{"id":64510,"date":"2022-11-29T15:30:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T04:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=64510"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:52:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:52:17","slug":"gribaldi-super-sire-and-sire-of-sires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2022\/11\/gribaldi-super-sire-and-sire-of-sires\/","title":{"rendered":"Gribaldi – super sire, and sire of sires…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Hector makes the case for the black Trakehner stallion to be included in the ranks of the very great dressage sires…<\/h1>\n

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Totilas alone would have been proof that Gribaldi was a very fine sire, but it is wise not to be dazzled by the black super star, and look upon the totality of Gribaldi’s contribution to modern dressage breeding. Do that, and you find a stallion who deserves elevation to the pantheon of great dressage stallions, sharing the pedestals with Donnerhall, Florestan and Jazz.<\/p>\n

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Gribaldi was a serious dressage competitor.\u00a0 At the age of four he won the stallion class in s\u2019Hertogenbosch and took Reserve Champion honours in the Pavo Cup for four-year-old dressage horses. Later he competed at Grand Prix level with Edward Gal with considerable success. The combination won the 2004 Zwolle International Stallion Show K\u00fcr with 73.70% and the K\u00fcr at the CHIO Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

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Success came early, due in no part to the skills of his owner, Joop van Uytert as a promoter, but let’s remember there have been many super hyped stallions who disappeared without trace.<\/p>\n

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Painted Black<\/em><\/p>\n

So far, Gribaldi has sired 95 Grand Prix competitors, including stars like Painted Black, Totilas, Unee BB and\u00a0 Atterupguards Orthilia.<\/p>\n

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Orthilia<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Unee and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl<\/em><\/p>\n

However I suggest his greatness lies in his ability as a stallion maker. Gribaldi is the sire of 50 approved sons, and a remarkable number of those sons, have become important stallions in their own right:<\/p>\n

Painted Black is the sire of 16 approved sons and 23 Grand Prix competitors.<\/p>\n

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

His son Totilas is the sire of 35 approved sons and 16 Grand Prix dressage \u00a0competitors and one 1.60m jumper.<\/p>\n

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Total US – one of Totilas’ Grand Prix performers<\/em><\/p>\n

His son Hofrat is the sire of 11 sons, 12 Grand Prix horses, and Hofrat is the sire of Hotline with 11 sons and 23 Grand Prix progeny.<\/p>\n

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Hotline<\/em><\/p>\n

Gribaldi is the sire of Easy Game, the sire of two Grand Prix superstars, Dalera and Hermes.<\/p>\n

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Dalera, a star at Tokyo<\/em><\/p>\n

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Hermes<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Easy Game son, Millennium,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0is the sire of Morricone I, a GP competitor one of 21 sons by Millennium including \u00a0Morricone II and III.<\/p>\n

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

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Interview with Joop van Uytert:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find it interesting, that while some stallions – like Cor de la Bry\u00e8re – had to leave their homeland to find the right mares, with Gribaldi, okay his most famous son, Totilas, is out of a Dutch (largely jumping blood) mare so you might think it’s the Dutch outcross, but most of Gribaldi’s successful progeny have been out of Trakehner mares… When you bought Gribaldi, Trakehners were not very fashionable, they had a bad name, pretty but useless… <\/em><\/p>\n

Why was he such an influential stallion?<\/em><\/p>\n

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“When I first saw Gribaldi, it was 25 years ago, he was two and a half years old, he was already a real stallion, a real stallion type, he was the winner at the Trakehner stallion show. We bought him there, and then he came to Holland, he did a good performance test, then the first crop of his foals came one year later. At the time they said Trakehners were a bit normal, nice types but trouble with the canter and hind leg, but a lot of breeders were still interested in him and bred every year with him.”<\/p>\n

“Then his first horses came under the saddle and by the time they were six or seven, you saw that they had a lot of potential for the piaffe \/ passage, and that is the strong thing of Trakehner. You see a lot of Trakehner horses who have a bit normal movement, but when they come back they have a really good cadence in piaffe \/ passage, and that’s the highlight of the breeding of Gribaldi – and also,\u00a0 of course, his son, Easy Game.”<\/p>\n

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Dalera<\/em><\/p>\n

But Easy Game is a bit weird, of his progeny, there are only two Grand Prix horses, but they are two of the best in the world…<\/em><\/p>\n

“But remember he had only 60 or 70 Trakehner mares, and out of them is Dalera and H\u00e8rmes. In his first year Easy Game had only 40 KWPN mares… so out of 100 mares, two of the best in the world. He never bred many mares.”<\/p>\n

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Toto Junior<\/em><\/p>\n

“Gribaldi had more mares and he has bred stallions, Totilas, Painted Black, Toto Junior, Easy Game – and also in the mother lines you see Gribaldi everywhere. He was magnificent in the Dutch but also the German breeding.”<\/p>\n

“He was once number one on the World Ranking list. Like I said, when he was young, he was a real stallion, and there are some stallions, real stallions, like Donnerhall, like Sandro Hit, they are such nice types, and that kind of stallion is the best in breeding in the end.”<\/p>\n

“Gribaldi gave a good back, and a good mind, and for me it is important to have the Trakehner blood because it gives a good potential for piaffe \/ passage.”<\/p>\n

