Dressage Breeding – Christopher Hector asks Who are the hot stallions right now?

Let’s look at the start lists at two of the world’s great CHIOs – Rotterdam and Aachen.

Rotterdam was something of a triumph for Sir Donnerhall I and his full-brother Sir Donnerhall II.

Sir Donnerhall wins at the Bundeschampionate…

I saw Sir Donnerhall (Sandro Hit / Donnerhall) when he had his one competition triumph, Champion in the Five Year Old dressage class at the Bundeschampionate. His previous attempt at fame had ended in tears when after leading the first go round in the World Young Horse championship, Sir Donnerhall was very disobedient in the canter work in the second round, but still managed to finish in second place thanks in large part to a 9.5 for general impression, a mark that provoked a noisy and antagonistic reaction from the spectators – like his father, this is a horse that attracts strong polarizing opinions…

Even when he won his Bundeschampionate title, there were those who pointed out that the stallion was slow behind, which provoked a somewhat defensive response from the rider who ‘made’ him, Ulf Möller. I  put it to Ulf:

Sir Donnerhall is a little bit slow behind?

“Okay he is a little bit, he’s built a little bit like this. His croup is a little bit flat, we all know this, but because he’s so rideable you can activate the hind leg, he takes it, and that’s the good thing, and it gets even better with the age, with the right muscles… Okay, from his construction it’s a little bit flat, but let’s say one of 100 foals have it, most of them have a very nice hind leg, and a very nice construction from the croup. This is what I mean, if you have a mare with a flat croup, you would not use this stallion because then you mix two negative things together, then you cannot hope that it gets better. That’s how it should work.”

Sir Donnerhall’s flat croup may be in part due to his somewhat eccentric breeding.  Okay he is by Sandro Hit, another horse that Ulf made, another who has gone on to be a major influence in dressage breeding, but things get interesting when we look at the dam line. His dam sire, Donnerhall has been without doubt the most successful dressage sire of all time.

Sir Donnerhall’s dam, Contenance D is out of the Holsteiner mare, Contenance II, whose sire, Feldherr combines two of the famous old style Holsteiners, Farnese and Moltke I, her dam, Contenance is by the Thoroughbred, Grundyman and her dam, Vorr is by another Holsteiner, Ratibor (conventional enough: Raimond, Consul, Ladykiller, Fahnrich).

But it is the next line that starts to get exotic, with lots of å’s and ø’s, indicating that we have moved even further north to Denmark, and one of the original Danish breeds, the Fredriksborg, a breed of chestnut carriage horses.

The Fredriksborg

Ulf was keen to stress the quality of Sir Donnerhall’s brain: “As you know, I rode a lot of Sandro Hit offspring and there are some really good ones. You see now some of his offspring winning the Grand Prix, but there was always a little bit the concern that some offspring from Sandro Hit do not have enough energy. I think Sir Donnerhall is really the one with the perfect mix of being nice, of being rideable, of having a good brain, but also of being fresh enough, forward enough and smart enough and trainable enough. I think that’s the things that get more and more important, not only the gaits, but also the willingness, the trainability, the right brain. I think he’s the perfect example of this.”

Serenade and Alice Tarjan at Rotterdam…

At Rotterdam, Sir Donnerhall I was the sire of the Swedish entry, Sheeran (Johnson) and the American horse, Serenade Mf (Don Principe), while his full-brother, Sir Donnerhall II sired another Swedish entry, Astoria, (Quaterback) and Sir Donnerhall II himself carried Morgan Barbançon Mestre to a score of 71.130 in the Grand Prix.

Sir Donnerhall II and Morgan Barbançon Mestre 

The other stallion with two in the start list, was Blue Hors Zack (Rousseau / Jazz) who is himself a Grand Prix star.  Zack sired the Swiss entry, Famora (Krack C) as well as the second placegetter, Blue Hors Zepter, out of a Wolkentanz II mare.

Zepter and Patrik Kittel at Rotterdam

When Zack won the stallion licensing at the KWPN show in 2007, Arie Harmoen was the head of the stallion commission at the time:

“We made Zack the champion stallion at the KWPN stallion show when I was the head of the licensing committee, and now in the breeding he is a great influence, but as a young horse he was not winning all the young horse classes. Now he is Grand Prix and he brings good offspring.”

Zack at the licensing

What impressed you about Zack at the Licensing?

“He was medium size, but he had a fantastic hind leg use, and when he starts moving, he is always with the shoulders coming up. He was not extreme, when I gave the explanation after the championships, I said that he was an example of a functional mover not a spectacular mover. Now I think the breeders are looking more to functional movement.”

Floor Dröge works for the KWPN inspecting mares and has recently been appointed to the stallion commission.

