Story by Chris Hector, and photos by Roz Neave, Tammo Ernst and Kiki Beelitz
Oldenburg has always prided itself on its flexibility and openness to new ideas, and those qualities were well on display at the recent Oldenburg Summer Meeting. The team at the Oldenburg Verband is young and bright, and the Meeting was co-hosted by Dr Andre Hahn, who is in charge of overseas developments, and publicity person, Saskia Albrecht, and the major theoretical address came from assistant breeding director, Katrin Burger.
Katrin’s talk was essentially the same as the paper she delivered at the 2011 Bundeschampionate, I won’t go over it again, but I did sit down with Katrin after her talk, to record this interview, and as you will find out, Katrin Burger is refreshingly direct and open in her views…
Recently you introduced Lunging at the Licensing as well as the traditional showing of the stallions in hand – has that gone smoothly?
“We were concerned that the stallion producers, who prepare the colts, would show them with too much tension. They might use the wrong side reins, so we tell them exactly how they should be, and where exactly to fit them. Most of the stallion producers try to put them very high, because many of them think that stallions trot much better when they have a lot of tension, with their heads up in the air. I don’t think this is true, because when they are like that, they can ‘t go over the back, they are not nicely swinging, they just have a lot of tension – perhaps they have a spectacular front leg. The thing is, on a lunge rein you also can see the hind leg, so the movement of the back is very very important, and if the neck is too high, the back won’t work any more and that shows in canter.”
“With some of our trainers, we were really shocked to find that they were not able to show the horse in canter on a lunge line. You can see the tension come out in the canter, they are flat with a short stride. A lot of people were shocked when they saw some very famous trainers lunging their stallions, and we were told, you can’t show that to the people- but we said, no we must show that, it is not only that they lunge the horses like that here in the arena, that is how they lunge their horses at home, and there it is done for weeks, not just once for a licensing – and that is not good for the horses. Hopefully, now the training of the horses will improve.”
This year for the first time, the young stallions were shown under the saddle at the Licensing, what proportion of the decisions were changed as a result of seeing the horses under saddle?
“With the best horses it is always easy, the ones that are wonderful in hand, are wonderful under saddle, they are easy to assess. But for 30 to 40%, our thinking changed when we saw them under saddle. There were some stallions that did not look good enough when they were shown in hand, but under saddle, they showed they were good enough. I can think of one stallion that was accepted because of the work under saddle, not for a spectacular trot – he had a correct trot with a good hind leg, a nice swinging, but not spectacular, he had a nice front leg, it was just not huge and ground covering, just correct, but he had a fantastic walk and he had a really good canter, so he was licensed because of his rideability. But we also had many examples of horses that were really good in hand, but not under saddle.”
“One stallion that benefitted from the change is Freundschaft (Florencio/Donnerhall) he was not licensed at the main licensing in autumn, but subsequently licensed under saddle. Since then has he won all three riding horse classes he has contested with scores around 8.5.”
Freundschaft – missed out at the first licensing but then under the saddle was licensed and since then has been a star in the young horse classes
The other controversial development in German Horse Breeding is the new performance test, with the BLUP factored into it… I thought all through Europe, the breeders were rejecting the BLUP system of evaluating horses, even in France where is was such a dominating factor in their breeding, it has disappeared, suddenly it has become part of the German stallion performance test… where did this come from?
“Our German Federation decided to make a new system for the performance test, which was a really good idea because the old system was horrible. It doesn’t make sense to have a group of horses given a score that is in relation to a median score of 100, because we know that sometimes we have a really good group and sometimes a really bad group. I have seen a group of 25 stallions where there was no bad one, they were all really good quality- but one of those stallions ends up on a score of 90 because he is not quite as good as the others but he was still a really good stallion, and in a weaker group he would have got a really good score. The old system was really stupid in its calculation, it didn’t work any more.”
“Now we have a new system, which is good. If you have studied enough about animal breeding they you will know that the BLUP system is a good means of assessing if you have enough information.”
