The view from afar…
by Christopher Hector
Stallion show covid style © Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
Looking at the results of the KWPN stallion selection from the Covid-safe city of Melbourne, makes me wish all that much more that I’d been there. Even though it would have been a pretty strange stallion show without spectators and the usual buzz and excitement, not to mention the chance to meet old friends and find new ones… next year.
Painted Black – star competitor, star sire…
The licensing was a double triumph for the Dutch breeders, Frank van der Valk and Jaqueline van Anholt. Not only did the stallion they bred, Painted Black, sire four licensed sons but the star of the premium ring, Next Pitch US, is a product of their most famous mare line. Next Pitch is out of It’s Litchy out of Litchy, who is the dam of Painted Black.
As usual the story starts with that one special mare, and it is a story that was well told in the KWPN magazine, IDSi-2, by Karin de Haan. Jaqueline and Frank purchased Litchy’s dam, Vrona (Officier x Ransi s. Kristal), in 1989. “We bought Vrona as a ten-year-old… Jaqueline showed Vrona through Z level (3rd/Med) dressage. She was an exceptionally fun and easy mare. She always got noticed at the shows… Vrona was a long-lined, big mare with lovely presence. What’s more, she used her hind legs powerfully,” explains Frank van de Valk.
Ferro at the Sydney Olympic Games with Coby van Baalen
The pair lost the first foal by Zuidhorn then decided to breed her to Ferro: “At that time, people didn’t have much good to say about Ferro. Later, all the bad talk stopped, but he wasn’t a very popular breeding stallion at the time. We chose him for his compact conformation. Vrona was long-lined and we wanted a more compact horse. Further more, we wanted to ensure we got a horse that used its hind legs well, like Vrona, which is another reason why we chose Ferro.”
The result was Litchy: “Our plan was a success. Litchy was more compact than Vrona. Furthermore, she was a really nice filly – very fancy with powerful movement.”
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The pair decided to breed Litchy as a three-year-old: “Jacqueline actually wanted to start showing Litchy, but the filly was slow to mature mentally, so we decided to first breed her. That gave her another year to mature. We decided to breed her to Gribaldi. It was the first time we chose this stallion. We fell for his beautiful conformation. Like I said, Litchy wasn’t very big, so we thought that breeding her to Gribaldi would give us a bigger foal. At the time we chose Gribaldi, he was not yet approved, so we acted a bit prematurely when we decided on him.”
A year later, Painted Black was born. “We really liked Painted as a foal. He had plenty of neck, beautiful conformation, and lots of power and suppleness in his movement. We thought he used his hind legs extremely well. Others were later critical of him, something which we have never understood, though he certainly needed some time to channel his energies in the right direction.”
Painted Black and Hans Peter
Painted Black was sold as a foal, and like so many stallion stars, failed as a three-year-old at his licensing. AES was more forgiving than the KWPN, and approved by them, Painted Black went to Hans Peter Minderhoud, who showed him in stallion classes – where he caught the eye of Anky van Grunsven and Sjef Janssen. They bought him in partnership with Joop van Uytert and the Kelders family. Anky took him to the World Championships for Young Dressage horses and came home with a silver medal. She trained him to Grand Prix and he was quickly approved by the KWPN. On numerous occasions Painted Black scored over 75% with Anky before he showed just what a good horse he was, when, with the young rider Morgan Barbançon Mestre in the saddle, he went to the London Olympic Games, and gave her a lovely ride in the Grand Prix.
One of the four by Painted Black to be approved –
Notable VDL, out of a Zonik / Don Schufro mare
And here’s another – Neville – out of a Contender mare © Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
Now the Grand Prix star is proving a star sire. His four sons approved this year were out of Negro, Contender, Zonik and Uphill mares – that was four out of four candidates, a feat no other stallion achieved at the Licensing.
Vivaldi’s sire Krack C at the WEG in Jerez in 2002 with Anky van Grunsven
But there’s more to the story of Litchy as she is also the dam of It’s a Litchy, by Hotline (Hofrat / De Niro). It’s a Litchy is the dam of the star of the premium ring at this year’s licensing, Next Pitch US by Genial by Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) out of Wocky who is by Reiner Klimke’s Grand Prix star, the Trakehner, Biotop, out of a Ferro mare.
Joop is the master of showing off stallions – here he is with United
This is also a triumph for the doyen of Dutch dressage stallion keepers, Joop van Uytert, not only did he stand Painted Black at his stallion station, but the stud was – until recently – home to Next Pitch’s sire, Geniaal.