Zack’s competition career has been well orchestrated, as Floor observes:

“If you look at Zack’s career, there were a couple of points when people said, oh, he’s not going to be able to do that, and he really let the rider train him, in a way that he became so good at a high level. They said, oh he will never be a Small Tour horse, he will never be a Big Tour horse – and they took their time, I think they managed him really well.”

Zack and Daniel Bachmann…

“If you look at his offspring, the technique in walking, in the movements, is very very good, and they are all really strong horses with power and a nice front leg.”

Maybe not young horse horses?

“I’m not going to say that because if you look at the 2019 World Championships, his offspring went really really well, and if you look at all the sports results of the offspring of Zack and his sons, it is getting better and better. And that is where you see the character, and the will to perform.”

Moving across the border to the world’s best horse show, Aachen, what do we find?

Sir Donnerhall I is still in the picture, he has one in the 5-star Grand Prix, Syrana, out of a Bormio xx mare, and a grand-daughter, Isabell Werth’s black mare, Superb (Surprice / Donautanz) in the 4-star.

Superb © Hubert Fischer

Two of the new sire stars, Vivaldi and Totilas each have one in the 4-star, Isabel Freese’s Total Hope (Don Schufro) and the Vivaldi, Sarah Tubman’s First Apple (Partout) and one each in the 5-star, Marieke van der Putten’s Tøveslettens Titanium RS2 (Totilas / Stedinger) and Laura Tomlinson’s Fallatijn (Vivaldi / Cabochon).

Bohemian and Cathrine star at Aachen

The Dutch stallion, Bordeaux (United / Gribaldi) also had two representatives in the 4-star, Frederic Wandres’ Bluetooth (Riccione) and Cathrine’s ‘other’ star, Bohemian (Samarant)

Not forgetting the stars of the five-star, Cathrine Dufour’s gelding, Vamos Amigos who is by the Vivaldi son, Vitalis (Vivaldi / D-Day) out of a Hotline mare.

Vamos Amigos wins the five star!

In the sire’s stakes, victory went to Johnson (Jazz / Flemmingh) with four in the four-star: Boston (Quattro), Edison (Balzflug), DSP James Bond (Rasso) and  Windermere J’Obei W (Pompeii Court xx) and two in the five-star, Hartsuijjker (Scandic) and Hexagon’s Double Dutch (Rubiquil).

Hexagon’s Double Dutch

Johnson is a controversial stallion, I know some Dutch trainers who think his progeny are dangerous and won’t have one in their stables, but for the riders who do get along with them, they are obviously just fine. And the numbers tell the same tale….

Johnson – top sire

In September 2020, the Horsetelex Dynamic IPV rankings had Johnson at the top of the table. The IPV rankings are based on the success of progeny at Prix St Georges level up to and including Grand Prix, divided by the number of offspring – so it represents average performance and corrects the imbalance of sires and studbooks with large numbers of progeny.

It capped off a great year for the 19-year-old Johnson who was crowned by the KWPN as Horse of the Year at the beginning of 2020 and took second place on the WBFSH ranking for dressage sires. In 2021, Johnson became number one on the WBFSH ranking, relegating his great sire to second.

It was the keen eye of the most influential Dutch breeders, Henk Nijhof Senior that brought Johnson to his family farm. He had been contacted by breeder, Piet van de Vleuten:

“He had a Voltaire foal, he wanted to sell it, I saw the Voltaire foal there, but there was one that attracted much more attention: Johnson. How that foal marched through the meadow, that seemed like the real thing. I kept myself quiet a little and when Piet wanted to do business, I said either I buy both or neither of them. That’s how I got Johnson. I had a very special feeling about him from the first moment.”

Johnson was crowned champion at the 2005 KWPN licensing and took a 30 day test in spring, so he could start covering immediately. At Ermelo, he was awarded 9 for canter, 8 for trot, 7.5 for walk and 8.5 for talent as a dressage horse. Certainly he hit the ground running and covered 200 mares in the first year.

According to Henk Nijhof Junior, Johnson’s success is due to his attitude: ′′A dressage horse is largely made, and the Johnsons are being made. Of course the horses must have certain basic qualities, but after that it’s about where the horses end up and how the interior (temperament) is. That’s where I think Johnson makes the difference. As far as these basic qualities are concerned, he brings a lot of front and a good trot and canter.”

Johnson is by the great Jazz (Cocktail / Ulster) while his dam Roxane is the usual Dutch mix of Holsteiner, through her sire, Flemmingh, and Selle Français on the dam line – grand dam, Catharin is by Sultan by the Selle Français grand son of Ulimate xx, Marinier, out of a mare by the Holsteiner, Joost, with more Selle Français on the mare line through Artilleur, a grand son of Furioso xx.

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