{"id":60517,"date":"2021-09-10T10:54:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T00:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=60517"},"modified":"2021-09-10T14:07:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T04:07:55","slug":"dressage-breeding-at-the-euros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2021\/09\/dressage-breeding-at-the-euros\/","title":{"rendered":"Dressage Breeding at the Euros…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysis by Christopher Hector<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Negro as a young horse – photo Jacob Melissen<\/em><\/p>\n

The most influential stallions at the Euro Champs were Negro (Ferro \/ Variant), Totilas (Gribaldi \/ Glendale) and Gribaldi (Kostolany \/ Ibikus).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gribaldi<\/em><\/p>\n

Negro is the sire of three competitors, and the dam sire of the star of the first day, Everdale (Lord Leatherdale) as well as the Finnish entry, Sangraal (Sir Donnerhall).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everdale – star of the first day (FEI photo – Liz Gregg)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Totilas<\/em><\/p>\n

Totilas provided half the Dutch team – Go Legend (Ferro) and Governor Str (Jazz) as well as Austria’s Te Quiero SF (Loutano). Totilas\u2019 sire, Gribaldi was represented by Atterupgaards Orthilia (Donnerschlag), Greek Air (Florestan) and Intermezzo van het Meedaalhof (Balzflug), while his son, Painted Black (Ferro) was the sire of the French entry, Cupido PB (Jazz).<\/p>\n

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

TSF Dalera BB (FEI photo – Liz Gregg)<\/em><\/p>\n

Another Gribaldi son, Easy Game is the sire of the standout star of both the Tokyo Games and the European Championships, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s TSF Dalera BB.<\/p>\n

When the Easy Game son Millenium emerged in 2014 to dominate the German licensings, I asked an exceptionally well-informed (and Trakehner loving) colleague for background, he must go nameless as he has a wife and family to support, but believe me he is qualified to comment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Easy Game<\/em><\/p>\n

His point was that Easy Game was not easy at all, and whenever he appeared in public was only led by that stallion master, Joep van Uytert and was always on a lungeing rein since the stallion not only had a tendency to stand on his hindlegs, but also tried to kick his handler. However my friend was fulsome in his praise of Easy Game\u2019s dam, the Schwadroneur mare, Evita, a former auction top seller.<\/p>\n

In 2014 half share in Easy Game was purchased by the\u00a0Belgian based Dutch rider Veronique Swagemakers and her partners, with Ms Swagemakers intending to campaign the stallion at Grand Prix level. Seemingly this was not a success and he returned to The Netherlands in 2017 – with the KWPN granting him Approved status in March 2021.<\/p>\n

While the Trakehner Gribaldi has been mainly used as a cross over Dutch bred horses, both Easy Game and his famous daughter are all Trakehner. Dalera’s dam, Dark Magic is by Handryk out of a mare by Hohenstein.<\/p>\n

Next the influence of the recently deceased Sandro Hit<\/em><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sintano Van Hof Olympia and Gareth Hughes (FEI photo – Liz Gregg)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sandro Hit continues to be major influence. He was the sire of Sintano Van Hof Olympia (Silvano N) who finished in 14th place in the Grand Prix.\u00a0 Sir Donnerhall I (Sandro Hit \/ Donnerhall) is the sire of two entrants and a Sir Donnerhall son, Sir Donovan, sired the Lithuanian entry, Nabab (Krack C).\u00a0 The full-brother, Sir Donnerall II was part of the French team.<\/p>\n

The Ukranian representative Poseydon is by the Sandro Hit son, Sandro’s Diamond, while Italian team member, Florento Fortuna is by another son, Sorrento out of a Rubiquil mare. The sons, Samba Hit I and II (out of Poesie by Brentano II) each had one representative.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian entry Dior (Florestan) is by his grandson, Spielberg.<\/p>\n

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

Desperados, competed successfully himself at the highest level for Gest\u00fct Sprehe<\/em><\/p>\n

Four more stallions had two reps: Scandic (Solos Carex \/ Amiral), Hotline (Hofrat \/ De Niro), Romanov (Rohdiamant \/ Grundstein II) and Desperados FRH (De Niro \/ Wolkenstein II)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Negro at home with Anne van Olst<\/em><\/p>\n

