1965 -1986 16.1 ½ Chestnut

Breeder: Alfons Lefevre Height

The story of the making of the modern Warmblood, is also a story of the breaking down of geographical barriers. It came first when visionaries – like the legendary Oldenburg breeder, Georg Vorwerk – were prepared to look outside their own district, their own stud book, and find the stallion that would change the shape of Warmblood breeding – a stallion like Furioso II. But apparently, breeding any type of animal was Herr Vorwerk’s passion, if he heard of an unusual breed of dog, or pig for that matter, he had to travel to see it. Certainly for a foreigner in France, he managed to come away with a brilliantly bred individual.

Furioso II was out of the great mare, Dame de Renville, who produced a series of wonderful horses when mated with Furioso. The first of these was Mexico, who standing at the French National Stud of Le Pin, sired 20 approved sons, 20 dams of stallions, and famous international showjumping horses, including Laeken, Jexico de Parc and Heur de Bratand. His son, Le Mexico, has been a hugely influential sire of jumping horses in Holland.

He stayed in France, Mexico – Furioso II’s full brother 

Furioso II’s sire, the Thoroughbred, Furioso was born in England in 1939 and went on to be one of the most influential sires in modern performance horse breeding, even though he never won a single race in his 21 starts!

Furioso was described as ‘well balanced but with slightly knock kneed forelegs and tight hocks’. He was also rich in Thoroughbred jumping blood – being by Precipitation out of a mare by Son-In-Law by Dark Ronald.

The authoritative De L’etalon Sport Français of 1992, remarked: ‘he had good bone, and walked liked a lord, with a magnificent pace, very energetic and showing a great deal of amplitude, his tail swinging at each step. His trot and gallop were good but not exceptional. Though full of life he was docile and had a good temperament.’

Furioso xx, was the leading sire of jumping horses in France from 1954-1961. His son, Lutteur B, who went on to win the 1964 Olympic individual gold for showjumping, amazed the German breeders when he appeared at the Hamburg Derby. Maas Hell, in Die Grossen Hengste Holsteins records the reaction: ‘The Germans were again amazed at how nonchalantly Lutteur B performed on the jumping course, how he played with the distances, and how, with a long neck, he left the course as though nothing had happened.’

Lutteur B

Furioso II was attractive to the Oldenburg breeders as they wanted a half-blood stallion to help make the transformation of their mares to more modern lines, without too much direct Thoroughbred blood.

Since the experience breeders gained with the French stallion, Condor was encouraging, Oldenburg stallion owners once again turned to French stallions towards the end of the 60’s – enter Furioso II. He was to stand at Georg Vorwerk’s stud in Cappeln from 1968 to 1985. He was leased to Zangersheide in 1986, and died in Belgium, that year.

Furioso – the sire 

Furioso II was approved for the Oldenburg studbook in 1967, and then went on to easily win his 100-day test. Later he was approved for Hanover, Rhineland, Hessen and Westfalia. For many years, Furioso II was ranked in the top three sires of leading money winners in Germany. Furioso II had winners in all disciplines. His showjumping stars included: FBI (with Thomas Frühmann), Heissman (ridden by Eric Van Der Vleuten, then Michael Matz) and For Pleasure.

A showjumping star by Furioso II – FBI with Thomas Frühmann

Furioso 15 was trained by Fritz Tempelmann, won the German Championship in 1978 with Udo Lange

German Eventing star, Horst Karston with Fernandes, by Furioso II

 The Champion Oldenburg mare of 1973 – Fumira by Furioso II

Heissman under his original name, Friesengeist was sold to the stables of Henk Nooren, who later sold him to the United States, where, ridden by Michael Matz, he was Horse of the Year, and 4th at the Barcelona Olympics.

For Pleasure, part of the gold medal winning team at the 2000 Olympics

For Pleasure was originally ridden by Lars Nieberg, and under his guidance won team gold at Atlanta, before the ride was transferred to Marcus Ehning. For Pleasure is already the sire of eight licensed Hanoverian stallions, and was a member of the gold medal winning German team at the Sydney Olympic Games.

Barron, by For Pleasure, competing at the WEG with Lucy Davis for the USA

Perhaps Furioso II’s most influential son is Voltaire – out of a mare by another classic sire of jumping horses, Gotthard.

In dressage, Furioso II’s son, Purioso is the sire of numerous stars including Anky van Grunsven’s Grand Prix horse Cocktail (who is the sire of Jazz); Le Mexico is the sire of Ulft, who in turn is the sire of Ferro. The Oldenburg stallion Welt As is out of a Furioso II daughter, and is the sire of Anky’s gold medallist Bonfire and Christine Stückelberger’s Grand Prix horse, STC Diamond.

