Schockem\u00f6hle\u2019s manager was ringing B\u00f6ckmann wanting to know how they were going to make the arrangements for the stallion. There\u2019s one problem, B\u00f6ckmann said, I have already a partner, and you have to talk to him. Two days later Paul calls me and says, listen I stopped bidding. And I said, yes Paul that was very nice, we have been friends for a long time\u2026 but now I have him and I am not interested in having a third owner in him. You should think about it, Paul said. At the end, I had no more arguments, and I didn\u2019t know what to say, so I said, I really can\u2019t decide \u2013 I have to ask my wife!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPaul said, are you crazy? B\u00f6ckmann says \u2018I can\u2019t decide, you have to ask Wahler\u2019. Wahler says \u2018I can\u2019t decide I have to call my wife!\u2019 At the end B\u00f6ckmann and I had De Niro ourselves. We got very lucky\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mr Wahler, De Niro crosses over a wide variety of mare lines:<\/p>\n \u201cWe have bred a lot with Weltmeyer mares, in Oldenburg with many Rubinstein mares. Okay with the Donnerhall blood, once in a while they could be a little heavy, Donnerhall himself produced some heavy horses, that can happen \u2013 that\u2019s why we try all the time to make sure we don\u2019t get too heavy mares for De Niro. He makes very good dressage horses, especially with a good hindleg.\u201d<\/p>\n Karin Rehbein and Donnerhall, founder of the modern D line, and sire of De Niro <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In 2000 Mrs Rehbein said: De Niro was\u00a0a prolific producer of young horse winners, and top level Grand Prix horses<\/strong><\/p>\n Daily Pleasure, a young horse star who went on to Grand Prix<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n D’Agostino and Fabienne Lutkemeir, from Young Riders all the way to Grand Prix together\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Annabel Balkenhol and Dablino, members of the German team at the 2010 WEG<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Representing Spain, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Delgado at the\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>European Championships and two\u00a0Olympic Games<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Donnerfee and Claudia Fassaert, competing for Belgium at the London Games<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Australia’s Kristy Oatley and Du Soleil, World Cup representatives<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Dancier, De Niro son and producer himself, now also deceased<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Members of the\u00a0Gold Medal Team at Rio, Kristina B\u00f6ring-Sprehe with Desperados<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n For more on<\/strong> De Niro<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/DE-NIRO-TROTx.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow did Burchard Wahler find De Niro?? As usual there is a story:<\/h1>\n
\n<\/em>\u201cSome people might disagree, but in my opinion, there is no son of Donnerhall as successful as De Niro. He is only 14, the oldest progeny are ten, four are already placed in Grand Prix. Twenty-four are placed in Prix St Georges and Intermediaire. The offspring last year won almost \u20ac195,000, in just one year. When you start thinking that next year there will be more horses, at a higher level, that means they will probably win even more \u2013 and the stallion is still very young. My daughter Theresa competed last year with him in Grand Prix, and she will ride him again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/1DeNiro-10-Piaffe-Beelitz.jpg\")
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\n\u201cI love to buy the Donnerhall blood but I don\u2019t like the very popular Donnerhall \/ Pik Bube cross \u2013 very heavy big horses, and I didn\u2019t like that so much because I am from the other side, from the Trakehner side and I like more an elegant horse. I really liked De Niro, because he was out of a mare with Wiesenbaum \/ Akzent breeding. Akzent is through Absatz, Trakehner, Wiesenbaum is from Thoroughbred \u2013 so in my opinion, this was a very interesting bloodline.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Donnerhall-2.jpg\")
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\n\u201cDonnerhall was always a good horse to train. Good in the head, he was always straightforward and learnt everything really quickly. He is still fantastic, he could still go out and win right now.\u00a0He was very soft. Sometimes you had to hold him a little bit through, but you have to do that with every horse.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/DailyPleasureTU.jpg\")
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