{"id":44673,"date":"2019-01-17T13:21:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T02:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=44673"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:17:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T02:17:33","slug":"the-stallion-hit-parade-new-german-breeding-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2019\/01\/the-stallion-hit-parade-new-german-breeding-values\/","title":{"rendered":"The stallion hit parade: New German breeding values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Hector looks at the latest German breeding values – what stallions are hot right now?<\/em><\/h1>\n

The German FN breeding values have been released, again in the new format of one set of standings based on open competition results, and one on the young horse classes. I suppose there is nothing like a young horse to head the young dressage horse values. So the 2017 N\u00fcrnberger Burg-Pokal winner, Escolar (Estobar NRW \/ F\u00fcrst Piccolo) heads up the 2018 German FN values with a value of 174 but with a relatively low reliability figure of 90%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No 1 on the young horse rankings, Escolar<\/em><\/p>\n

I draw on my friend Thomas Hartwig and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Westfalien breeding:
\n“We have seen in the last two or three years a very interesting comeback of the famous E line. The founder of the E line in Westfalia was Ehrenschild (Eindruck II \/ Adlerschild), a stallion from the Hanoverian State Stud in Celle, who came in 1960 to the town of Melle which is right on the border of Westfalia and Hanover, and the Westfalian breeders used him. He was a big, heavy horse, but typical of his time, remember he was born in 1956 and came to Melle in 1960 – for this time he was a typical horse.”<\/p>\n

“He sired the Westfalian stallion, Ehrensold (Fronvogt), whose son was the very famous Ehrentusch (Rheingold). We saw a lot of very good children of Ehrentusch, and a lot of them have the same characteristics, they all want to work, they had all very good hind legs. They were not beauty queens – or kings – but perfectly usable, and not only dressage horses but also showjumpers. You might remember El Paso from Paul Schockem\u00f6hle and later Eddie Macken. In the 80s and early 90s, Ehrentusch was very favoured, but then a lot of people said, oh Ehrentusch’s children, they are not beautiful enough, and his popularity slipped down.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ehrentusch – progeny ‘not beautiful enough’???<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then one of the most famous breeders, Norbert Borgmann, the father of Stephan who runs the stud today, he used Ehrentusch with his very perfect mare, Florence (Ferragamo \/ Florestan) they produced Estobar, later Estobar NRW. He sold at the auction is 2006 for the unbelievable price of over half a million euros.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Estobar – saving the ‘E’ line<\/em><\/p>\n

“From Estobar we saw his really best son, Escolar, two times winner at the Bundeschampionate as a three and four-year-old stallion where he received several tens for gallop and trot. Now we can see the first children of Escolar. The oldest are four but in the first season he covered only a handful of mares. The first crop we can really see are the three-year-olds and they have had a lot of success in Westfalia, and in the Bundeschampionate. The champion of the three-years-old geldings and mares class is an Escolar, Eternity who was shown by the stable of Andreas Helgstrand.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eternity, another star at Helgstrand Dressage<\/em><\/p>\n

“This story is a good example of two things. The first is, how great the danger is that a very valuable line can be forgotten – because if Norbert Borgmann hadn’t done his own thing with Florence, we would have had no Estobar, no Escolar, and no one would today speak about the E line. The second is that a lot of the strengths that were first seen with Ehrenschild, we can see three, four, five generations later. The very good hind legs, they all want to work, mostly not such beautiful horses but really horses you can use for working and working at a higher level, because they want to work.”<\/p>\n

Since his win in the Burg-Pokal, Escolar has gone on to commence a very promising Grand Prix career. In November of this year, Hubertus and Escolar won the Munich Indoor CDI4* Grand Prix Friday in the stallion\u2019s Big Tour debut, a day after riding the horse\u2019s younger brother, Escorial to victory in in his first international Grand Prix at the same competition. Hubertus and Escolar scored 75.435 per cent for the victory in the Grand Prix for the Special.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

