1990 – 2011 167 cm Dark Brown
Breeder: Hans Francksen
It was Rohdiamant, a foal from his first crop (out of Elektia V by the Anglo Arab stallion, Inschallah) who put Rubinstein on the map as a sire. In 1993, Martina Hannöver rode Rohdiamant into equal first place (with Wolkenstein II) in the 3 year old Championship at the Bundeschampionate.
Rohdiamant and Lisa Wilcox competing at Zwolle
Rohdiamant went on to be an exciting Grand Prix horse, ridden by the then German based, US born, Lisa Wilcox, and just missed out on the American dressage team to go to the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. He then disappeared from the competition circuit after a series of disappointing outings.
For a while he looked as if he might be an exciting sire: Ronaldo won the 4 year old Mares and Geldings Championship at the Bundeschampionate in 1998 and went on to be reserve champion in the five year old dressage championship in 2000, while another son, Roman Nature won the 3 year old Stallion title at the 1998 Bundeschampionate, and the 5 year old stallion class at the big stallion show at Zwolle, but just as Roman Nature failed to go on, Rohdiamant’s career also stalled – perhaps because his offspring tended to vary so wildly in type, from black and 17 hands to orange and 14.2….
Rohdiamant’s full-brother, Royal Diamond (born in 1994) won the 5 year old championship at the Bundeschampionate and went on to compete Grand Prix and in his first season scored a 69.5 in only his second ever Grand Prix Special. He too then disappeared from the competition scene with the departure of Lisa Wilcox from the Vorwerk Stud team.
Royal Diamond at home with Lisa Wilcox
The 2014 Hanoverian Stallion book recorded that Rohdiamant has 693 registered competition horses with €937,247 in prizemoney. There were 616 placegetters in dressage (109 to S level) and 70 jumpers.
He produced 15 horses with winnings of more than €10,000. Top of the list was Helen Langhanenberg’s Responsible, a horse that almost made it to the top, but still won €81,521. The Italian rider, Valentina Truppa was very successful with Eremo del Castegno (out of a Weltmeyer mare), while his son, Blue Hors Romanov, was a moderately successful career at Grand Prix level.
In the 2016 Hanoverian book, he had 699 competition horses for €1,015,835 in winnings. Nineteen dressage horses earned over €10,000. His FN dressage value is 139, for jumping, 73. His Hanoverian dressage value is 142 (trot – 107, canter – 127, walk – 174, rideability – 145) with a jumping value of 87. He scores 117 for type, and 120 for his limbs.
In the 2017 book, he had 704 competitors with earnings of €1,047,014. Nineteen progeny won €10,000, with Responsible still the most successful.
On the 2017 FN breeding values, he scored 133 as a young horse sire, and 140 for open competition. On the Hanoverian values he scored 141 for dressage, and 86 for jumping. His value for type was 115.
Helen Langehanenberg and Responsible
In the 2018 Hanoverian Stallion book, Rohdiamant had 711 competitors, with winnings of €1,077,658. He sired 124 S level dressage competitors and 22 dressage horses that won more than €10,000, the most successful of which was Responsible OLD with €81,521. He was the sire of 11 licensed sons, the most important of which were the full-brothers, Romanov and Rubin-Royal. His FN dressage value for 2017 as a sire of young horse competitors was 132, while his value for open competitors was 139. Interestingly, when I looked at the German FN breeding values from 2002 to 2017, only seven stallions appeared on both lists: Don Schufro, Fidermark, Welt Hit I & II, Donnerhall, Florestan and Rhodiamant.
Valentina Truppa and Eremo del Castegno at the WEG in Normandy
Romanov is one of 50 licensed sons, including Rubin-Royal, Ron William, Rhodon, Rosenberg and Rosentanz.
I was intrigued when my friend, Jens Meyer offered to introduce me to Hans Francksen, the breeder of Rohdiamant – especially since the pedigrees provided for Rohdiamant are conspicuously silent when it comes to his mare line, the pedigree tends to stop with his grand-dam Elektia. In fact, the line stretches back over 70 years…
Herr Francksen told THM:
“This family of horses began in 1932, when our family bought a filly foal for 250 reichmarks,”
Mr Francksen told me – well actually Mr Francksen speaks only Plat Deutsch, a language from the northern region of Germany, and Jens, who spoke Plat Deutsch as a child at home, had to translate Mr Franksen’s answers first into German and then to English for me. Thank you Jens.
“My father had begun to train horses and sell them to the army. That is why they started to look for State Premium mares, and the foal he bought in 1932 was his first State Premium mare – and her family goes back almost to 1870.”
“My father was six years in the Army in the First World War, in the cavalry. After the war, he started taking horses that people had problems with, getting them doing the job, then selling them again.”
“The people around us bred only heavy horses, but my father was always interested to have a modern rideable horse – not the heavy horse. It was my father who taught me to breed with Thoroughbred stallions – the reason I am breeding today with His Highness, is that I am interested in using Trakehner lines.”
Ludo from the Oldenburg stallion line that starts with the Thoroughbred, Lupus xx
The two names that appear on Rohdiamant’s pedigree, also featured in the field at Herr Francksen’s farm:
“As a young man I worked with the Ludo mare (Elektira IV – Rohdiamant’s great great grand dam) and the Condor mare, the normal farm work, and it was very difficult because these horses had too much Thoroughbred in them. They were very sensitive to work with.”
Condor by the famous French jumping sire, Foudroyant II xx
“In 1960 I worked with both mares, in front of the mower. We had a pump to drain the fields, and the horses were afraid of the pump and they ran away – but I could still control them. I said stop, and they stopped. The horses pulled me half over the mower but I could still stop them.”
It is interesting just how much French blood shows up on Rohdiamant’s pedigree. His dam, Elektia V is by another famous stallion to stand at the Vorwerk station, the grey French Anglo Arab, Inschallah, but her dam, Elektia is a great grand-daughter of another famed French sire, Foudroyant II. Foudroyant II was Furioso’s great rival, and while he produced Tokyo Games team silver medallist, Kenavo D, he did not produce quite so many superstars as Furioso, whose son, Furioso II was another Vorwerk stallion star. Elektia’s grand dam, Elektira IV, is from the influential Thoroughbred line of Lupus – a German representative of the Bay Ronald dynasty.
Mr & Mrs Francksen with Rohdiamant’s full-sister and her foal by His Highness
Why did Mr Francksen pick on the relatively unknown Rubinstein to cover his mare, Elektia?
“I was breeding at Vorwerks station for 30 years – Furioso was the reason I went to Vorwerk. That is why I used the new stallion, Rubinstein. I had seen Rembrandt (Nicole Uphoff’s medal winner) on the television, and he is from the same family as Rubinstein and that is why I used him.”
“Rohdiamant’s mother had seven foals from Rubinstein, 16 foals in her life! The first success for riding horses really came with Rubinstein – the two brothers, Rohdiamant and Royal Diamond, Klatte bought another full-brother that he sold to Belgium, There is the mare that I still have, one foal was sold to Cologne to a horse breeder.”
Hans Francksen was not happy with some of the modern trends in breeding…
“In the past in this area, in every house there were horse people, now nothing. It is difficult to find someone who wants to go to the mare shows. The sons are not taking over from the fathers – we are losing the horse people.”
“Now we don’t have horse people, we have wealthy people breeding horses, and this is not good. I want to see breeders who think in generations and not changing every season, here and there, everywhere.”
Mr Francksen died in May 2014 at the age of 89.
Three famous members of the line that produced Rubinstein, Ahlerich, Amon and Rembrandt at the Trot-Up at the Seoul Olympics.
