Contango

1988- 2007 172 cm Brown

Breeder: E. Wichmann

Contango is from one of Contender’s early foal crops and once again, underlines the point that Contender crosses best with mares with ‘blood’. Contango’s dam, Adisa is by the Thoroughbred stallion, Kronprinz (by Nizam xx) who had a successful career on the racetrack with a GAG of 90.5 before going to stud. He stood in Oldenburg at Bümmerstede, where he produced 23 premium mares and numerous successful competition horses.

Dam sire, Kronprinz xx 

Contango won his performance test at Medingen in 1991 on a score of 146.48 – topping both the jumping and the dressage standings. In 1993 he was approved by the KWPN after three weeks of testing at Ermlo and started his career in that country.

Master trainer, Johan Hamminga was one who rode him at Ermlo:

“When Contango came to Holland I rode him in the test. He was a very well built horse, a lot of balance – all in proportion: forehand, middle, back end, and the wither was ten centimetres higher than the croup! He had a long neck and the neck came out of wither with a lot of uphill tendency. He went on the vertical very easily. When you rode the horse, he was sensitive. When you looked at the horse you might say, oh he is a big one, but when you sat on the horse, he was sensitive to your legs and gave you a very good feeling. Contango was a little bit before his time in Holland – now we have more ‘blood’ in the mares and you see a lot of children of Contango in Holland. Everyone wants to Contango in the dam line because they have very high rideability, they can collect very easily, and they have a lot of potential for Grand Prix, and that’s what we like from Contango. Now everyone says Contango, Contango, but we had him 20 years ago…”

Contango was trained to Grand Prix level by Els Janssen before being sold to the States where he combined a competition and breeding career. Contango won 33 times at Grand Prix level including at Dressage at Devon CDI-W. He retired from competition in 2003.

In Holland his progeny quickly showed their talent. Six of his offspring competed at Grand Prix dressage level: Els Janssenn’s Nanou (out of a mare by Kaiserstern xx), John Rockx’s Maverick (Sultan), Rien van der Schaft’s Madorijke (Voltaire), Tara Stegen’s New Tango (Saluut), Markus Erkens’ May Fair (Amethist) and Karen Nijvelt’s Maestro (Joost).

His jumping horses included the international competitors Maverick and Nouvelle.

On the 2008 KWPN dressage stallion rankings, Contango and Cocktail top the list for stallions with offspring over ten years of age with a score of 178, although he concedes first place to Cocktail who has a higher reliability index – this is quite some achievement given that Contango was exported to the United States in 1995 after just two seasons in Holland produced the 500 offspring on which his place in the rankings is based. Because he was EVA positive, his semen could not be sent back to Holland.

On the 2014 KWPN rankings for stallions with a reliability of over 90%, he is second behind Jazz with a breeding value of 165 (92%). He is credited with 609 offspring over the age of four, with 209 registered competitors (34.31%).

Contango produced five licensed offspring, Citango (Jazz), Don Tango (Jazz), Feel Good (OO Seven), Maestro (Joost) and Ravel (Democraat), although the last achieved more fame as a gelding with Steffen Peters in the saddle. His licensed grandsons are Charmingmood (Winningmood), Tango (Jazz) and Westenwind (Flemmingh).

Some measure of his influence in the United States can be seen in the first of the official selection trials for the 2008 Olympic Dressage team. Steffen Peters on the Contango son, Ravel, dominated the Grand Prix, and in the small tour, Steffen starred again on another Contango, this time Montango.

Steffen Peters and Ravel 

The influence of the Dutch Warmblood at the highest levels of American dressage was underlined with good performances from Sue Blinks with Mark (by Edison) and Robin Hood (by Jazz), Leslie Morse and Kingston (by Burggraaf) and Canadian Leslie Reid with Orion (by Jazz).

On the same weekend as the Dressage Selection Trial in Burbank, three thousand miles miles away, Contango progeny were starring at the Palm Beach Dressage Derby. The Contango daughter, Wencenza won the FEI 5 Year Old class, while New Tango, a gelding by Contango, placed ninth in the CDI Grand Prix – and five others by Contango competed with relative success at the show.

Indeed there were more Dutch horses in the American Dressage Team at the Beijing Olympics than there were in the Dutch team! Half the Dutch team came from Hanover, while three-quarters of the American team were Dutch bred: Mythilus by Ferro, Ravel by Contango, and Neruda by Haarlem (on paper, Haarlem looks an unlikely candidate as a dressage sire, he is by Voltaire out of an Irco Polo mare).

Contango died at his owner’s Iron Spring Farm in 2007, although he left behind a considerable quantity of frozen semen.

On the 2015/16 KWPN dressage values, Contango was in 3rd place with a value of 160  (92%). He is credited with 623 offspring over 4 with 215 entering competition, a ratio of 34.51%. On the 2015 WBFSH stallion rankings, he is in 33rd place, with two representatives, Carvella (1725 points) and Alcazar (1586).

In October 2018, the KWPN released an evaluation of the most successful KWPN stallions ‘in the sport’, and not surprisingly, Jazz topped the list with 666 offspring competing at Z1 level or higher. The next most successful was Gribaldi with 477 followed by Flemmingh with 378. Jazz was also the most successful sire of progeny competing at Grand Prix level with 4.2% or 131 GP representatives. The next best ratio went to Contango with 24 offspring (3.4%). However when the number of progeny were taken into account, the most successful sire of Z1 level progeny was Sir Sinclair (Lord Sinclair / Flemmingh) with 21.9% of his offspring, followed by Jazz’s sire, Cocktail (Purioso / Le Val Blanc), with Jazz in equal 3rd place with a ratio of 21.2%.

In 2020, Contango’s influence was still being felt in the United States with FEI level offspring Alcazar (GP), Aphrodite (I1) Diamond (PSG), Django (GP), Faberge Blue (GP), Fotogenic (PSG), Fyodor (PSG), Go Tango (I1), Walando (GP). Jumpers: Armando 1.30m, GQ 2^nd place $30,000 Grand Prix of Princeton and 1^st place Princeton Classic GP.