F\u00fcrsten-Look, young horse star…<\/em><\/p>\n

The second highest ranked stallion on the new FN standings is not quite so famous, F\u00fcrsten-Look has a value of 170, with an even lower reliability score of 74. The youngster is by F\u00fcrstenball out of a Londonderry \/ Weltmeyer mare. His main claim to fame was a third in the Seven Year old World Young Dressage Horse championships in 2018 after winning the qualifying round. But there he is, the second highest rated sire of young horses. Once this sort of nonsense infected the whole of the FN values, now it seems confined to the sires of young horse competitors, which may be considered an improvement. It will be interesting to see how F\u00fcrsten-Look fares in the coming season after he has been revealed as a WFFS carrier.<\/p>\n

Don Juan de Hus (Jazz \/ Krack C) comes in third on 168. The stallion was 6th at the 2013 World Young Horse Champs but ‘hoof cracks’ prevented his GP debut. He died in 2017 but not before he sired a couple of young horse stars. His son, Don Martillo (Benetton Dream FRH) won the 5 year old champs in 2017, but seems to have disappeared since then.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

d’Avie (Don Juan de Hus\/Londonderry) 6-y-o World Young Horse Champion<\/em><\/p>\n

Another son, d’Avie (Londonderry) won the 6 year old champs the next year, while the interestingly bred, Dorien Grey de Hus (out of a Poetin clone) placed 5th in the 5 year old World Champs…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

F\u00fcrstenball, performing at the Budeschampionat<\/em><\/p>\n

F\u00fcrstenball (by F\u00fcrst Heinrich and out of a Donnerhall mare from the famed mare line of Georg Sieverding) comes in 4th on 162 (with an impressive reliability of 98%) and he is another who disappeared after his successful young horse career.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is a relief to find Damon Hill (Donnerhall \/ Rubinstein) in 5th, a breeding value of 160, and 96% reliability. He truly is the odd man out, since he was not only a young horse star, winning both the 5 and 6 year old World Champs, but went on to be a World Cup and Olympic Games star, and he has sired some nice young horses, although we are still waiting for one to emulate the sire and cut it in the big sport.<\/p>\n

My pal, Dr Ludwig Christmann, the head of the Hanoverian Verband’s Department of International Affairs, suggests that I am being unfair:<\/p>\n

“To defend the breeding values, when you look at the data that is behind the breeding values, F\u00fcrsten-Look’s oldest offspring are three years old, so this is only data from five mares in the mare performance test, this is the minimum for a stallion to be published – there need to be five offspring, either in competition, or stallion testing or in mare performance tests. So this breeding value of F\u00fcrsten-Look comes because he was a super successful horse, he was Bundeschampion, and he was third in the World Championships, as a seven-year-old he already won on S level, so his breeding value now reflects more his own performance than the performance of the offspring.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Then there is Don Juan de Hus, this is not so crazy, he has produced super horses like Don Martillo.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Don Martillo – ‘super horse’<\/em><\/p>\n

We have to go down the list to fifth before we get Damon Hill, that’s the first stallion in the list who has actually done a Grand Prix test…
\n<\/em>“But as you know, there are two lists, and this is the list for stallions with performers in the young horse classes, and this does not include the Grand Prix, so this is just based on young horse classes and performance tests, so I think the ranking is not so bad. If a stallion has a breeding value of 147, then he belongs to the 1% best and if a stallion has 148 or 149 or 150, this is not so important, so I think you should go a little bit away from the detailed ranking if the stallions are only two or three points apart from each other. Next year you get more information and a new breeding value, but it is already a strong statement when you have a breeding value of 140 or more.”<\/p>\n

