Donnerhall was a colossus towering over the development of the modern dressage horse, siring great competitors but more importantly wonderful sires who themselves sired competitors and sires, and grandsons who were great sires…

There is no other stallion who has had as much influence on dressage breeding as Donnerhall. The liver chestnut stallion was the first in so many areas. He was not however, the first dressage sire to successfully compete internationally, that honour belongs to the Swede, Gaspari.

Donnerhall was the founding stallion at one of the first truly glamorous Oldenburg private studs – Grönwohldhof. It was a trend that was to strengthen and grow as the private studs that reflected the affluence and taste of their mega-rich owners mushroomed. Grönwohldhof with its mill pond and waterwheel, its beds of azaleas, and picture perfect paddocks with foals with neatly trimmed tails, threw out the challenge taken up by later establishments like Gestut Famos where the magnificence of the setting overwhelmed the breeding operation.

Sadly of recent years, the trend has been reversed, and many of those famed Oldenburg studs – including Grönwoldhof – have disappeared.

But beautiful as Grönwohldhof may have been, it was also brilliantly designed, and laid out so that the founder Otto Schulte-Frohlinde who was confined to a wheel chair, could observe all of the operations of the establishment via closed circuit vision in the central control room, from which the various wings of the main stud building fanned out.

But Grönwohldhof was as important as a rider training centre as it was a breeding oasis.

At the heart of the stud, there was the round court at the centre, usually packed with the luxurious tack boxes of visiting teams, celebrity riders and the rich and hopeful. Off to one side, in the centre of the riding hall sat Herbert Rehbein, like some oriental pasha, surrounded by his followers, as he directed the activities of the dozen or so riders in the school at any one time.

And what riders he produced! Riders like Martina Hannöver, Ingo Pape, Susan Draper (now Pape), Falk Rosenbauer, who came out of the stables themselves – and visitors from all over the world. The whole Swedish team was there much of the time. The Americans were there, the Finns, the English.

And while Grönwohldhof was a magnet for riders, Donnerhall as one of the first super star stallion competitors, was a magnet for mare owners…

It must be admitted that Donnerhall hardly comes from a ‘good family’. His sire, Donnerwetter disappeared into the wilds of the United States in the mid seventies, but while there are a couple of Donnerwetters ‘gracing’ the German dressage arenas, they were pretty ugly, untalented creatures. Even Donnerhall’s famous rider, Karin Rehbein noted in an interview I conducted in 2000, that despite the large number of foals Donnerhall has sired, she had yet to find one that matched up to the stallion.

“There are a lot of Donnerhalls who have a little similarity to him but it is difficult to get another just like him,” said Karin, “Look at Donnerhall’s full-brothers, you couldn’t compare any of them to him. In appearance, in everything about him, the full brothers don’t come anywhere near Donnerhall. There were even two brothers who competed Grand Prix, but they were nothing compared to Donnerhall. They don’t even look the same, don’t move one little bit the same.”

It’s interesting, that all the super stallions who made up the dressage big three, Donnerhall, Weltmeyer and Rubinstein, had full siblings who were very ordinary. Indeed one day, long ago, I was offered Rubinstein’s full-brother for very little money, but was not even tempted, he moved like a startled chook.

To see Donnerhall compete was to marvel at the imposing power of the big stallion, but surprisingly, even though Mrs Rehbein is not very tall, and certainly not very big, the ride he gave her was ‘very good’.

“He was very soft. Sometimes you had to hold him a little bit through, but you have to do that with every horse.”

Donnerhall’s talent was apparent right from the start, and he scored 131.92 to be second in his performance test at Adelheidsdorf in 1984. Donnerhall’s competition career is the stuff of legend. He won many Grand Prix, Grand Prix Specials and Freestyles for Mrs Rehbein.

In 1994, Donnerhall was individual bronze medallist (and team gold medallist) at the 1994 World Championships at The Hague. Donnerhall won the European World Cup Freestyle League final standings twice, in 1997 and 1998. He retired from competition in 1998.

