Was Apache the lost opportunity?

In 2021 the KWPN has post-humously awarded the stallion, Apache the preferent predicate, Christopher Hector looks at the life and times of a controversial stallion….

Apache

The sale of his grandson, About You for €1.65 million at the Borgmann auction, again throws the controversial stallion Apache into the limelight. Apache was one of those horses that wasn’t ever far from the headlines in the equestrian press. It was partly because of his behaviour – as a young horse, the dark brown stallion could be spectacularly naughty. Although his rider Emmelie Scholtens – who took him all the way to Grand Prix and a place in the Dutch team – didn’t think so.

In an interview with the KWPN magazine Emmelie confessed: “I’m certainly not a hero in the saddle, I’m rather careful. He’s never been naughty, but sometimes he would get too many impressions and it would be too much for him. He would lose it for a moment. There are horses that never want to work and have certain reactions because of that. That never happened to him. I have to be honest and say that I couldn’t do this without Jeroen (Witte, her partner). We are so tuned into each other and for us it’s normal that Apache can be too stalliony once in a while. I understand that people see that and consider him too much stallion. Warming him up with a lot of horses around him is still difficult for him. On the other hand, he is a really nice horse to ride tests with. He learnt that through time. As soon as I travel the ring, I feel him change and as soon as I enter at A, he turns that switch. I never have to work hard on Apache in the arena.”

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Yvonne Copal was Apache’s first rider and took him to 10th in the 2009 Pavo Cup as a four-year-old. In September 2009 Emmelie Scholtens took over the ride. The pair won the 2012 KWPN Stallion Competition and in 2012 they were the Dutch Small Tour Champions. They were members of the Dutch team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and placed 8th at the 2019 World Cup Finals in Gothenburg. They won bronze at the 2019 Dutch Grand Prix Championship. Sadly by the end of that year, Apache was put down as a result of laminitis.

Emmelie told Eurodressage: “The last few weeks we have done everything to make him recover as well as possible, but he was in so much pain and there was little to no hope for recovery. This has led us to make the decision to put him out of his misery. Apache was special in every way. I’ll never get a horse like that in my stable again. He was always present, which makes me miss him even more.”

There was more controversy over the stallion’s WFFS status. Initially he was tested negative but after his son, Jovian tested positive, Apache was tested again, and this time proved positive, as were two other sons, Indian Rock and Arango.

Indian Rock

Apache is by UB40, who is by the Jazz son, Olivi – and Olivi is out of a mare by Gyula Dallos’ piaffe machine of the 1990’s, Aktion. UB40 is out of a mare by the Trakener stallion, Michelangelo, imported to The Netherlands from Germany in 1990, by Joep van Uytert, the first of the Dutch stallion keepers to take dressage breeding seriously.

Krack C and Anky van Grunsven, Dutch Team members at the 2002 WEG

Apache is out of a mare by Dutch dressage team member, Krack C, with more dressage breeding on her dam line – Inspekteur, a grandson of the dressage sire, Roemer, a Grand Prix performer and prolific sire in both Holland and the United States. Roemer, who died in 1996, was also WFFS positive but luckily no one knew at the time and he bred many fine horses.

In 2015, Apache was the star of the KWPN licensing, there were twenty five colts selected to go on to the performance test: Apache provided four (3 pictured), Charmeur, three, and Jazz, two.

Apache/Ferro

Apache/Florestan

Apache/Jazz

The late Wim Ernes told me at the time:

“There were also some other good ones, but Apache was clearly the biggest group, also compared to last year, they were more relaxed in the performance. Last year the Apaches were really tense and we thought it was more or less because Apache himself was also a really quick horse and a work willing horse, and we thought maybe that would be too much, but today you could see after the first few that they were nice and relaxed. I think the people who are training the horses, they have seen from us in the last few years, that we don’t want to have the over-reacting horses, we want good horses which are normal, in a natural balance, and natural quality, and you can recognize it now.”

“I think at the moment when you also see the group that are four years old that were shown here, there is a lot of quality in the group. What I like to see is that they are all rideable, and even in this environment, there is no running away or tenseness, that is important for us, because in the past we had too many horses that were a little bit spooky, everyone talked about the Jazz horses, but now we are leveling it out I think. We have improved the walk in our breeding and we have kept the active and quick hind legs and I think it must go on in this way.”

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Grand Galaxy Win

As a breeding stallion, Apache sired six licensed sons: Grand Galaxy Win, Hometown, Intro K, Improver VDT, Indian Rock and Cum Laude. He also produced the KWPN Foal Champion Ferrari STH (now at small tour under Jeanine Nekeman), international small tour horse Gaudi Vita (Joyce Heuitink) and 2019 World Young Horse Champion Jovian (Andreas Helgstrand). He also produced 50 elite mares and 91 ster mares.

And surprisingly, Charlotte Dujardin’s favourite Gio, Pumpkin, because it was Halloween when she bought him, is by Apache, out of a Tango mare.

AC/DC

Right now it is Apache’s son AC/DC who is centre stage after his son, All You set the auction record. AC/DC is pretty much the perfect example of the German / Dutch fusion that so many acute breeders are looking for. His dam Floriana II (Florestan / Weinberg) is the full sister to two Grand Prix horses, Floriano and Floriano Deux. The dam sire, Weinberg is largely forgotten now, but he was the sire of Klaus Balkenhol’s great Goldstern.

Goldstern and Klaus Balkenhol at Aachen back in 1989

AC/DC does not seem to have had a great performance career. He qualified for the 5 year old dressage championships at the 2015 Bundeschampionate – you can see him here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svUHyaQxfBA but certainly looking at the collection at this year’s Borgmann auction where there were nine other entries aside from All You by AC/DC, and they all looked very fancy, he is a stallion to keep an eye on. Of course it helps that he has access to one of Germany’s finest broodmare bands…