Can you keep a Secret?

Christopher Hector unravels the mystery that surrounds the sporthorse world’s latest stallion sensation…

The black stallion is well named, since he is a horse whose career is shrouded in secrets. Let’s get the basics out of the way, Secret is by triple World Young horse champion, Sezuan, who combines two of Holland’s finest, Ferro and Jazz through his sire, Zack, with the great Donnerhall via his son Don Schufro, through his dam, Boegegaardens Don Romina. Branded Baden Warttemberger and bred by Hubert Vogler, Secret is out of Seline, by St Moritz who is by Sandro Hit, out of a De Niro mare – more Donnerhall.

Second at the Bundeschampionat in 2017  – Image Kiki Beelitz

We have had instant stallion superstars in the past, but none quite so instant as Secret, whose fame, and popularity was based on one 10 second video on facebook which seemingly induced 600 mare owners to use him in the 2017 season. Later that year with Jessica Lyn Thomas in the saddle, he placed second at the Bundeschampionate.

Then the first of Secret’s disappearances, he did not leave the stables for eighteen months, before returning with Jessica to the international stage, taking out a reserve championship in the five-year-old division of the 2019 World Championships.in Ermelo.

Again the stallion disappeared from view, resurfacing at the 2020 Bundeschampionat, where they were crowned Champions in the six-year-old division. Image Kiki Beelitz

In 2022 Secret was the most used stallion in Hanover, and the second most popular in Oldenburg.

But he was not out in front of the public.  Indeed in 2023, Wahlers announced that Secret would not be standing at stud due to a shortage of staff at his station, although it was believed he would be returning for the 2024 season. His home, the Gestüt WM does not seem to have updated its website since 2018 so it is hard to tell what is happening, but looking at the entries in the 2024 World Young Horse Championships, there is no doubt that his progeny are making their mark in the young dressage horse world.

So Special and Jessica at Ermelo –  Photo Dirk Caremans Hippofoto

In the Four-year-old final, Jessica Lyn rode So Special (out of a Bon Coeur / Donnerhall mare, home bred at Gestüt WM) to a Reserve Championship, while another stallion by Secret, Pride (out of an Apache mare) placed tenth.

    Severucci      FEI/Leanjo De Koster

In the Five-year-olds, third place went to the Swedish combination of Severucci HT (out of a Rubinrot mare) and Jeanna Hogber

But it was the Six-year-old division that was dominated by Secret’s get…

Alkaline  photo FEI/Leanjo De Koster

Second to the Danish pair of Alkaline and Merila Hagren. This stallion is out of a mare by the Michelleno son,  Zalmiak Firfod. Sixth, another stallion, Segantini (Fidermark) and Dorothee Schneider, while Lydia Jordan rode the Secret mare, Shakeel FRH (Royal Blend) into eighth. The stallion, San to Alati FRH, out of a Belissimo mare, placed 11^th with Stefanie Viehoff-Wolf!

Ludwig Christmann is one of the world’s experts in sporthorse breeding, particularly Hanoverian horses, since he has only recently retired after decades with the Hanoverian Verband, he first learned about the new stallion sensation while on a classification tour of the Antipodes:

“I had never heard about Secret until I arrived in Australia and New Zealand and everybody asked me about him. I think first of all, Gestüt FM had very effective marketing, the video they sent out was fantastic, and when he was presented he was a black, beautiful looking horse with outstanding gaits. There was huge demand for him, from all over Germany, especially many Hanoverian breeders because he stood about 20 kilometres from Verden. He was not a fantastic foal producer, but from what I have seen of the offspring, and the feed-back from riders and trainers, is that they are extremely trainable, and that they bring a different kind of mechanics into the Hanoverian breed. He has a fantastic uphill canter, a good trot, not so flat and with higher action, and that is what Hanover needed. They have a reputation of being extremely rideable and trainable horses.”

Rotspon

“When you look at the pedigree, you see Rotspon (the Hanoverian stallion is one of the better sons of Rubinstein and was much used in Hanover) which helps, and also that his sire Sezuan was three times World Champion so there’s a lot of rideability and trainability in the pedigree on both sides.”

Sezuan and Dorothee

At the time there was much discussion of Secret’s feet, is that a worry with his foals?

“This was a consideration for him to become licensed, but he was accepted. I can’t see that he passes that on to his foals, but you should definitely breed him to a correct mare, but it is always a worry.”

Is it a worry that he has only had two big performances, and both times in young horse classes, he has never competed in open dressage…

“It is difficult to say. His name is Secret and there are always secrets about him. There are always stories from one year to the next, and they stopped the stallion station at one stage. He is still being ridden by Lynn but I don’t know any details.”

Do you like the young horses by him that you have seen?

“I would say he is a really good stallion that gives a lot of nice rideability and talent, now we have to see what the offspring will do when they are older, how many arrive at the higher classes, but they show a lot of potential.”.

“There are other top stallions that pass on traits like soft pasterns that are much more concerning than Secret’s feet. It is always a problem of the breeding management, I have seen it over the last forty years at the licensings, when you have a special horse, often there are compromises with regards to correctness. You can have a stallion with not so good conformation, but with super talent and wonderful gaits, all the German studbooks make these compromises. We have the discussion in the studbooks that for the future we have to be stricter in the conformation of the legs.”