Van Uytert liked Trakehener blood and it was thanks to his influence that Trakehners probably had more influence on dressage breeding in The Netherlands than in Germany – that was until the recent upsurge of interest in Millennium and his series of licensing winning sons, but then again, van Uytert was in large part responsible for Millennium, since he is by one of Joop’s stallions, Easy Game, a son of Gribaldi, out of a Trakehner mare, Merle (Ravel / Consul).
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The success of the Dutch Warmblood was based on a group of hugely influential stallion keepers, but they were all obsessed with breeding jumpers, that is until Joop came on the scene:
In an interview in 2012, Joop told us: “We started in 1993, and in the first year, we bred with our KWPN-licensed Trakehner stallion, Balzflug (Habicht / Insterfeuer). My father-in-law bought him, he covered 200 mares in that first season, and that was our start.”
Joop wasn’t only quick to see opportunities for a specialist dressage sire, he also realised that to really get the mares, his stallions had to be out in the competition arena, and again, he chose his riders well:
Anky van Grunsven and Partout
“I had a good contact with Anky van Grunsven and we started with the stallion, Partout (another Trakehner, Arogno / Donauwind), and they were very successful. We bought Gribaldi (yes another, Kostolany / Ibikus) as a young stallion. That was the first stallion I bought, I was 26 or 27 then, I saw him as a young horse, two-and-a-half, and it was incredible what a horse he was – his movements were good but his type was magnificent. He brought very good breeding to Holland.”
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Edward Gal and Gribaldi
Business was growing… fast.
“We started the first year with 200 mares, then we had 400 mares, then 800-1000, now always between 1000 and 1500, and in the last four or five years, we have added a lot of young stallions. We have United, we have Vivaldi, Sandreo was licensed, Tango was licensed, we have Zhivago, we have Zizi Top, we have some German stallions.”
“For the last two years we have had around 2000 mares. It’s a lot of work, but that is our living, we were the ones who started with dressage. There are a lot of stallion stations in Holland; Nijhof, van der Lageweg, Zangersheide, all jumping. We are just dressage, and we knew Anky very well, and we know Edward Gal because when he started riding, he started with me.”
Tango competing with Hans Peter
“We have a lot of our stallions out with riders. Gribaldi was with Edward, United is with Edward, Vivaldi is with Hans Peter, Tango is with Hans Peter. In the morning we go to Holstud to collect semen, then the delivery is coming back with the semen for our place, or to go all over Europe.”
You must be pretty good at predicting the future… When everyone in Holland was breeding jumping horses, you decided to specialise in dressage…
“We had a little bit of luck of course. Anna, my wife, was riding dressage, and we knew Anky well, and dressage has been coming up and up. We have had some very good dressage stallions, Gribaldi, Cocktail, Partout – then we bought foals of those stallions, and one of our best young breeding stallions is United, and United is by Krack C out of a mare by Partout. We have a lot of combinations with that blood.”
Interesting that you went to Trakehner stallions because in Germany at the time, many of the breeders had given up on Trakehners, they were pretty, but couldn’t do anything…
Doruto, the first of the influential Trakehner dressage sires in Holland
“In the beginning of dressage in Holland, we had the Trakehner, Doruto, and he produced a lot of dressage horses. Gribaldi produces a lot, also Michelangelo. I think the Trakehner did a really good job in Holland. What the Trakehners have, they are hard horses. Good in their legs. Look at Gribaldi, he was never lame, he was 13 years old when it was the first time he had the vet. Partout was also a hard horse – and that is important.”
When you are looking for a young stallion, do you look at the pedigree first or the horse first?
“The horse always first. The type must be okay and for me, the backline must be very good – when that is okay, then you have normally enough power from behind.”
Can you tell the minute you see one?
“Yeah. You can see a stallion is a stallion. The others, when you go, is he? Maybe? The breeders say the same later.”
Next Pitch US © Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
In the breeding of the 2021 licensing star, Next Pitch US (US stands for the breeding farm Unlimited Stables), we see Biotop, another German Trakehner who was not much used in Germany despite being a Grand Prix star with the late Reiner Klimke. Geniaal is by the current star of the van Uytert stallion band, Vivaldi, out of Wocky, who is by Biotop, bred in Russia, by Blesk out of a Hockey II mare.
Geniaal – off to Denmark
But Geniaal has swapped stables, immediately after he won the VHO (Light Tour) Trophy at the 2019 Dutch Championships he was sold to Helgstrand Dressage where he will be campaigned by Andreas’ son, Alexander.
