Alabaster

Alabaster
Born 1989, 168 cm
Breeder - Friedrich Oppermann

Alabaster was the pride and joy of the great breeder, Werner Schockemöhle and the stallion stood at his private stud until Mr Schockemöhle’s death in 2000 when he transferred to the State Stud at Celle. Werner Schockemöhle was a great authority on the breeding of performance horses, and as he discussed his stallions’ breeding he would rush to his bookshelves to produce yet another photo or pedigree that added to the story, and it is the story of a breeder who follows his own vision:
"I believe that it is not right to first look at the pedigree. I would also accept a horse of the 'W' line, if the horse is, in my opinion, the right horse. I prefer some lines, no not lines, I prefer the progeny of some special stallions. When I know the stallion, I know his pedigree and I know his progeny, and I have a good idea of what his progeny will be like."
"Sometimes it is a little wrong to think only in lines. Sometimes when you see a horse, the influence comes much more from the bottom line. You sometimes have horses, that they say 'this horse comes from the W line' but when you see the horse you know that he has been produced from the influence of the genes of the other lines on his pedigree."
What are the prime influences on the stallion Alabaster?
"It is a combination of several genes. The special factor with Alabaster is the clear influence in his phenotype (NB. The Macquarie Dictionary defines phenotype as "the observable hereditary characters arising from the interaction of the genotype with its environment. Organisms with the same phenotype look alike but may breed differently because of dominance.) from Abglanz, but he doesn't have some of the mistakes that are usually associated with the Abglanz pedigree. "
"For twenty years I have judged the foals in the areas to the north, near Varkstead, where Argentan stood. Then he was the most important stallion - for type - in Hanover. He made fantastic types, but he had the mistakes of Absatz/Abglanz. He was not so good in the shoulder, and often he was not good in the front legs, especially the fetlock and the pasterns. The fetlock was often not large enough, it was too light, and the pasterns were too short. Together that shortens the life of the front leg when it is used hard in the sport."
"Alabaster doesn't have this fault. He has a top front leg, and that is the influence of several other genes in his pedigree. For example, Busoni, the Thoroughbred horse, who is Alabaster's great grand sire on the dam's side, and was also the grand-sire of Gigolo. He was not discovered while he was a breeding stallion, he was never even discussed because he didn't produce the best types. When he was gone, suddenly came Gigolo, and suddenly Busoni was interesting.
Alabaster is also influenced in his pedigree by the famous horse, Ferdinand. Ferdinand was a great producer of showjumpers, but sometimes he also produced very good dressage horses."
"The first Olympic horse of my brother, Alwyn, who won a team gold in 1960 at Rome, was Ferdl by Ferdinand. Ferdinand produced horses with a good canter and good walk. Reiner Klimke's Olympic dressage horse, Mehmed was by Ferdinand. Another with very nice style was Hugo Simon's Flipper - that was a horse, fifteen two and a half hands, but with the heart of a lion."
"Ferdinand was a horse who only seldom found the right mare. He needed mares with blood, and there were few mares with blood that went to him."
"When you look on the top line of Alabaster's pedigree, you find Akzent 11, this is Absatz by Abglanz. Abglanz comes again on the pedigree on the bottom line, Aalfaenger is directly by Abglanz, and that is the explanation for the special type."
"We often had problems with the walk with Abglanz progeny but this influence is balanced by the influence of others - Waidmannsdank, another Thoroughbred, and Busoni, and again Ferdinand. We see two times the influence of Ferdinand, on the sire line, Fernanda by Ferdinand, and on the dam's side, Wendepunkt by Wendekreis by Ferdinand, and then Wendepunkt is in-bred to Ferdinand. Einglass, is by Marcio xx, a very good producer of dressage horses, and the next dam on that side is by Ferdinand, so that is the third time we find Ferdinand. The dam of Einglass, Farki, was in her time the best mare in the whole of the breeding area. The sire of Einglass, Artos, was not so good but Farki was wonderful."
"Together this makes the special pedigree of Alabaster, and maybe I recognized these things even more than the owner did when I bought him! He has the type of Abglanz, and when you breed him to mares with a little Trakehner influence, then it always comes back."
As of the 2006 Hanoverian Stallion Yearbook, Alabaster had produced 363 competitors with winnings of Euro 256,541. His most famous product is Isabel Werth’s Grand Prix horse, Apache, who has already won more that Euro 100,000.
Alabaster is the sire of seven licensed stallions of which Abanos has been the most successful. His FN dressage ranking is 135 with a negative 96 ranking for jumping.