BLUP was designed for, and works really well for cows when you are just measuring one thing- how much milk they will give on the basis of their genetic heritage…
“Perhaps also for horses BLUP is the best possibility we have. We have the problem with horses that if you have the same horse, and give it to two different riders, then you can have two totally different results even though the genes are the same- even if they are both good riders. What the BLUP system does is to try and put all the information together – competition results, mare performance tests, stallion tests, everything – and it tries to make a difference between small weaker competitions and bigger stronger shows, between good riders and not so good riders, it tries its best and I think it comes up with some interesting information about the stallions…”
Very interesting, I just looked at the FN stallion rankings – which come from this BLUP system – and for ten years the number one stallion is Don Schufro, and what has he produced? Some pretty foals, some expensive auction horses, some nice young horse competitors … but not really any Grand Prix horses… But we look at a horse like De Niro, who we know produces good Grand Prix competitors, and he is not even in the top ten on the FN rankings…
“But Don Schufro has produced some good sport horses in Denmark, and that is one problem with the figures because it doesn’t have the ability to look at all the results in every country. The funny thing is that all riders love Don Schufro, it is very easy to sell his progeny, but of course you can always find things to discuss. It is the same with De Niro- he was one of the few stallions to come back. He had an outstanding first foal crop, some really expensive auction foals and then everyone was in deep shock when they were three-year-olds, because they weren’t as nice as they had been as foals. They changed, they were a little bit flat – a good trot, but a lot of them had problems in canter. This is a difficult issue until you go to Grand Prix because there if they do one times changes, but the canter is flat, no one cares, and there is no question that a lot of De Niros go to Grand Prix, and that is why he came back and the breeders started to use him again.”
“The thing about the BLUP system is that it has all the information in the system, not just the international Grand Prix horses, and that is a good thing because in my opinion, the international Grand Prix horses are only made by the international Grand Prix riders. A normal rider is not able to take a horse to international Grand Prix no matter how good the horse is.”
Desperados by De Niro – a medal winner at the Games
So you think the new performance test system is a good thing?
“I was talking about the BLUP system in general which takes into consideration everything but this new stallion performance assessment only takes into consideration the results out of the stallion performance tests of the stallions on the pedigree, not all the information. The thing with the new system is that we have a lot of confusion in Germany at the moment. The breeding associations were much too quick to use the new system as part of their selection process, they should have waited a little bit longer.”
“Especially in Hanover, they were so strict, I found it hard to believe. Under the new system, you get two scores, one for dressage and one for jumping, and the Hanoverians said their horses must have an average of 100 or better, for both jumping and dressage if they are Hanoverian, and if they come from another studbook, then the average must be 110. Under the new system, the judges come from the German Federation, and the trainer of the stallions for the performance test does not have a score, and the German Federation judges were told to be strong. In the past sometimes if they had a dressage stallion then they would be a little softer with the jumping score – no – now they had to be tough, and so for some of the dressage stallions they were giving scores of five for jumping, and then the stallion ends up with an average of 55 for jumping, so then you can calculate how big a score the horse needs to get from the dressage to end up with an average of 100 for both – it needs 145! So even if they score 130 or 140 in the dressage, this is not enough to get the 100 and be approved by the Hanoverians.”
“At least that is how they started in Hanover, I think now it is changed because they found they could not accept stallions even if they had a score of 140 in dressage because they were not able to jump, that doesn’t make sense. That is the problem – the problem is not in the calculation, but how the result is used by the Breeding Associations.”
Sir Donnerhall II – not good enough for the Hanoverian Commission?
(The new system proved highly embarrassing for the Hanoverian authorities, when the Oldenburg bred stallion, Fairbanks, who is owned by the former President of the American Hanoverian Society, Doug Leatherdale, a regular high bidder at the Hanoverian Stallion auctions, was rejected by Hanover because of his performance test result. The stallion is fully licensed in Oldenburg where he was declared a ‘premium’ stallion because of the quality of his foals, and the Hanoverian mare owners found they had to register their Fairbanks foals with Oldenburg. This follows the embarrassing situation the year before when Celle leased the stallion, Sir Donnerhall II who covered a largish book of mares before the Hanoverian Commission refused to License him. Once again, the Hanoverian breeders had to have their foals registered in Oldenburg! Sir Donnerhall II has now been selected for the German Team for the World Championship of the Young Dressage Horses in – wait for it – Verden!)