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There is more Trakehner influence in the breeding of Next Pitch US since the sire of It’s Litchy is Hotline by the Trakehner, Hofrat out of a De Niro mare. The young stallion was bred at the Dutch stud farm, Unlimited Stables.
The video posted by the KWPM shows just what a great mover Next Pitch US is – great articulation of knees and hocks, moving through whole body.
Soft to the ground, flexible through the body, not the slightest sign of spikey stabbing into the air. It’s very similar to the way his sire moves – Geniaal at the van Uytert stallion show demonstrated flowing uphill conformation, balanced and moving under himself. Movement flowing through from carrying hindquarters. All three gaits show rhythm and balance, and joint flexibility.
Suzanne Smeeing and her husband Wouter Lodder started Unlimited Stables in Lunteren about 15 years ago: “Our ambition/goal is to breed attractive horses, which are healthy, with excellent characters and which can perform at the highest levels of dressage,” Suzanne told me.
Suzanne Smeeing and her husband Wouter Lodder with one of their horses, Gotilas du Feuillard and his rider Corentin Pottier at the 2018 World Championships Young Horses in Ermelo where he finished 12th.
“To achieve that we are very particular when we select our breeding mares because we only breed four to five foals a year. At this moment we have a elite preferent mare by Contago x Vivaldi in foal to Le Formidable, a Ster mare by Florencio x Rubinstein out of the famous Barina dam line, she’s in foal to Iron. A young elite mare by Sir Donnerhall x Gribaldi in foal to Asgard’s Ibiza and of course the mother of Next Pitch US, It’s a Litchy and she’s in foal to Vivino. It’s a Litchy is the last offspring of the well known mare Litchy by Ferro, also the mother of Painted Black, Zizi Top and Go Legend. We bought It’s a Litchy at the foal auction Borculo.”
“We decided to use Geniaal for It’s a Litchy because Wouter really wanted to use a Vivaldi son and I wanted Trakhener blood to connect with the blood of Gribaldi behind Hotline.”
Joop, his wife Renate, and Just Wimphof
But there was even more glory for Mr van Uytert since another of his stallions, Just Wimphof equalled Painted Black’s tally of four licensed sons. Just Wimphof was born in Belgium but is solidly German bred – by the most successful son of Donnerhall, De Niro, out of Rastede, a mare by the Rubinstein grandson, Riccione out of Sabriena, a daughter of Sandro Hit, out of a mare by the Calypso II son Classiker, out of Fiela, a daughter of one of the pearls of the Pape family mare lines, Fiesta (Donnerhall / Pik Bube I) the full-sister of Don Schufro.
With a pedigree like that it was no surprise that Just Wimphof, aided by van Uytert’s formidable promotional skills, was the most popular stallion in The Netherlands in 2017, with 234 foals born in 2018, and fifteen out of that crop successful in the pre-selection for this year’s inspection.
How did you find Just Wimphof?
“The breeder bought the mare from a Schockemöhle auction as a two-year-old, and then she went to Belgium – they are Dutch people, but they live in Belgium. As a young mare she went to the mare shows where she got her Predicate, and she was ridden to the Z level and then they inseminated her with De Niro. Then when they wanted to take the foal to a foal show, they called me and I went with them to the regional show in Brabant, where the foal was the winner.”
Joop shows off Amazing Star. He is the absolute master of showing a horse to its best…
“Then the foal went to the final where he was the Reserve Champion of the KWPN show at Ermelo, by then we were partners in the horse. When he was two he went to the stallion show, he was accepted and then did a good performance test.”
What was it about Just Wimphof that you liked?
“He was a very nice type, most De Niros are not so beautiful but when you see the mother, she is a really modern type. He was a good type as a foal, at one year old, two years old, always good conformation. He was really good at the stallion show, he was a premium stallion. When he went to the performance test, he was really well behaved and had a really good walk, trot and canter. He had a very good score at the performance test.”
Starring for Just Wimphof – Nick Wimphof © Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
What are the qualities that he gives to his progeny?
“He gives a really good connection in the back. We have a lot of mares in Holland by Krack C and Jazz with a really good front leg, but the back could be a bit better, the connection. That’s his really great point, and for dressage when they get older, six, seven, eight, nine years, they start with piaffe, passage, and I think that – like De Niro himself – he gives good horses for the big sport, for Prix St Georges and Grand Prix.”
So that’s the view from afar – hopefully next year I will be there in person enjoying one of the greatest shows in the world…
The KWPN compensated for the no spectators rule by putting on a very professional television broadcast, but as you can see – it’s just not the same!
© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans
Vivaldi, and may other top European stallions are available in Australia from www.ihb.com.au