On 2014 KWPN breeding value for stallions with a reliability of 90 or better, Negro scored 155 with a reliability of 93%, which put him into fourth. He is recorded as having sired 1066 progeny over the age of four, with 283 (26.54%) registered as competitors. By 2021, Negro had dropped to 11th spot with a value of 135 (the number one, Jazz scores 176) although he is the dam sire of the 13th ranked Chippendale and Everdale in 15th – both by Lord Leatherdale, both of whom stand with Negro at Gertjan van Olst’s stallion station.<\/p>\n

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

A young Everdale, a stallion son of Negro, at home<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite Van Olst’s domination of Dutch dressage breeding, Negro does not seem to have been a stallion maker – the only son on the latest breeding values is Di\u00ebgo (Don Gregory), second on the list of stallions with a reliability of less than 89%. While Negro’s OCD status is not recorded, all these three have negative values – Chippendale and Everdale with 95 and Di\u00ebgo on 97.<\/p>\n

Negro was highly successful in young horse classes, 4th at the World Young Dressage Horse championships in 2001 and had begun to compete with success with Anne van Olst in FEI classes, winning his first big tour start with 72.50% in an Inter I, but a hoof injury put an end to his competition career.<\/p>\n

The KWPN awarded Negro Preferent status in early 2012 due to his exceptional offspring the most famous of which of course, is Valegro.<\/p>\n

Negro\u2019s mother, Fewrie (by Variant) produced five advanced level dressage horses. Variant competed at small tour dressage with the Dutch rider Anky van Grunvsen. Variant sired a few Grand Prix dressage horses like Hermes, Lucky and Marciano G.<\/p>\n

Negro was bred by Wouter Borgers who died just before the colt was foaled. Negro was presented by the Borgers family at the stallion selection but he was not in the best shape. Gertjan van Olst wanted to buy Negro but the breeders declined the offer because of emotional reasons at the time. After the approvals Hendrik van Tuyl bought Negro and he send him to the re-inspection where he was approved. Negro did very well at his performance test and passed gloriously. Gertjan van Olst bought a 50 % share of Negro during the performance test, later he became for 75 % owner of Negro and now he is 100 % the owner of Negro.<\/p>\n

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

Valegro – Negro’s most famous son<\/em><\/p>\n

On the 2015 WBFSH stallion rankings Negro was in 9th place (up from 18th the previous year). The bulk of his points come from Valegro (3183) with the next highest, Nintendo (1733) \u2013 the others who contributed to his total are not exactly household names: Unico G, Vorst, Numberto, Vanquer and Taikoen. Without Valegro, the fall from grace has been dramatic, on the 2020 WBFSH dressage sires rankings, Negro does not make the top 100.<\/p>\n

Negro’s most successful representative at these European Championships was Elegance (Monaco) ridden by Beatriz Ferrer-Salat into 17th. Totilas’ most successful was Go Legend in 21st, while Gribaldi’s best was Atterupgaards Orthilia who placed tenth with Nana Skodberg Merrald.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Atterupgaards Orthilia with Nana Skodberg Merrald<\/em><\/p>\n

And just to confound the breeding nerds (like me), the sixth placegetter in the Grand Prix was the Finnish rider, Henri Ruoste riding a horse that on paper should have been competing at those other European championships in Riesenbeck a week ago – Kontestro DB is by Contendro out of a Cassini II mare.<\/p>\n

Breeding your own dressage champion ? Find the right stallion for your mare: Go to www.ihb.com.au\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/h1>\n

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

Like Total Hope, he’s by Totilas out of Isabell Werth’s Silver Medal winner Weihegold!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a fascinating mix of bloodlines in the horses that are competing in the European Dressage Championships – Christopher Hector has the story…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60535,"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":[81,714,4],"tags":[402,601,2254],"class_list":["post-60517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-breeders-club","category-dressage","tag-christopher-hector","tag-dressage-breeding","tag-european-dressage-championships-2021"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60517","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=60517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60543,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60517\/revisions\/60543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}