1996 – 2023 170 cm Dark Bay
Right in the heart of Oldenburg, Germany, we find once again a stud that originates with one mare – this time an eventer: Chica. This very important individual was ridden by the owner of the farm, Harli Seifert, and then went to Wolfgang Mengers who competed her at Advanced level eventing, taking the title three years running for Oldenburg’s best eventing horse.
As a breeding mare, Chica (who on pedigrees appears as Rudilore 2 just to keep things confusing) founded three lines, two of which were found on Mrs Seifert’s stud where they formed the backbone of her breeding operation. Both these foundation mares were by Volturno, himself a member of the German Eventing Team.
Volkorn, one of the Thoroughbreds that re-made the Oldenburg horse…
And his son, star eventer, and sire, Volturno with his trainer and breeder Otto Ammermann
Volturno was just one of a number of successful competition horses by the Thoroughbred stallion, Volkorn xx. In dressage, there was Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff’s Vallauris and H. D. Wolff’s Vago. Volkorn was by Neckar who also sired Waidmannsdank.
Volturno was the sire of the dams or grand dams of three Oldenburg Champion stallions, Lord Kemm, Gervantus and Glorieux.
One mare out of Chica proceeded to establish a dressage line, while another produced foals that could jump, with both lines producing performers of the highest quality. Harli Seifert was presented with a gold medal for breeding success, based on the competition career of Gio-Granno with Franke Sloothaak. Gio-Granno stood for Paul Schockemöhle, and is by Grannus out of Rumina by Ramino, out of Chica’s ‘jumping’ daughter, Voilà.
On the dressage line, success has also been notable with Rubin-Royal (by Rohdiamant) crowned Main Premium Dressage stallion in Oldenburg – a title awarded to five-year-old stallions on the basis of their progeny and their own performance record. Rubin-Royal has made a serious claim to the title of the most important of Rubinstein’s male descendants.
When I visited her in 2002, Harli Seifert had 100 horses on her two properties. A mare breeding farm where she lived, and just a couple of hundred metres down the road, the stallion barn and training stables. Alas, like many of the famed Oldenburg studs, her farm is now longer a going concern.
Harli Seifert was the first horse breeder in her family. It was a private passion, that saw her start out in 1978 breeding her two stem mares by sending Chica to Volturno – a great performer, but by a Thoroughbred stallion and therefore a little ‘dodgy’ back then when half bloods were not trusted as breeding stallions.
“It was not easy,” she recalled in an interview I conducted then, “everyone agreed that Volturno was a very good sport horse but there was some question as to whether he was really a breeding stallion. Neither of my two foals received a premium, the Breeding Director at the time said they were ‘not my type’ but I went my own way with my own head, and success has proven me right.”
Certainly looking at the twenty or so mares that made up Ms Seifert’s personal mare band, you could see the wisdom of her breeding policy. These were horses that were modern before ‘modern’ existed – elegant, breedy ladies.
And was it difficult as a woman to be taken seriously as a horse breeder?
“Of course it was not easy at first, and even now there is only one woman to fifty or sixty men, but if you have success and produce good foals, then you can do it. It is not easy getting manpower for the stud. It is not easy to get good riders for the sport – but you must do it because it is the modern way to use stallions in both sport and breeding.”
How do you choose the stallions you send your mares to?
“It depends, with Contender the main point was performance, while the main point with Rohdiamant was type. The stallion has to fit the mare, so with the mother of Royal Rubin, she was a big framed mare so I thought she would be alright with Rohdiamant. You must choose the stallions with feeling, that is what breeding is, feeling. Two and two is not always four – sometimes it is three and sometimes it is five, and when you get five, that is the result of luck and instinct.”
“When I see a stallion like Akzent II or Rohdiamant, then I know that is the stallion for my mare. It is instant recognition. I don’t listen to the ‘experts’, it is my mare, and I will try her with that stallion. Breeding is not mathematics.”
And do you know right from the start when you have bred something special like Rubin-Royal?
“Some foals show at birth ‘I AM THE KING’, like Tantris, he is now a Grand Prix horse in the USA. Rubin-Royal was very beautiful, but not like a king, he didn’t have that kick as a foal. At eighteen months he started to develop and one year later you could see he was special. At three he had become a horse and a stallion.”
“There is no guarantee that a foal that looks good will become a good stallion or riding horse. Some look great as foals, and then two, three years later you say ‘no this is not the right horse, someone must have changed it.’ A lot has to do with the development of the foals – the handling, the feeding, the farrier, the vet, they must all work with the foals. You can’t send them out on the pasture and come back in three years time.”
“I feel I have a very great responsibility to the horses and I want to do everything for them myself. Today my breeding operation is so big that it is not possible to do everything, so unfortunately I have to get other people work for me. It is a problem, when I go to the riding stable and see them work the horses so hard without enough feeling.”
“I love going back to my mares at my home. That’s the greatest good fortune and when we wean the foals that is the most terrible day of the year for me because they leave my home and go to the riding stable.”
“I have very high principles to live up to with the horses. I get up every day early, always I feed at the same time – that is the most important principle, everything is done with a plan – every day has to be the same, it must be the same.”
“The moment we come to the pasture all the horses want to come to me, and that is my greatest good fortune. It is important that the horses know that I am good to them every time.”
Rubin-Royal descends from the dressage daughter, Ruling Chica, Rumirell, with the addition of that great shaper of good types, Akzent II, and the influential dressage stallion, Grundstein II. Unlike his dad who is on the distinctly small side, Rubin Royal at 170 cms is a big imposing horse with brilliant movement.
This cross has also produced four other approved stallions: Blue Hors Romanov (Best dressage stallion of the 2004 Danish Licensing in Herning), Rumicello, Rubino Vincento and Rubin Action.
Rubin-Royal was Champion of the Oldenburg licensing, and the winner of the Klein or Little final at the Bundeschampionate in 2001.
Rubin-Royal throws a consistent type, which is real testament to the strength of the Seifert mare line, since Rohdiamant is a classic example of that wild mix of blood at work.
Rohdiamant’s dam with his breeders, Mr and Mrs Francksen. The mare was by Inschallah from farm working bloodlines…
By Rubinstein, he is out of a mare who combines the Anglo Arab genes of the French stallion, Inschallah, with a mare family that used to help plough the fields, you can get Rohdiamants that are black and fourteen three or grey and seventeen hands and pretty much everything in between.
The offspring of Rubin-Royal look like their dad, and seem to be taking after him in ability. He already has 15 licensed sons. His first crop produced Rubin Cortes, first reserve champion of the 2003 Oldenburg licensing.
Rubin-Royal had four horses on the first entries list for the Rio Olympic Games: Rubin Al Asad (Wanderbursch II), Rosalie B (Newcastle), Rubins Nite (Limbo) and Rigoletto Royal CH (Donnerschlag).
in the 2022 Hanoverian Stallion Book, Rubin-Royal is credited with 556 progeny in competition, with winnings of €893,106 – 478 dressage horses, 143 jumpers. He has sired nine horses with winnings of over €10,000, the most successful of which has been Real Dancer FRH who has earned €117,337.
Real Dancer FRH and Jan-Dirk Giesselmann – photo credit: Tanja Becker
As a young horse sire Rubin Royal has a 2022 FN breeding value of 114 but for highest level achieved it’s 155. On the Hanoverian values he scores 123 for type, 110 for dressage and 97 for jumping.
