Licensing winner, by Escolar from an Apache mare
2009 1.73 Bay
Westphallian
Breeder: Sabine Ludwichowski
The 2021 Westphalian Main Licensing was yet another triumph for the emerging champion of the old ‘E’ line, Escolar. His son, out of an Apache mare (who is a daughter of Isabell Werth’s multi Medal winner, Weihegold) was crowned licensing champion.
By Escolar out of an Apache mare (photo credit Reckimedia)
In the 2021 Hanoverian Stallion Book, Escolar is recorded with personal winnings €48,609. His progeny are only now entering the sport, with 171 competitors who have won €31,574, but they have been starring in young horse classes, which is why Escolar has an FN Young Horse Breeding Value of 164.
Escolar being ridden by his breedeer, Sabine Ludwichowski
(Photo – Tanja Becker)
However, Escolar is not the most attractive modern type, which accounts for his Hanoverian value for type a negative 95, with a score of just 90 for his head. He scores a negative 89 for limbs, but not surprisingly scores a very positive 135 in the new value for height. He has a Hanoverian value of 107 for dressage and 94 for jumping.
But we are lucky that the E line has survived…
My friend and colleague, Thomas Hartwig tells the story of the rescue of the E line by a master breeder, Norbert Borgmann:
“In the last two or three years, we have seen a very interesting comeback of the famous E line. The founder of the E line in Westfalia was Ehrenschild (Eindruck II / Adlerschild), a stallion from the Hanoverian State Stud in Celle. He came to the town of Melle in 1960, which is right on the border of Westfalia and Hanover, and so the Westfalian breeders used him. He was a big, heavy horse, but typical of his time, remember he was born in 1956, and came to Melle in 1960 – for this time, his type was typical.”
Ehrentusch
“He sired the Westfalian stallion, Ehrensold (Fronvogt), whose son was the very famous Ehrentusch (Rheingold). We saw a lot of very good progeny of Ehrentusch, and a lot of them have the same characteristics, they all want to work, they had all very good hind legs. They were not beauty queens – or kings – but perfectly usable, and not only dressage horses but also showjumpers.
El Paso as a Five Year Old competing at the Bundeschampionat – pic Werner Ernst
You might remember El Paso from Paul Schockemöhle and later Eddie Macken. In the 80s and early 90s, Ehrentusch was very favoured, but then a lot of people said, oh Ehrentusch’s progeny, they are not beautiful enough, and his popularity slipped down.”
Stephan Borgmann and the mare who saved the E line – Florence
“Then one of the most famous breeders, Norbert Borgmann, the father of Stephan who runs the family stud today, used Ehrentusch with his very perfect mare, Florence (Ferragamo / Florestan). They produced Estobar, later Estobar NRW. He sold at the auction is 2006 for the unbelievable price of over half a million euros.”
Estobar
“From Estobar we saw his really best son, Escolar, two times winner at the Bundeschampionate, as a three and four-year-old stallion, where he received several tens for canter and trot.”
Escolar winning as a Four Year Old…
And competing at Grand Prix Level…
“This story is a good example of two things. The first is, how great the danger is that a very valuable line can be forgotten – because if Norbert Borgmann hadn’t done his own thing with Florence, we would have had no Estobar, no Escolar, and no one would today speak about the E line. The second is that a lot of the strengths that were first seen with Ehrenschild, we can see three, four, five generations later. The very good hind legs, they all want to work, mostly not such beautiful horses but really horses you can use for working and working at a higher level, because they want to work.”
But the E line story goes way further back, and indeed, started out as the A line, as explained by another friend and colleague, Ludwig Christmann, in his celebrated paper, Bloodlines of the Hanoverian Horse:
Thoroughbred foundation sire, Adeptus
“The A-line was founded by Adeptus XX used for breeding from 1884-1904. Most important was his grandson Alderman and through the Alderman son Alkoven this line produced the famous stallion Agram (1942-62) an outstanding producer of jumping horses. In Agram’s color and type, one sees the influence of Arabian blood through his Amateur I mother.”
Einblick
“The A-line through Alderman lost significance after 1950, unfortunately. Today the A-line has changed to an E-line, with two main groups. One group goes back to the stallion Eindruck II, whose best known son is Einblick in his time a performance test winner and very good in dressage and jumping. Einblick was used at stud from 1973. This group is considered mainly to be dressage horses, although Einblick himself was also very good in jumping.”
Eisenherz
“The second E-line goes back to the stallion Eisenherz used in breeding from 1972. This group has a bigger influence on the breed than the Eindruck group.
Eiger I, good in type
The best son of Eisenherz is Eiger I who was a very good type and very prepotent. His offspring have both dressage and jumping abilities, and his best son so far, I believe, is the young stallion Espri, used only since 1985. Espri’s first group of horses was very convincing.”
When I consult that splendid publication, The European Stallion Families by Oliver Desmeulles, we see that Alderman’s influence has extended throughout Europe, and has been particularly strong in Sweden. The line from Adlerman through Alter Kerl to Astlflug, produces one of the foundation sires of the Swedish horse, Utrillo, sire of Chagall, who in turn sired World Cup champion, Gauguin de Lully, along with influential stallions like Chagall’s great grandsons, Amiral and Bernstein. Another son of Utrillo, Maraton, is the grandsire of Briar.
Briar – the E line goes to Sweden…
Another line from Alter Kerl / Althof leads to Eisenherz, who Ludwig has already discussed, responsible for Espri, Escudo and the Embassys.
The line we are focussed on is the one through Althof / Alter Dessaauer to Astflug sire of Eindruck and the wonderful thread that leads to the current star, and saviour of the E line, Escolar, and it might be pointed out, that of the D, R, W and F lines, only Donnerhall, and to a lesser extent Rubinstein, competed successfully at Grand Prix, while by the time he was eleven years old Escolar had already won the 4 star Grand Prix and Special at Oldenburg on a pair of 75s, and was third and fourth in the Grand Prix and Special at Frankfurt in 2020.
For all Escolar is hailed as the saviour of the E line, he is also more evidence in favour of the argument that THE most influential sire in the history of the modern warmblood – for both dressage and jumping – is the Selle Français import to Germany, Furioso II. Estobar’s dam, Florence is by Ferragamo, a grandson of Furioso II but she also has another cross on her mare line, her dam, Florabelle was by Florestan, another grandson of Furioso II. Escolar’s dam is by Fürst Piccolo, by Fidermark, by Florestan. That’s three crosses of Furioso II!
Furioso II
And the view from the saddle?
Certainly his rider, Hubertus Schmidt thinks Escolar has got what it takes:
“He is the horse with the most quality gaits. Imperio was nice, but when you see Escolar in the walk and the trot and the canter, he is the completest horse, amazing. Wansuela Suerte was completely different, today she would still score 74, but with 74 in a CDIO today, you are no-where. It has changed a lot, the quality of the horses is so amazing. The horses are so much more elastic and easier to train. Everything comes easier to them, the collection and the big forward trot – breeding has done a lot in just fifteen years.”
Would you like to breed to a new young star of the E line this season in Australia? Like Escaneno” You can:
Go to www.ihb.com.au
