1972 – 2003 168 cm Bay
Breeder: J. A. Dijkstra
Wiepke van de Lageweg bought Nimmerdor at a stallion show as a two year old, for the (then) considerable sum of 25,000 florins. He was to transform Wiepke the cattle dealer into one of the world’s leading stallion keepers…
Wiepke had started to develop his interest in horses, and purchased his first horse in June of 1972; coincidentally, Nimmerdor the horse that was to make Wiepke’s name, was born that same month! He purchased the then three-year-old stallion from breeder J.A. Dijkstra of Woudsend.
Nimmerdor
Jenneke Smit tells the story in her article, Quality wins the Contest in IDS magazine, 2009, the year the family van de Lageweg were declared KWPN breeders of the year.
Wiepke told Jenneke:
“In 1975, I took my first stallion, which I found in Holstein, to the selection in Zuidlaren. Unfortunately, he wasn’t good enough and didn’t make it past the second round. After that, I decided to sit in the stands until I saw the best stallion of the selection. When Nimmerdor came into the ring, I liked him right away; he was my kind of horse: athletic, youthful, and with a nice head. At the time, I really didn’t know anyone in the horse world, so I approached the breeder there at the selection, but Nimmerdor wasn’t for sale.”
“That was a Saturday evening. On Monday evening, I went to the breeder’s home. He told me again that Nimmerdor wasn’t for sale, but he let me look at his dam and granddam in their stalls. The dam was really beautiful, and I liked the granddam as well, although she was a heavier type. The breeder asked if I wanted to sit down for a cup of coffee, and things got better from there. Ultimately, he said that he would only sell Nimmerdor for ‘a lot of money’. Then, I got up, walked into the hallway, and said that he should discuss the matter with his wife and knock on the door when I could come back in the room again.”
“Then he named his price. It was a lot of money for a still unapproved stallion, but I wanted him. I had to buy Nimmerdor!”
Nimmerdor represents one of the most influential ‘founding’ sires of the Dutch Warmblood, the imported Holsteiner, Farn.
Farn – a huge influence on Dutch breeding
Nimmerdor was bred by J. A. Dijkstra in the northern part of Holland. His dam Ramonaa was by the Thoroughbred, Koridon. She worked on her owner’s farm and was ridden in 1.20 competitions by his son. Unfortunately, she only ever had one foal – but what a foal!
The Thoroughbred, Koridon
Ramonaa’s half sister (by Marco Polo), Orpheus jumping with Henk Nooren
The dam of Ramonaa is Friedhilde II, who was by Senator, a son of the famous mare, Morgenster who was also the dam of the well-known stallion, Sinaeda. Her sire, Koridon raced 96 times, winning 23 times and was only accepted for Warmblood breeding at the age of 13 but he was a successful sire of jumpers, the best known of which was The Saint ridden by Jan Maathuis.
The great mare, Morgenster, and her son Senator
At his performance test in 1975, Nimmerdor starred in the jumping, but even then required a rider who took charge, and only scored a 7 for character because of this attitude. He started jumping with Bert Romp, and went on to an international career with Albert Voorn, competing in Berlin, Paris, Goteborg, Dortmund and London. He was selected for the Los Angeles Olympics, but his owner, Weipke van der Lageweg decided he should stay home and concentrate on his breeding activities.
Nimmerdor – the competitor
Albert Voorn comments: “Even now after all those years, there is hardly a day that I don’t think of Nimmerdor. He was one of the most talented horses I ever rode. His carefulness combined with his great abilities and scope is seldom seen in a horse. It is a pity that I wasn’t able to ride this super talent, Nimmerdor, when my own talents and experiences had grown, like they have now. I had him at the start of my career while still being rather inexperienced. If I’d had him now, he would be very hard to beat I’m sure! I am fully aware that his owner Wiepke van der Lageweg, was also the proud owner of the last Olympic Champion, Jus de Pommes, but Nimmerdor was the better horse, no doubt!” (quote from the tribute to Nimmerdor by Claartje van Andel in the June 2003 issue of Breeding News)
As a sire, Nimmerdor has been equally successful, even before he retired from the competition arena, his progeny were starting to make their way through the ranks. Nimmerdor was ranked 29th on the World Breeding Federation ranking for the period 1992/2001 on the basis of a staggering 42 international level jumpers. These include such stars as Himmerdor with Paul Freimüller, Broere Goldenbridge and Wout-Jan Van der Schans, Heartbreaker and Peter Geerink and Canadian Colours and Jill Henselwood.
Nimmerdor has proven himself to be the sire of sires. At the time of his death he left 18 approved sons, and 37 approved grandsons. His son Aram was the sire of 2000 Olympic gold medalist, De Sjiem, and two stallion sons – Faram and Graham.
His son, Ahorn after a successful international jumping career, went on to sire AK High Valley Z, a winner of the TNT Sires of the Century competition for two years running. Ahorn sired five approved sons, including Furore, Hattrick and Matterhorn.
The Nimmerdor son, Goodtimes, produced the approved stallions Kalusha, Londontimes, Kenwood and Sydney. Another son, Wellington produced Emilion and Glennridge. Nimmerdor’s son, Glendale (Marco Polo) is the dam sire of one of the world’s most famous dressage horses, Totilas.
Nimmerdor
Other stallion sons of Nimmerdor include: Daimler, N-Aldato, Zadock, Nandor, Fortuna, Coronel, Amethist, Nimrod B, Norman and Night and Day.
The most important of his sons has undoubtedly been Heartbreaker who has founded a dynasty all of his own.
In 2000, Nimmerdor was elected ‘the stallion of the 20th century’ in the Netherlands
Nimmerdor died at the age of 31 in April 2003.
In the survey of the world’s top 75 jumping sires that appears in the French publication, Monneron 2007-2008, compiled by Bernard le Courtois, Nimmerdor is represented by two sons. Heartbreaker (out of a Silvano mare) is 11th with 19 CSI winners, while Goodtimes, ranks 65th with five winners.
At the 2008 Olympic Games, the individual gold medal went to Canada’s Eric Lemaze riding Hickstead – by the Nimmerdor son, Hamlet.
On the KWPN 2015/16 breeding values, Nimmerdor was in 22nd place on the list of stallions with a reliability of 90%+, with a breeding value of 136 (98%). He had produced 1694 progeny that have reached the age of four, for 554 competitors – 32.703%. On the 2016/17 rankings, Nimmerdor was up to 19th place with a jumping value of 135. He scored 107 for conformation, 105 for free movement and 107 for freejumping. 1695 progeny over four, with 554 competitors (32.68%). By 2021 he has disappeared from the list…
Weipke van der Lageweg still believes that Nimmerdor would have a role to play in modern breeding: “Nimmerdor could come back tomorrow and have a lot of work. Nimmerdor was unbelievable – you can see now in Holstein they have a problem, and they have a Nimmerdor son there, Nekton and he makes very good work. Nimmerdor is a type that could start breeding again tomorrow. But it is true now that we need more blood. The fences are different now, so are the distances, and we need more blood – but we always need the scope.”