Easy Game was not an easy horse…<\/em><\/p>\n

“No, no (Joop chuckles) he was not an easy horse, but he was a real stallion, he was not easy, but he has a magnificent mother, and in combination with Gribaldi, he gives the breeding to his offspring.”<\/p>\n

And now Easy Game has a very important stallion line coming on through Millennium…<\/em><\/p>\n

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Morricone I<\/em><\/p>\n

“Millennium and Morricone, you see how it goes. We talked about the 60 mares, and Dalera, but also the stallion Millennium, and he’s also doing well in sport, he does already a good Prix St Georges and he has the potential for the big sport, he is a totally new bloodline in Germany, and now you see the Gribaldi bloodline coming back through Morricone to Holland.”<\/p>\n

Do you think maybe the stallion needs that bit of crazy, and then a good mare – Morricone is easier that Millennium…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Sometimes you see it also with mares, you have mares that are a bit mad in the head and not easy to ride, but when you combine that mare with a good stallion you see good offspring. Sometimes a stallion can be not so easy in his head, like Easy Game, but he gives the drive of his sire, Gribaldi, and his good mother. That combination is what makes good breeding. In my opinion when you have 100 offspring and two of them are the best in the world, that’s incredible, because most popular stallions have 100 mares a year. Now Easy Game breeds a little bit more mares, now he has 60 \/ 70 mares a year.”<\/p>\n

Who do you think will be the most important stallion son of Gribaldi?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Totilas, Painted Black and Easy Game, all three have a huge influence I think. I don’t know many stallions that have three children that are so good in breeding. Toto Junior the son of Totilas, is a very good breeding stallion in Holland.”<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that Toto Junior has good German blood from Desperados, and he is breeding good progeny, but the famous one, Total US, the one that was in the Dutch dressage team, when you look at the colts at the KWPN licensing, none are by Total US…<\/em><\/p>\n

“He was not so much used. We had Total US as a young horse, when he was two-and-a-half, I bought 50% with Schockem\u00f6hle, a young horse, but with a lot of quality, but not a real stallion, you know? With training he gets a bit stronger and bigger, but he was a bit late with everything. That horse has elastic in his body, otherwise you don’t go to the Olympics as a nine-year-old.”<\/p>\n

But not as good a breeding stallion as Toto Junior…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Toto Junior has had the chance to breed and he is a really good breeding stallion. So you see what I mean – you have Toto Junior, Totilas, you have Millennium, Easy Game, Painted Black and sons of Painted Black, as a sire of sires, Gribaldi is amazing.”<\/p>\n

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Bordeaux, out of a mare by Gribaldi<\/em><\/p>\n

“One of our best breeding stallions at the moment, and one of the best breeding stallions in the world at the moment, is in my opinion, Bordeaux. Everywhere you see Bordeaux – there’s Bohemian, we have Johnny Depp so many horses in the Grand Prix. Bordeaux is United, and United is Krack C \/ Partout, out of a mother by Gribaldi, still more influence of Gribaldi.”<\/p>\n

I do find it interesting, the most of Gribaldi’s success has come with mares of solid Trakehner breeding. For example, Easy Game, is out of Evita VII, a famous and much decorated Trakehner mare by Schwadroneur. \u00a0This is classic Trakehner breeding. Schwadroneur is by Arogno who is out of an Ibikus mare. His dam, Evita VII is by the Thoroughbred, Cannon Row, out of a grand-daughter of Ibikus.<\/p>\n

My colleague, Jan T\u00f6njes, the editor of Germany’s leading equestrian magazine, St Georg, <\/em>and a great expert on the Trakehner breeder, told the story in his series, The Trakehners Fight Back.<\/p>\n

“As a colt Gribaldi was discovered by Otto Langels of Haemelschenburg stud. Langels is well known for his breeding policy that doesn\u2019t necessarily go hand-in-hand with what is in vogue at the moment. Himself a Grand Prix rider, Langels was never fond of the small, handsome, and beautiful Trakehners so popular in the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s. Horses bred at his farm are mostly not so refined.”<\/p>\n

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Kostolany<\/em><\/p>\n

Langels stood Kostolany and Ibikus…<\/p>\n

“And Kostolany, Gribaldi\u2019s sire, is no exception from this rule. The black was champion stallion in 1987 and owes a lot of his popularity not only to his offspring that show various talents (GP dressage horses, eventers and 1.50m showjumpers), but to the fact that Langels performed the equine version of the Phantom of the Opera to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kostolany would not only do piaffes and passages but also sit and lay down. When the show was first presented at the Equitana the audience was thrilled. In the past 20 years Kostolany has covered more mares from the Trakehner breeding programme than any other sire.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his lasting influence will come from the son who crossed the border into Holland, and established a dynasty… Gribaldi, one of the great ones.<\/p>\n

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Sadly this is the last photo of Gribaldi, he was on his way to stand at the Schockem\u00f6hle stallion station, but a few days later was dead following a heart rupture…<\/em><\/p>\n

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Christopher Hector argues that Gribaldi was one of the truly great Sporthorse sires… read about the black stallions amazing career – and the wonderful horses he sired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64909,"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":[402,601,80,394],"class_list":["post-64510","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-gribaldi","tag-sporthorse-breeding"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510","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=64510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69328,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64510\/revisions\/69328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}