“For sure, we have problems with stallions who are by sires in foreign countries because we don’t have information on the progeny of those stallions in their own country. These foreign stallions have a value assigned which is very low – but the people who made this index say this is not a guess, it is because most of the stallions that come here to be licensed or make the performance test here are ones that couldn’t get licensed in their own countries, and their breeding results are not so impressive.”
When calculating the new index for the stallion performance test, why does it only use the information about the performance test results for the stallions’ ancestors?
“The data which goes into the breeding index of the stallion for the pedigree index only comes out of the results of the stallion tests. They made a study and they compared the integrated index of the stallions (this is the system where all the information – the stallion’s own performance and the performances of its relatives are taken into account) with the index that came from just using the results of the performance tests, and they found it was nearly the same.”
So where does the push come for the new system, for the use of the BLUP system in the performance test?
“I think it comes from Hanover. There are some people who are real fans of the BLUP system. In their opinion you shouldn’t look at the horses at all, just at their BLUP index. Simple.”
And easy, instead of all those messy horses, we can just sit around the table with our calculators and do the licensing…
“And now they are working on the Genome system and genomic selection, that is the next step…”
Great, we won’t need our calculator any more just a microscope…
“You can look at the foal, look at the genes, and decide if you ride it or sell it.”
I should point out that Katrin who has a very good sense of humour, is laughing out loud but she does have a serious point to make…
“I think the genomic selection is very important in determining heritability as it affects the soundness of the horses. That is really important. If you talk for example about OCD. We have lots of horses that we know have a problem with OCD and we even know the stallions that cause the problem because the vets are talking about it. That doesn’t mean that the stallion himself has OCD, he can be a carrier. You can’t say I will look at the stallion’s X-rays and then know what he will give to the offspring, that’s the problem.”
You don’t like the new Dutch system of a breeding index for the health of the stallion?
“We are trying to do something like that in Germany. The breeding associations are coming together to try and agree on a uniform system so that we have the same vet status for all the licensings, and at those meetings, we discussed the possibility of the Dutch system where they check the offspring. In Germany it is very difficult because our horse owners have all the rights to their horses and that includes any information about those horses – so it is very difficult to collect the data. If the vets make X-rays, they are not allowed to make that information available to anyone else. I think the Dutch have a system where they can take those X-rays for their studies.”
“I am not sure that OCD is such a big problem, because it is not so difficult to remove the chips, and then the horse is sound even though it had OCD, and we don’t know if that OCD is genetic, or because of diet, or because the horse was kicked.”
So why is OCD still regarded as such a problem?
“I talked to people who went to the meeting in The Netherlands and everyone said, the improvement in OCD has not been good enough there, they are selecting, selecting, selecting, no carrier of OCD can be a stallion, and they still have it, it is not out.”
And even with the new indices for stallion health, it will be a long time before most of the stallions have an index because it is only applied to stallions licensed in 2007 and later…
“That is the other problem with horse breeding, it takes such a long time to make studies and changes.”
But I thought that most people had worked out how to handle OCD, it was not such a problem unless you were trying to sell a horse to an American?
“At the moment we have problems selling horses with OCD for example, to The Netherlands, or Sweden, because for licensed stallions they don’t accept it. If the horse has OCD in the hock, then it cannot be licensed there. In Germany we have very clear rules -the stallions are not allowed to have OCD in the knee because this has the highest heritability, and it’s harder to fix. They are allowed to have one OCD in the hock, not in both. There it can be bad luck, and you have to take into account the quality of the horse, that is the most important.”