“But you don’t hear this discussion about Secret any more. At the Bundeschampionate he had very good offspring, and at Ermelo they made their mark.”

Photo Dirk Caremans Hippofoto

The Secret story is very much part of the story of Swedish born, long-time German resident, Jessica Lynn Thomas. I was lucky enough to catch up with her at her home base, Hof Brüning.

When and how did you meet Secret?

“I have known the owner of Secret, Eckhard Wahlers since I was young, from when I worked with Hannes Baumgart. That’s why I say it is very important to be a good person and stay calm, to not go with your nose in the air and think you are good, you are not, maybe for a month, then you are shit again. I worked at a stallion station, then I moved to the farm of the Brüning family. Then Eckhard had his stallion station and it started to be good, I had not heard from him for a long time, and then he rang and said, Jessica, can you please come because you are an open-minded person, and I think you are a rider with feeling so can you please come and look at my horse – I don’t know if it is a ‘World Class’ horse, I cannot really decide what it is.”

“I came there and the stallion was super big, he had been ridden a few times, but very little, very little lunged. I came in the stable and saw this huge horse with a very big head, super thin, and all only legs. For sure, I have never seen something like this. Then we saw him on the lunge and he had legs all over the place, we did not know if he was trotting or cantering, we only knew he was super happy, this horse.”

“I rode him the first time, and I did not know how good he could be. Is this a world-class horse? Because the legs were so long and all over the place. He was so narrow, I had to have a really small saddle because he was like a baby baby. But I have to say that from the first day I sat on him, He was the nicest thing I have ever sat on and he was just broken in.”

“We really didn’t ride him much as a three and four-year-old, even as a five-year-old, very little, because he bred a lot, and we did not want to kill him, because he did breed a lot, and he was very big. So we tried to do the shows riding him three times a week, that was very hard, but I stayed cool. Everyone always asks, were you not nervous? No, because this horse would try for me to the end of the world, he would never let me down.”

“I have to say, the politic with that horse was not so nice, because he got quite well-known, fast, from the first video. Me and Ecki, we did not count on that, we did not know that would happen, we loved him, but everyone did not love him because he came so fast.”

“He is super sensitive to ride. I have never had a whip, ever! He only wants to do the right thing.”

“At the World Championship, everyone was saying, are you nervous, because maybe I don’t get the points, maybe they think I am not good enough, or the horse is not good enough, but he will not let me down. And he did not. In the warmup everybody had their horses trotting very big and high, and Ecki and my husband, who trains me, were at the side. Finally there was just one rider to go, and they said, Jessica do you think you should take him up in the frame. No. I just jogged around, trot, canter, trot, canter. When I came in, I shortened the reins and said – ‘now Secret ‘- and he was ready.”

“Look at the video of the test, I did not do anything to this horse. I was sitting there, saying, come now Secret you are going to fix this. I have never had that feeling before. We came second behind Jovian and Andreas Helgstrand, and some people were disappointed, but me and Secret were absolutely not disappointed. He did his best, and Andreas Helgstrand is a much more experienced rider than me, but me and my horse did the best we could, and my team did the best we could, and we were very happy. You lose, you win. Of course I wanted to win, I would be lying if I said anything else, but after that ride, I was already winning. And the public also thought he was the winner, and for me that is more important.”

Jessica had reason to thank Secret at this year’s World Championships, since she came second in the four-year-old championship on So Secret.

Another who had reason to celebrate the black stallion was Andreas Helgstrand who owns Alkaline who was reserve champion of the six-year-olds. I asked Andreas what mares suited Secret, he seems to be breeding over a lot of different bloodlines, do you see a pattern where he works better?

“He needs a lighter mare, something not too heavy because he himself gives quite heavy offspring, he needs mare which are light with quick hindlegs, but he breeds horses that a quite nice, he gives a lot of shoulder freedom, good rideability, but he needs light, modern mares.”

Andreas and Jovian win at the Worlds – Photo Dirk Caremans Hippofoto

Are you worried that he hasn’t competed at a higher level? You beat him at the Worlds with Jovian who is already Grand Prix, but Secret has only competed as a young horse – would we be better breeding to Jovian?

“I don’t know. Of course we must remember that Secret had tons of mares, so of course there are more offspring to choose from. In general, Secret gives nice horses so I cannot say which stallion is the better one to use, but what is important with Secret is to always have an eye for the hind legs.”

There was a lot of discussion about Secret’s feet, is that a worry?

“I know that because I bought the horse once. I bought Secret off a video, everything was finished, then I asked a friend of mine to pass by that stable to check the horse for me, then I learnt the feet were terrible and I was quite angry and gave the horse back – maybe I should have taken him anyway!”

Does he pass this to his foals?

“Some of them yes, but you just have to keep an eye on it.”

Do you think Secret will become an important stallion or is he just a fashionable one right now?

“Right now you see he gives a lot of nice riding horses, that is for sure, let’s see if they come to the higher levels but he had a lot at the World Championships, the ones we have by him, we are happy with them.”