Enough of this nonsense, let’s look at the top German FN’s 50 sires of horses in open competition to see if we can find some reality. And we do, heading the standings for the second year running is Breitling W on a score of 166. Once again we lament the failure to measure success over the number of foals, since Breitling produced an extraordinary number of Grand Prix competitors, out of a very very limited number of mares. Why? Because he was far from fashionably bred, by Bismark out of a mare by Maat I, and he was not really the modern super elegant type. Still the chestnut stallion was a good Grand Prix performer with Wolfram Wittig, who championed him throughout his career, and with Wolfram’s half Thoroughbred mare, Diego, produced an astonishing seven international level dressage competitors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wolfram Wittig and Breitling<\/em><\/p>\n

Wolfram Wittig who ‘made’ the chestnut stallion, is, not surprisingly, delighted to see Breitling ranked number one again:<\/p>\n

“We are delighted that his children has been so successful. And now Kira (Wolfram’s long term, coming up to 20 years, pupil, Kira Wulferding)<\/em>has another very good one, five years old, it is owned by Victoria Max-Theurer, and it is an up-and-coming young horse.”<\/p>\n

Do you know how many mares he covered – he must have the highest ratio of foals to Grand Prix competitors of any stallion…
\n<\/em>“I think so, but we don’t have all the information, but I know his average must be very very high. The most mares he ever covered in one year was about 80 when he was placed at Schockem\u00f6hle’s, that was the maximum…”<\/p>\n

And some stallions covered 800 in one year…
\n<\/em>“What is important is not to sell the semen, what is important are the products, and what is so good about him is that he produced useful horses.”<\/p>\n

For a long time people would say, oh, the Breitling progeny are successful because they are ridden by Wolfram and Brigitte, but now there are more and more horses that are being successful, with riders whose surname is not ‘Wittig’…
\n<\/em>“We have very very good mares in breeding at my place.\u00a0 At the moment it looks to me as if our German breeding system just produces modern horses, not power, not potential, just modern horses, and for me, a horse is really modern if there is a blue ribbon on its head.”<\/p>\n

When we look at the top horses in the sport – like Valegro, he’s not such a ‘modern’ type – like your Breitlings…
\n<\/em>“No, but they are useful with a strong character, very good temperament, a very high level of rideability, this is what we are looking for. The next thing is that it takes a long time, the horse is seven or eight when you ask, is he good enough for Prix St Georges or Grand Prix, but at the moment in Germany, we are producing the foals to sell as foals. They need the dark colour, that is important…”<\/p>\n

Flick their front legs with nice little tight backs…
\n<\/em>“And we are not asking for good haunches for a good canter, and that is what is most important, canter quality.”<\/p>\n

Who bred Breitling, you or your father in law, I see different versions…
\n<\/em>“He took the mare to be covered so his name is written on the paper, but at the time, I was sending all our mares to Bismark (Bolero \/ Duellant). This year we have a seven-year-old who is by Boston (Jazz \/ Flemmingh) out of a Bismark mare, the Bismark mare was born in 1991. Brigitte competed the Boston in three competitions, Prix St Georges for two victories, and one second place. She has also been successful at Prix St Georges with another Boston, this time out of a Breitling mare. At the moment we are breeding with five Breitling mares.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wolfram and the 6-y-o Boston\/Bismark at home<\/em><\/p>\n

What stallions are you looking at this year?
\n<\/em>“I was taking Foundation (Fidertanz \/ De Vito), he’s a very good stallion, then we have also used For Romance (F\u00fcrst Romancier \/ Sir Donnerhall I), Kira was in the N\u00fcrnberger Berg-Pokal final with him. This year I am also using Baron (Benicio \/ Sir Donnerhall I), more B line – back to Bolero. For me it’s important that I am independent with my mares, because the mares really have very good gaits, big fundament, big frame – so I don’t need a big stallion, and for me, 60% is based on the mare. I can make up my own mind when choosing the stallions.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The C line representative, Cayenne W as a 4-y-o<\/em><\/p>\n

So you are doubling up on the B line….
\n<\/em>“I’m not intelligent enough to use the alphabet, I got stuck on the second letter. Once I used Carabas (Carnaby GL \/ Roberto), and bred Cayenne W (Bismark), a world champion, so I did get as far as the third letter.”<\/p>\n