What Donnerhall seems to give to his offspring, is a trainability and a strength to handle the more collected work, even if their natural paces are not so spectacular. It would seem that the mix of Donnerhall and a large drop of ‘blood’ (Thoroughbred that is) in the dam is more likely to produce competition horses. But it can’t be emphasized enough that what distinguished Donnerhall from the two others in the big three, was his ability to establish a stallion line.

Perhaps the most successful Donnerhall son, is De Niro who started competing at Grand Prix level at the tender age of seven. De Niro is out of an Akzent II mare, and Burchard Wahler, the man who bought De Niro at the Hanoverian licensing, when Dr Bade failed to take him in the Celle lot, as was his right in those days, says this was a deliberate choice:

“I love to buy the Donnerhall blood but I don’t like the very popular Donnerhall / Pik Bube cross – very heavy big horses, and I didn’t like that so much because I am from the other side, from the Trakehner side and I like more an elegant horse. I really liked De Niro, because he was out of a mare with Wiesenbaum / Akzent breeding. Akzent is through Absatz, Trakehner, Wiesenbaum is from Thoroughbred – so in my opinion, this was a very interesting bloodline.”

 De Niro went on the assume the mantle of his sire dominating the WBFSH dressage sires rankings year after year.

He produced great competitors, like Damon Hill (out of a Rubinstein mare). The stallion had a charmed life. Twice a world champion young horse with Ingrid Klimke and Helen Langehanenberg, he went on to be one of the top three dressage competitors in the world. In 2014 Helen lost the ride on the stallion, and ridden by the owner’s daughter, Jill Becks, he made his last appearance at Hagen in 2015 for a win in the Prix St Georges.

The 2011 Hanoverian Stallion book (the last in which he appears) records that Donnerhall has had 998 competitors, 840 dressage competitors (226 at advanced level) – and even 97 in the jumping ring – for total prizemoney of €2,137,490. Far and away the most successful of these progeny has been the mare, Donatha S, who won €174,242 followed by Don Schufro with winnings of €109,257. At that point, there were 40 horses with dressage winnings of more than €10,000.

Donnerhall had FN dressage ranking of 150, jumping, 77. His Hanoverian ranking is 158 for dressage and 75 for jumping. He was the sire of 50(!) licensed sons at that stage.

Donnerhall was ranked fifth on the WBFSH rankings for 2013 based on FEI recorded performances, with most of his points earned by three of the world’s top ten – Damon Hill, Donnperignon and Digby – with one son, De Niro, ranked number one, and another, Don Schufro, in sixth place.

The ‘D’ line horses were out in strength at the London Olympic Games. By Donnerhall himself, we find three, Donnperignon, Damon Hill and Digby. De Niro provided Dablino, Donnerfee and Desperados, then we have D’Niro (by D-Day), Diva Royal (by Don Frederico), Don Auriello (by Don Davidoff) and Dorina (by Don Schufro).

Looking at the start list for the dressage at the WEG in Normandy, the first thing we  observe – yet again – is the outright dominance of the Donnerhall line. He, himself, was represented by four competitors, a total only matched by his son, De Niro. Donnerhall was further represented by two sons, Donnerschlag and Don Cardinale. Another son, Don Gregory was represented by two of his sons, Don Davidhoff and Don Ruto. De Niro’s son, Danone I was also the sire of one competitor. That’s thirteen D-liners out of 103, almost 13%.

In the Freestyle, the percentage of D’s rose to 46.66 (7 out of 15). Three by the grand old man himself, the rest by four of his sons.

When we look at the 2021 Hanoverian rankings we see that the influence of the ‘D’ line has not disappeared, although its current status is rather dependent on stallions that are no longer with us. 2021’s highest ranking of 144 is shared by Don Schufro and Dimaggio. Don Schufro  died in 2020, Dimaggio died in 2015 but his influence is still being felt.

At Frankfurt 2022, he was the only stallion with more than one finalist in the prestigious Nürnberger Burg-Pokal – he was the sire of finalists, Del Curto (out of a Wolkentanz II mare) and Da Costa (Coriander / Amigo xx)