Farewell III, Bundeschampion for Klatte Stud

Recently when I was reviewing the 2021 Hanoverian breeding values in their latest stallion book, I remarked on the dominance of Furioso over dressage breeding in that studbook:

“The first thing to be said about this year’s Hanoverian dressage stallions’ rankings, is that once again, the dominant influence on the modern dressage horse is a stallion from France, you know the place where they can’t breed dressage horses, Furioso II. Furioso II is by the Thoroughbred (Thoroughbred, you know those horses that can’t do dressage)stallion, Furioso out of the Selle Français (yes, the ones with no mouth) mare, Dame de Ranville. Although there is no doubt that master breeder, Georg Vorwerk imported Furioso II in 1968 with jumping in mind, and Furioso II has been an extraordinarily influential stallion in the world of showjumping, his blood dominates dressage, even today, 53 years after the death of the stallion.”

“Of the twenty top dressage sires in this year’s Hanoverian Stallion book, seven descend from Furioso II, all of them via his grandson, Florestan (Fidelio / Rheingold), with two more sitting in 21st and 22^nd – Fürstbischof (Fürst Romancier / Plaisir d’Amour) and Fidertanz (Fidermark / Frühlingstraum II).”

He is almost as dominating a force in the breeding of today’s jumping horses – what a stallion! But he had to work hard, as Oldenburg breeding authority, Roland Ramsauer recalls:

“Of course I know the stallion, because when I started he was five or six years old and he was very successful. At that time, he was covering 450 mares per season, natural covering! I was a university student at the time, and the professor told me, with natural serving a stallion can cover a maximum of 200 mares. I said, Mr Professor, I am sorry but I know a stallion that covers over 450 mares. He said, I don’t believe that. Then I will invite you to come to the station of Mr Vorwerk and there you can see that Furioso covers for the first time in the morning, at five o’clock, at eight o’clock, for the second time, twelve o’clock, the third time. Three o’clock in the afternoon for the fourth time and seven o’clock in the evening for the fifth time, in the main season, May, June, July. The professor saw it for himself, unbelievable, then Mr Vorwerk said, let’s go to the dining room and have a Schnapps. The whole day, and up till the next morning, they were drinking and talking about Furioso and how he was found in France.”

“There is another story. When I had been the breeding director for six months, I met Dr Lehmann, the Director from Westfalia, and a very intelligent, well-educated man. He said to me, Herr Ramsauer, you are a nice man, and I will tell you one thing, how can you breed with this stallion who belongs in the zoological gardens, Furioso II? I said, Dr Lehmann, that is not your job, that is my job and we believe that we can be successful with the breed of Furioso II, that will be the success of the Oldenburger. And then, I think eighteen years later, there was Florestan, the big stallion in Westfalia, and I said, Oh Dr Lehmann you are breeding with this zoological stallion from France and you get Florestan, what do you think about that? He said, Florestan, that’s another story – I said it’s not another story, it’s a grand-son of Furioso II. Then he stopped talking about zoological things.”

What was it about Furioso II that made him great? There were a number of horses that came from France at that time, but only two of them, Cor de la Bryère and Furioso, worked, and there must have been another 15/20 that disappeared…
“You’re right, that was our problem too, to find another stallion after Furioso II. Vorwerk and I, we were traveling every year to France looking for stallions, and we tried three or four but they were not successful. Only Furioso II, with his Thoroughbred sire line, that fitted our breed so successfully.”

What did he give?
“He gave everything. Performance, for showjumping horses, for dressage horses, three-day event horses. Mr Vorwerk, he was a genius, if he had not been there, I think Oldenburg might have gone to merge with Hanover, but he said, Oldenburg is Oldenburg and Furioso is Furioso, and he and Inschallah, the Anglo Arab, they are Oldenburg. The smart thing he did was that he had breeders around him, and they all had excellent mares – and he said, you never sell a filly, you keep it, and I will organize the next generation for you. And the breeders believed him and that is why he was so successful. And they believed in him when he said, you have to change, go to Inschallah, go to Westminster, you go to Furioso. They believed the words of this outstanding breeder, Mr Vorwerk.”

Furioso 11 died in 1986 having sired progeny with earnings of nearly DM9,000,000. He sired 54 licensed stallions, including the Oldenburg licensing champions: Furidant (1971), Furore (1978) and Fatianus (1979). Mareile Oellrich-Overesch in her excellent profile of Florestan in the 2008/9 edition of Selected Sires of Germany makes the point: “It was a tradition in Oldenburg to prevent a stallion’s offspring from competing with their sire, so they were often sold to other breeding regions. That is why most of Furioso II’s sons were at stud in other regions of Germany or abroad. It also explains why the Furioso II bloodline didn’t originally survive in Oldenburg. Now, however it has made a comeback with Florestan’s sons Fürst Heinrich and Flavio (Sprehe Stud), Florencio (Ludwig Kathmann Stud), Faustinus (Vorwerk Stud) and Florianus (Grönwohldhof/Pape Stud). His grandsons Farewell I and Fidertanz (Böckmann/Wahler Stud), Farewell III (Klatte Stud) and Fürstentraum (Sprehe Stud) are also stationed in Oldenburg.

As late as 2007, Furioso II continued to shape the sport of showjumping. In the 2007/2008 Monneron ranking of the world’s top 75 stallions, Furioso II’s son Voltaire is ranked 11th in the world with 19 CSI winners, while For Pleasure, despite largely concentrating on a competition rather than a breeding career until recently, ranked 13th with 11 representatives.