Christopher Hector enjoys one of the world’s great equestrian events
Dirk Caremans took the photos
The number of colts that have failed their licensing before going on to be super sires, and in many cases belatedly admitted into their studbooks, has been well documented, but I thought it might be fun in the leadup to the KWPN stallion show, to look at some of the licensing stars and see how many have gone on to greatness, and for how many, that triumph in the Brabanthallen, was the full measure of their fifteen minutes of fame…
The stand out star of the Dutch licensing was until recently, the 2005 Champion, Johnson (Jazz / Flemmingh). He was, until 2014, the only licensing champ to go Grand Prix. Ridden by Hans Peter Minderhoud, Johnson was a valued member of the Dutch team, solid rather than starry. As a sire, he has produced 38 approved sons, and 87 Grand Prix competitors, leaving him Number One on the WBFSH standings three years in a row, but none of his stallion sons has really made a mark, while his Grand Prix performers are useful, rather than brilliant. Standing third behind Johnson in 2014 was Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) – Johnson like the rest of the colts had initially been given the ‘V’ name of that year, but since Team Nijhof already had a Verdi, he became Johnson.
The grand old stallion was honoured at the 2025 stallion show –
here he is with long time rider, Hans Peter Minderhoud
While Vivaldi never made it to Grand Prix, he has produced 36 Grand Prix horses and 74 licensed sons, including Vitalis (D-Day) who has gone on to establish his own dynasty, with 88 approved sons and 16 Grand Prix competitors, including two super-stars, Vayron (Gloster) and Vamos Amigos (Hotline).
Glamourdale
Nine years later, the Championship sash was handed to Glamourdale (Lord Leatherdale / Negro) who has gone on to be a genuine international Grand Prix superstar with Charlotte Fry. So far he is the sire of 33 sons, and two Grand Prix starters, none of whom have set the world on fire.
The colt that was third to Glamourdale that year, Toto Jr (Totilas / Desperados) has been a very fine Grand Prix performer, first with Edward Gal, and more recently with Hans Peter Minderhoud. He is already the sire of 45 approved sons, one of which, Taminiau (Sandro Hit), has already competed Grand Prix with Hans Peter.
Toto Jr
Toto Jr is also the sire of Majestic Taonga, one of five premium colts at the 2020 KWPN stallion show where he was presented by his co-owner, Helgstrand Dressage, who later sold half shares in the stallion to Madeleine Winter-Schulze for Isabell Werth to ride. Since then the stallion has made two appearances at the 2024 World Young Horse Championships with Lisa Wernitznig, 2nd in the preliminary round, 10th in the 7 year old final. Toto Jr has two colts selected for the 2025 KWPN stallion show…
The other four 2020 premiums went to:
Mansion (Totilas / Krack C / Jazz) who has not become an approved stallion, but has gone on to compete medium level dressage.
Maxson (Johnson / Negro) who was sold as a five-year-old to American dressage rider Sarah Mason-Beaty. A check of the FEI database reveals no trace of either horse or rider.
Monte Carlo TC (Dream Boy / United) is a stallion no longer, Blue Hors decided to geld him in 2024 to concentrate on his sport career.
Merlot VDL
Merlot VDL by Bordeaux out of a Florencio / Vivaldi mare went on to star in the performance test where he was crowned Champion with a high score of 85.5 points. He is currently competing at Medium level and is represented by one of the colts selected to come to the 2025 stallion show.
The 2021 licensing was a double triumph for the Dutch breeders, Frank van der Valk and Jaqueline van Anholt. Not only did the stallion they bred, Painted Black, sire four licensed sons, but the star of the premium ring, Next Pitch US, is a product of their most famous mare line. Next Pitch is out of It’s Litchy, out of Litchy, who is the dam of Painted Black.
Next Pitch US
Next Pitch US is by Genial by Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) out of Wocky who was by Reiner Klimke’s Grand Prix star, the Trakehner, Biotop, out of a Ferro mare. Next Pitch is licensed in Westfalia, Oldenburg and the AES, but not the KWPN. He is no longer on the Reesink stallion roster, but Stal Brouwer informs us, Next Pitch is being trained by Wendy Kuiken and is preparing for his competition debut this summer. “We have high expectations for this promising duo and will share their progress via Facebook, Instagram and our website.”
2023 saw a three generation licensing champion for the first time, the champion, L’Avenir, is by the 2019 champion, Le Formidable, who is by the 2009 champion, Bordeaux.