You didn’t get to D and Donnerhall…
\n<\/em>“It didn’t work, even with DiMaggio it didn’t work and I liked DiMaggio (Don Primero \/ World Cup I), but it didn’t work, I couldn’t get our mares pregnant. That was the problem.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Weihegold, another hit for Don Schufro…<\/em><\/p>\n

next we discuss Don Schufro<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Not everyone has Wolfram’s problem with the D line, because there in second on the rankings with a breeding value of 165 is Don Schufro (Donnerhall \/ Pik Bube I) who first headed the FN values back in 2001.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A young Don Schufro and a young Andreas Helgstrand<\/em><\/p>\n

A Grand Prix star himself, Don Schufro had by the end of last year sired 232 competitors with winnings of \u20ac663,987, with the highest money going to Isabell Werth’s megastar, Weihegold (Sandro Hit). It has just been announced by Blue Hors that Don Schufro, who is no longer a breeding stallion, is a WFFS carrier, which raises the question, would it have been a good thing if the mare owners had known that 20 years ago?<\/p>\n

Third to Damon Hill who we’ve already discussed in the other list on 164, tied with another who has also featured earlier, F\u00fcrstenball. In fifth place we have the doyen of Dutch dressage breeding Jazz (Cocktail \/ Ulster) with a breeding value of 163.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

Then the list starts to get loopy, \u00a0on a breeding value of 161, we have Lissaro (Lissabon \/ Match aa) who was such a success as a sire that he is now a competition horse with a young rider. A truly great sire in Diamond Hit (Don Schufro \/ Ramino) scores 140 behind such breeding ‘legends’ as Lord Loxley I (Lord Sinclair \/ Weltmeyer – 150), three on 148, Dancing Dynamite (Don Bedo I \/ Fidermark NRW), DiMaggio, and Real Diamond (Rohdiamant \/ Weltmeyer), two on 147, Bordeaux (United \/ Gribaldi) and Flanagan (Fidertanz \/ Rubilo), Freudenprinz (Florestan \/ Franciso -146), Dark Fire (Donnerhall \/ Feiner Stern – 145) and Donnerbube (Donnerhall \/ Pik Bube I – 144).<\/p>\n

Once again, Ludwig comes to Lisssaro’s defence:<\/p>\n

“He has not been such a failure as a stallion, although he is definitely not the typical flashy foal producer. The first horses were produced in Westfalia, now we are getting the first horses Lissaro produced in Hanover and I have talked to many people who have ridden Lissaro offspring, or who bred Lissaro horses, and they are all very positive. Celle stands his son Labbadio (Dancier) who was 3rd\u00a0<\/sup>at the Bundeschampionate for four-year-old stallions last year and he recently had the top mare in a mare performance test in Verden, from 40 mares, to mention just two positive examples.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Labbadio, standing at Celle<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve seen some of them and they look like lovely scopey horses but not with the movement to be top dressage horses – I always thought he should have been an eventing sire because he had nice movement plus he could jump. I think they missed the market with Lissaro trying to sell him as a dressage sire…
\n<\/em>“If a stallion wins the dressage at the Bundeschampionate three times and is reserve world champion, then of course you market him as a dressage stallion. As an eventer stallion, of course he would need blood mares because he himself is a substantial horse. He has produced some jumpers as well, so he is a versatile horse.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lissaro, a versatile horse<\/em><\/p>\n

“We have discussed this question and there are some rankings that are super and some that are a little questionable, but I do not think it is impossible to make them better.”<\/p>\n

Will the FN rankings be better with access to international results, at the moment they are just based on German results?
\n<\/em>“International results, yes, that would then include all the horses that are sold to America or elsewhere overseas and become successful on FEI level. There are changes being discussed.”<\/p>\n

“Also the criteria for the breeding value is placings in competition, and here again, some changes are being discussed. There is research that looks more to the level of the competition, and this in my opinion, needs more consideration.\u00a0 But of course you cannot say anything against Breitling, Don Schufro and Damon Hill…”<\/p>\n