Another thing you referred to in your talk that I don’t think people are aware of, is the problem with backs, with inheritable neurological problems in the spine … We hear about stallions that have these problems, and yet while everyone talks about OCD, nobody much is talking about wobblers, and spinal problems that are heritable…
“I don’t really know why, but these problems are growing. I wasn’t in the horse breeding industry 30 years ago, but I think we have more of those problems today – perhaps it is because some stallions are covering so many mares, and if one of those stallions has such a problem, then it will spread – in the past you didn’t have stallions that covered 400, or 600 mares. We are aware there is a problem and that is why I think genomic selection is so interesting- take cribbing for example, that has a genetic base…”
So we have to get rid of the ‘R’ Line…
“We are not talking about getting rid of things, if we had the possibility of genomic selection, we could take those of the R line that don’t have it. It is the same with roarers, we are making a study now looking at wobblers/ spinal problems because we know the lines with these problems but if you don’t have a study to prove it, you can’t take action. With roarers for example, it is no longer a big problem because it was only a few lines that had it, and there selection worked.”
“The thing with the tail and the spine is more difficult because there are less people looking at it, but it is mostly in the same lines and it goes together with the throughness of the hind legs. The horses can compete in international sport, there are a number of examples of that, but for sure, we don’t want them breeding.”
Now if that doesn’t get you thinking hard, nothing will!
Janne Sosath with one of Oldenburg’s most popular jumping stallions, Lordanos
But enough with the theory, it’s time to get on the road and see some real live horses in action, and our first stop was the showjumping yard of Danish star, Soren Pedersen.
Soren’s most successful horse has been Lobster who has also been the most successful jumper by Landor S, who is the star of the stallion roster just down the road at Gerd Sosath’s farm. Only later in our trip around Oldenburg did it occur to me that Sosath’s Stud may well be the last of the great family studs in Oldenburg- the private studs that were the dominating force in the emergence of the Oldenburg breed. One by one they have been disappearing.
The first of the showcase studs, Grohnwoldhof, home of the great Donnerhall, with its water wheel and manicured grounds, is closed, it exists only as a memory. One of the most influential studs in the development of the modern Warmblood was Gestut Vorwerk. It was Georg Vorwerk who went to France in 1968, returning with Furioso II, whose influence in German breeding, particularly dressage breeding seems to get stronger day by day. It was at Gestut Vorwerk, under the leadership of Georg ‘s daughter, Gedula, that Rubinstein reigned, yet this is another great stud closed. And as we were to find when we visited the stallion station of Ludwig Kathmann, the Kathmann family is no longer involved, and the stallions ‘live’ in a nitrogen container!
But the stud of Gerd Sosath is still going strong, headed by Gerd, with the assistance of his son, Hendrik and daughter Janne, with the three of them representing the stud in showjumping competitions. It was Janne who showed us around…
Again it is one of those no nonsense functional operations, just bigger than most. We met the stallion that ‘made’ the stud – Landor S – or to be more precise it was
Landor S’s dam, Fureida II who founded the Sosath dynasty – she was a product of the Sosath family’s mare line. Her first foal was Laertes who won many jumping classes with Gerd Sosath in the saddle, her second was the licensed stallion, Landwerder, exported to the USA, and the third really put the stud on the map: Landor S. The bay stallion was the six-year-old champion at the Bundeschampionate of 1997, and went on to be a successful Grand Prix competitor with Gerd and later his son, Hendrik.
In the beginning, there was Landor S
“Landor S produced progeny with a lot of Thoroughbred type,” explained Gerd, “they were careful and strong jumpers. He was best with mares with a good frame, heavy mares who needed blood. He was not that good with very blood mares that were a bit too spooky, then they were too careful and too complicated to ride.”
We also met the next big star in the stallion ranks, Lordanos. Lordanos was another young horse star, winning nearly 40 competitions in a row, before going on to be a successful competitor up to 1.50m – again with all three members of the family, Janne, Gerd and Hendrik. His foals have won more than a million euros. In the past year, more than 40 of his progeny were successful in classes from 1.40m to Grand Prix in Germany.
“When I first saw Lordanos, I liked the type and the bloodlines and I liked the stallion himself, that’s why I bought him at the licensing. He makes horses with a lot of rideability – horses that are successful in international sport, but he produces horses not only for professionals but also for amateur riders because they are so easy to ride.”