L’Avenir
Bordeaux has a wonderfully balanced pedigree. He is by United who combines the blood of two of Anky van Grunsven’s Grand Prix stars, Krack C and Partout, his dam sire, Gribaldi is another Grand Prix star, and one of the most influential dressage stallions of modern times. Bordeaux’s dam line takes us across the border to Germany, introducing the blood of the great Donnerhall, while the bottom line takes us to Adone, the dam of Nicole Uphoff’s wonderful Rembrandt.
Bordeaux has been ranked 9th on the WBFSH dressage stallion rankings, three years in a row, 22/23/24.
Bordeaux
At the 2020 KWPN stallion show, Bordeaux was proclaimed a Keur stallion. Bordeaux competed Grand Prix with moderate success (eleven starts, best result, two thirds on 72), but he is the sire of two Grand Prix frontliners in Bohemian and Bluetooth. Bordeaux is the sire of seven KWPN-approved sons: Ferdeaux, Google, Grenoble, Kenzo US, Kilimanjaro, Livius and Le Formidable.
Le Formidable adds two of the all-time greats to the equation thanks to his dam, Vienna, who is by Ferro out of a De Niro mare. It was no surprise when he was crowned Champion of the 2019 show, and then rewarded with 278 foals by him, born the following year.
Le Formidable
Since then Le Formidable competed in two young horse classes in 2022. I am told he is currently training Grand Prix with his owner, Saskia Poel.
Le Formidable did however qualify nine colts to the 2024 stallion show, four of whom passed to go on to the performance test, with L’Avenir, famously bred, out of Weihe’s Hope by Sir Donnerhall, out of Isabell Werth’s Grand Prix star, Weihegold, taking home the Championship. It was something of an upset when not one of the five passed the performance test, and this year, of the 88 colts selected to go to the 2025 stallion show, not one is by Le Formidable.
L’Avenir is standing at HengstenhouderijBrowers where he is described as ‘Approved: Oldenburger, Designated KWPN performance test’ and a WFFS carrier…
But the absence of Le Formidables has not lessened the influence of Bordeaux. Aside from his own three sons, his grandson, the ginormous Las Vegas has no less than seven qualified to go to Den Bosch. The 1.80m tall, Las Vegas is by Ferdeaux who combines Bordeaux and Ferro. Las Vegas is out of a mare by the Jazz son, Wynton who is out of a daughter of Kyra Kyklund’s wonderful Matador, out of a daughter of Rubinstein. Las Vegas’s grand dam is by the somewhat obscure Houston, but the bottom line is far from shabby – Flemmingh and Ferro.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas has had a spectacular career thus far, a World Young Horse finalist in 2021, 22 and 23, he is a winner of the Pavo Cup for five-year-old horses, and commenced his small tour career in fine style, ridden by Diederik van Silfhout for a 76.69% in their first Prix St Georges. He was the second most used Dutch stallion in 2021 with 251 foals, second behind My Blue Hors Santiano with 253 foals.
There is a worry about Las Vegas’s height, and all of the colts selected for the 2025 show stand around 170 cm, with one even measuring 1.77m.
“This is not the height that we want for a three-year-old, but we give the colt the benefit of the doubt,” Bart Bax, the Chairman of the Licensing Committee, told Horses.nl.
Santiano
My Blue Hors Santiano repaid the breeders faith in him with five colts selected to front the stallion show in Den Bosch, with Bart Bax commenting that the Dutch breeders were learning how to use the Danish stallion: “That Santiano needs a mare with blood became obvious today. He doesn’t make them noble. It can be that breeders in the first year didn’t know that he required a noble mare for this stallion.”
Santiano is out of Romanik (Romanov / Don Schufro) and by three times World Young Horse Champion, the now gelded, Sezuan (Zack / Don Schufro) making him a three-quarter brother in blood to Zonic by Zack, a Grand Prix star with Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud.
As usual it was an exciting collection of young stallions to front the commission this year, and once again, it proves that the Dutch breeders have crafted their own dressage lines, with ‘foreign’ sires in a very small minority… Let the show begin!
Jumping at the KWPN stallion show
While the Dutch crowd has learned to love dressage, their first and enduring love is for showjumping. This year, the number of young stallions selected is 27, fewer than previous years. There is much to love, though there is universal agreement that the crop on the second day was the crème de la crème. While once it was possible for a jumping ‘expert’ to opine that the European horses were ugly beasts ridden by big men, the youngsters that grace the ring on the first day were in the main beautiful creatures.