When I look at the breeding values in Holland and in Germany, the breeders don’t pay any attention to them, you can have a horse at the top of the breeding values and still no-one breeds to it…
\n<\/em>“I think the younger generation of breeders consider the breeding values more than the older generation.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But still we are not getting any strong correlation between very good breeding values and lots of mares…
\n<\/em>“I think there were some stallions that were ‘discovered’ through the breeding values. Stakkato Gold \u00a0is one example – he was a relatively unknown stallion, then he was the highest in the breeding values. We started to do some research, and said, okay, he has really produced some fantastic offspring, and now he is considered truly one of the hottest of the younger jumping stallions.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stakkato Gold – ‘discovered’ by the breeding values<\/em><\/p>\n

But there are so many factors that are so difficult to control – Stakkato Gold benefitted in that he stands at Sprehe, and they have a very effective marketing program and have a large following of mare owners…
\n<\/em>“He also had a good background from his own performance and a good pedigree…”<\/p>\n

His best performance was a placing in a nine year old class at Neum\u00fcnster…
\n<\/em>“But the pedigree is fantastic. By Stakkato, and the mother, by Werther, has competed internationally. And he was successful in the young horse classes, he won a big youngster championshipin Munich and then he was injured. I think he would have made a good career as a sport horse, when you look at the data, it is all positive. The breeding values discovered him and now he is one of the most popular stallions in Germany.”<\/p>\n

I understand that this year’s Hanoverian Stallion Book suggests that Totilas is not such a wonderful sire of dressage horses…
\n<\/em>“Totilas (Gribaldi \/ Glendale) has a dressage value of just 100 points on the results of the Hanoverian mare tests.”\u00a0(100 is the base, anything below 100 is negative, and above positive, so F\u00fcrstenball who heads the Hanoverian standings, scores 150 – it takes a value of 120 to join the ‘topliste’ – CH)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Governor, out of a sister to Parzival, and ridden by Adelinde Cornelissen at the WYH Championships<\/em><\/p>\n

“I am always careful before I say that a horse will not be a good sire, there are some stallion sons of Totilas that are very promising, of course out of super mares – like the Dutch stallion, Governor out of the sister to Parzival.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Total Hope, by Totilas, out of Isabell Werth’s Weihegold!<\/em><\/p>\n

“And then there is Total Hope with Schockem\u00f6hle, he is out of Weihegold, there is another one Thiago out of the Grand Prix mare Wahajama standing at Schafhof stud. I have seen these sons and they are very talented for collection and so I am sure Totilas has produced some horses for the big sport.\u00a0 His breeding values so far are mainly based on the results in young horse classes and performance tests and we have to observe how the horses will develop, when they are getting older.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Diacontinus – heading the rankings<\/em><\/p>\n

Time to look at the FN’s jumping breeding values and heading the list of sires of young horse class competitors, is not Stakkato Gold, he’s second with a breeding value of 159, but the Diarado (Diamant de S\u00e9milly \/ Corrado I) son, Diacontinus (out of a Contendro I \/ Argentinus mare) with a value of 165. The usually reliable hippomundo database tells us that he has two competitors that have competed at the one metre level in four-year-old Young Stallion classes in Holland: Diadition (For Edition) who has won three times, and Diaro Gin (Silvio \/ Espri) who placed 54th and 61st at two of those three competitions.<\/p>\n

more on the jumping sires follows<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once again, Ludwig Christmann:
\n“On the breeding values, Diacontinus is the highest ranked of the new stallions. He is by Diarado, but he is a different type from Diarado and he has produced very good foals.”<\/p>\n

Diarado himself has been a flop in the competition arena, even coming from a stable that has produced top competition horses, he is not even competitive in 1.35\/1.45 classes…
\n<\/em>“But now he has produced some very good horses – Don Diarado, a Diarado son, for example,was named in the German team for the WEG with Maurice Tebbel.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n