1964 – 1987 165 cm
Breeder: H Köhnen
For many years, Graphit was the star of the Hänigsen stallion station – the home in earlier times of another ‘G’ great, Gotthard.
Of Graphit, Schridde comments: “Despite his flat front leg (Frustra II!), his limited shoulder and saddle position and his short and less elastic hind fetlocks, he mostly produced great, impressive movement and far beyond average jumping ability. When Grande’s appearance came through in the descendants, then Graphit’s offspring were colourful liver chestnuts. Along with this resemblance to the grandsire came a hot temperament and sometimes an even difficult disposition. Grande’s immediate offspring did not show these problems. However, these somewhat difficult horses proved to have great performance abilities.”
Graphit was a versatile stallion, and by 1990, his progeny had won almost a million Deutschmarks, with success in almost every discipline.
He was also a valuable sire of stallions. Doubtless his most famous son was Grannus, while another son, Grundstein was exported to the United States where he competed in Grand Prix dressage. – but not before he sired sufficient performers to rank 5th on the 1990 German FN dressage sires rankings. In the 1999 WBFSH Rankings, Grundstein was ranked the world’s most successful dressage sire.
Grundstein – in the saddle, Ulli Kasselmann
The Grundstein son, Giorgione, represented Britain in the dressage competition at the Barcelona Olympic Games, ridden by Carl Hester.
Another Graphit son, General I was 4th in the 1990 FN sires’ rankings as a sire of jumpers. Graphit seemed to work well in combination with his great predecessor, the grand-dams of Grannus and Grundstein were by Gotthard with General I & II out of daughters of Gotthard.
Graphit was also important as a brood mare sire. The great Westfalien jumping sire, Pilot was out of a Graphit mare, as is the dressage sire, Don Gregory.
For all the initial success of the line, no stallion son has emerged to carry the Graphit heritage into the twenty first century…