Gerd says it was never planned that their family farm should become a stallion station, “it just happened.”
“Landadel was a favourite stallion in Oldenburg, but his semen was not so good, so the breeders were interested in Landor S, so the station grew, and we had more stallions, every year we have more. In the early years it was more showjumpers, and then we swapped some semen with Paul Schockemiihle, and he sent some semen from Sandra Hit and we bred that to one of our Landadel mares, and the foal was Stedinger, and he became a champion at the Bundeschampionate, and so we also were standing dressage stallions.”
Who will be the next stallion star at the Sosath Stud?
“The most important for breeding will be Ludwigs As and also I think, Casino Berlin.” These two young stallions repeat the family formula of keeping the blood of Landor S, but adding outside elements. Ludwigs As is by the Landor S son, Ludwig von Bayen, out of an Acord II mare, while Casino Berlin is by the international star, Eurocommerce Berlin, out of a Landor S mare.
Hands on management at the Sosath stud – Gerd is schooling Crusader when we arrive
Ludwig’s As was a star at the Oldenburg licensing, and successful in young horse classes – placing at the World Young Horse Championships in Lanaken – and is now placing in 1.40m classes and moving on to an international career.
Casino Berlin was awarded 1e-premium stallion at the 2010 Oldenburger licensing, and scored 9 for free jumping in his performance test, and thanks to the Landor S influence, he is not heavy like many of the Berlins.
“We like to make horses that are easy to ride – because all the riders are getting worse – so we produce horses with a very good character so amateur riders can handle them – not just professionals.”
You like to mix a Little Selle Français with the Holsteiner blood?
“We have foals from Mylord Cathago, several from Diamant de Semilly, from Flamenco de Semilly, from Nabab de Reve, Quidam de Revel. It is important that we have special blood so we have interesting stallions for the future, for example, Casino Berlin is out of one of our mares. With stallions it is not so easy to buy them, we have to breed them. When we take French stallions it is very important that we take mares with a very good rideability, because mainly the trouble with the French blood is that they are too ‘bloody’, too special, they are very good showjumpers but not so easy to ride and handle.”
Would you breed to the clone of Qui dam de Revel?
“No. There was the clone of Chellano Z that I saw at Zangersheide and it was not the same type as the stallion, it was very small, not a good model, very normal. The one from Quidam is not even the same colour.”
Gerd Sosath and his family made us very welcome at their stud, it does show that with sharp marketing, good horsemanship can still survive in today’s market. We also travelled to the stud which I guess is partly the reason all the other studs are finding it hard to exist – Paul Schockemoehle’s huge training complex and stud at Muhlen. Here we see stallion after stallion after stallion. The PSI stable looks more and more like an informal ‘national’ stud every year, and Mr Schockemoehle is a master at marketing and promoting his stallions. Right now, after the Totilas bubble seems to have if not burst at least deflated a little, there is no stand -out star in the ranks. It was a bit of a surprise to learn that the most popular stallion in Oldenburg in the most recent breeding season had been PSI’s Foundation, a four-year-old son of Fidertanz out of a mare by De Vito who is by De Niro. Foundation looks a nice big horse, and had excellent performance test scores, but it is a comment on the current state of flux in German breeding that he had so many mares, especially with no progeny competition results whatsoever! Maybe the modest fee of €1000 was part of the attraction since many of the breeders are doing it tough right now.
Foundation – most popular stallion in Oldenburg last season…
The members of our study group were also keen observers at the auction trials, and tried several horses, and in the end purchased quite a few, including the high priced foal, a filly by Totilas out of the Champion Mare of the Elite Broodmare Show, Weihegold by Don Schufro-Sandro Hit, for 40,000 Euros. In fact, the friendly couple from Finland purchased three top foals in the collection, while the Italians went home with a showjumping mare, and a visitor from England was the successful bidder on a mare from the famous mare line of Georg Sieverding, whose stud we visited on our travels…
According to Auction jumping sales manager, Fabian Kuhl, the most important jumping stallions in Oldenburg are: “Balou de Rouet, he produces very good horses, sportive horses, Lordanos is always interesting because they are rideable and they are always pretty. Chacco-Blue has some very good foals, later on they have lots of scope and they are good for higher classes – a few of them are better for the professionals.”
What is it about Balou de Rouet?
“They are pretty, they are very sportive, careful, very good brain. The horses that we have always have very good x-rays, and that is very important for the auction. The rideability is the most important thing.”
What sort of mares does Balou work well with?
“Some of the Balous are not so tall, so if you have a taller mare, he is very useful. Those stallions, Balou de Rouet or Diarado, they are very famous, they are good horses, but they need a tall mare.”
The Diarados have been a little small…
“No, the ones we had at the Last Licensing were all tall. Ask the breeders, and they say with Diarado, use a taller mare, and he will make the foals a Little more pretty.”
Trying the jumping horses in the auction…
With Chacco-Blue…
“With the stallion going so well in international classes – like Aachen – the people get used to hearing about him and it makes it easier to sell his progeny.”
Are the jumping horses you are selling now different from ten years ago?
“Because the courses are more technical, then the rideability has to be better. Ninety percent of the customers for our auction are amateurs – whether they ride 1.50m or 1.10m, most of them are amateurs, and they need horses that are easy to ride, good to work with, and a nice character. A Long time ago, the most important thing for jumpers was a horse that can jump two metres, at the moment they are more interested in rideability. The courses are not super high, but they need good horses. The market in Germany at the moment is down, the economy is not so good, and there are a Lot of horses on the market, but the people who come here need well ridden horses and that is what they find . It is not easy for the amateur to go directly to the breeder and find a horse. The prices for the good horses are still okay- but for youngsters in the paddock, two or three years old, they are cheap, because once the horses come inside for the winter, then the breeder has to send them to a rider. The breeder says, okay, I didn’t sell him as a foal, it’s good to sell him now before I spend so much on training.”
Really the absolute highlight of the Summer Meeting was the visit to the farm of Georg Sieverding. Forget the politics, the BLUP indices, the bling of modern breeding – here is what it is all about. You walk directly from the historic barn, through the door, and you are in the house – open one of the stable doors and out comes one of the most beautiful mares you have ever seen in your Life, not one mare, but one after another. This was a Line up of mares the Like of which I have never ever seen anywhere! You know immediately that the man who put this collection together is a thinker and a horseman with a wonderful eye… and it is no surprise to Learn from him that his mentor was the great Georg Vorwerk.
One of the beautiful fillies bred by Georg Sieverding – the yearling is out of Starlet and by Fürstenball, who was also bred at the stud… that’s Mr Severding standing in the middle of the doorway
“Georg Vorwerk was my friend, we travelled a lot together. I spoke with many breeders, but Georg Vorwerk was my main advisor what was important for him was to see a foal at the age of three days, three weeks, three months. For Georg Vorwerk the correctness of the gaits and the bones was very important. You must have a sound horse with a very good temperament and character. The hind Leg was always very important, the engine has to be correct.”
You can also see the influence of Vorwerk in the Lines of the mares – the first mare we see is from the grey mare Line which traces to another of Vorwerk’s influential imports, the French Anglo-Arab stallion, lnschallah. The mare’s name is Starlet, and she really is a star. She is by the Dream of Heidelburg son, Dormello, whose dam Line goes to Furioso II , and is out of Silka by Feingau by Furioso II , out of the lnschallah daughter, Silke II. As Mr Sieverding explains, there was really no choice:
“When Georg Vorwerk was alive, it wasn’t allowed to use a stallion from another stallion station, but he always had a Lot of stallions so it wasn’t necessary to go to another stallion owner. It was not a matter of always saying ‘yes’ to everything Georg said, we had our arguments, but Georg was very honest, he went a very strict way and you could trust him.”
The grey mare Line has produced four Licensed stallions, including Starlet’s son, Floricello, the reserve champion of the Oldenburg Licensing in 2010. Floricello currently stands in Sweden, and a half share in him has recently been acquired by Andreas Helgstrand, who will campaign the young stallion in the future.
We also saw Starlet’s yearling daughter by Furstenball, and she too was stunning, and as we saw when she was allowed to strut her stuff in the Little outdoor arena, a great mover.
The other great mare Line at Mr Sieverding’s farm, is the chestnut Line which descends from a Selle Fran~ais mare, Mexicane by Mexico (the full brother to Fiurioso II) purchased in France while travelling with Georg Vorwerk. Mexicane was bred to the Thoroughbred, Shikampur, and the daughter, Mon Amour, to Weltmeister, an influential Hanoverian stallion (sire of Robert Dover’s Grand Prix dressage representative, Walzertakt and Gerd Wiltfang’s showjumper, Warum 10.
Weltmeister’s sire, Wedekind was the best son of the famous Ferdinand) to produce Maureen, who was then bred to the Holstein stallion,Classiker,a son of Calypso II to produce Marella … If using blood from all over the world is an exciting novelty in some studbooks, it has always been the bread-and-butter of Oldenburg breeding, and one of the area’s great strengths.
The ‘M’ line – in this case Maradona with her foal by Bretton Woods and in hand
Marella bred to Donnerhall produced Maradita, who was brought out of the barn for us to see. Maradita is the dam of Sieger Hit (by Sandra Hit) who – ridden by Andreas Helgstrand – won the 5 and 6-year-old stallion championship at the 2011 Danish Licensing. Sieger Hit’s full-sister was the next mare we saw, she had a filly foal at foot by the Dutch Stallion, Desperando (Vivaldi / Havidoff / Ferro). Later Mr Sieverding told me that this one he was keeping for his brood mare band:
“It is just a feeling, the black filly, she is not for sale, maybe I will sell the mother, but the foal has something special. I can’t explain why, but it is a special feeling . The foal is not in the best shape now, but I feel she is a new brood mare for me. I have to believe in the foals that will become mares. This is what Georg Vorwerk taught me, to have your own mind, to think, to reflect on things, and then be steady and go straight.”
Maradita’s full-sister, Maradonna, is the dam of one of Germany’s hottest stallions, Furstenball (by Furst Heinrich). This 13-year-old mare was simply exquisite – she had a Bretton Woods foal at foot, and was in foal to Furst Romancier.
One of the stand-out foals of the collection was out of Marella II who is by the Blue Hors stallion, Don Romantic out of Marella – the foal is by the Danish-based Dutch sire, Blue Hors Zack (Rousseau I Jazz) and the movement was so brilliant that our little group broke into spontaneous applause.
A breeding triumph for Georg Sieverding, the stallion, Fürstenball
It was truly a privilege to see such a collection of mares, and to meet a breeder who reminds you that in amongst all the hype and the megabucks, there are some breeders who passionately care about what they are doing, not that Mr Sieverding is stuck in the past. When I ask ‘is it a sad world now without the great Oldenburg breeding stations – like Vorwerk?’ He is looking to the future:
“It’s not a problem we have to move forward. Today if Georg Vorwerk was alive, he wouldn’t be operating the same way, if he had the chance to get semen from The Netherlands or Denmark, he would go those new ways. The transport of the semen, with the Dutch for example, is fantastic, it is wonderful to be able to get semen from abroad.”
“You have to learn every day, to focus every day again. I travel a lot, to Herning in Denmark, to den Bosch in Holland, to see the stallions, to see their first crops, then I make my decision. Sometimes I use young unproven stallions but only to mares that are very safe.”
The foal by Zack provoked a round of applause… A full sister to this colt was purchased by Australian interests.
Safe is not really the word you think of when you see mares like this – brilliant, stunning, exquisite … We take our leave and motor back to our hotel in the pouring rain, time to get together for one last drink, to farewell the new friends we have made on the trip. The Oldenburg Summer Meeting is a very welcome addition to the world of performance horse breeding particularly for English language breeding enthusiasts who are looking for information…
This article first appeared in the November 2012 issue of THM.