Celtic VDL
Out of the first day, sixteen were selected to go to the performance test, with one destined for the premium ring, Celtic VDL by the Chacco Blue son, Chatinue, out of Georgia by Continue, making him a half brother to jumping star, Balou du Reventon. The next day he was joined by another eleven to go to Ermelo for the performance test, and three more in the premium ring, Schnaps by Mattias (out of a Cantos mare), Santiago by Eldorado van de Zeshoek out of a Kashmir van Schuttershof mare and Seger V by O’Neill van ’T Eigenlo out of an Air Jordan mare.
The stallion who put the largest contingent into the performance test was the chestnut Grand Prix star, Emerald van ’T Ruytershof, out of mares by Kannan, Heartbreaker, and Untouched who was also the sire of one of those who made the cut.
Emerald van ’T Ruytershof
Emerald is a pretty perfect synthesis of the best of the French, with one of the Holsteiner greats. He is by Diamant de Sémilly out of a mare by the Capitol son, Carthago, out of a mare by the influential, Lys de Darmen (by the Anglo Arab, Et Hop). He was born in 2004, and finished his jumping career in 2018, but not before he starred with Harrie Smolders at all the world’s top shows. Emerald is currently the sire of 103 licensed stallions and forty-four 1.60m competitors.
Comme il faut
I love the story of how two Ukrainian showjumping enthusiasts, Victor Timoschenko and Valentin Nychyporenko came to Germany, and with the expert assistance of Ludger Beerbaum, returned home with one of the great jumping sires of modern times, Cornet Obolensky, plus the promise of a foal from his first season out of Ludger’s superstar, the fabled Ratina Z. The foal was Comme il faut who went on to be a solid 1.60m performer with Marcus Ehning. He is the sire of 140 licensed sons and 34 who have competed at 1.60m, including the Gold Medallist at Paris, Checker 47.
Mattias, at his Licensing
Comme il Faut is the sire of one of the newcomers to the stallion ranks, Mattias, out of a Catoki / Berlin mare, and somewhat surprisingly the seven-year-old, with ten 1.45m starts under Jur Vrieling has been popular with the jumping breeders who usually wait for a stallion to firmly establish himself on the international stage before trusting him with their precious brood mare.
Schnaps
Mattias is the sire of this year’s champion, Schnaps out of a mare by Cantos (by Contender) a moderate performer for VDL, out of a mare by the best son of Voltaire, Concorde. The reserve goes to Santiago, who stands at VDL where unlike so many others, only add their stud suffix to horses they actually breed. Santiago is by Clinton out of a Kashmir van Schuttershof mare.
The fourth stallion into the premium ring also won his share of fans – Seger V, by O’Neill van ’T Eigenlo, who is better known as Minute Man, and jumped in the Dutch team with Willem Greve. Seger V is out of a mare is by Air Jordan, by Argentinus, out of a Heartbreaker mare.
Over the (many) years I have been coming to the stallion show, I have identified a group of observers, who can be relied upon to provide insightful comments. Long time stallion commissioner, Arie Hamoen is very much one of them. It was good to catch up with him once again.
Looking at the jumping horses, what has impressed you so far?
“The modern type, athletic horses, using their bodies, suppleness during jumping. This year we had a small group, we selected very hard, twenty seven stallions, but the top quality is okay.”
Which stallions do you think are making the biggest impression on Dutch jumping breeding?
Eldorado van de Zeshoek
“We had a very nice Eldorado, he’s also in the premium stallions. Long lined, can be a little bit light footed, he’s a little bit heavy in his movements but he jumps with a lot of power, a lot of scope. The Mattias is also a nice young one. There are four premium stallions and they are all a bit different. One has a more easy way of going, that is the Chatinue son Celtic VDL, very powerful in his jumping, maybe he’s a little bit short in his neck, okay we’ll see that later on. Then the O’Neill, he is very long lined, maybe he can have a little more power behind, in his hind leg, but he was an easy mover. From the four stallions in the premium you can make one stallion that is the ideal picture.”
The young stallions are making their mark, this is good that they are getting a chance…
“I think so, it is important for breeding that you collect data, that’s why I hope the breeders use young stallions. When you select too many stallions, then it takes a long time to get the data back, which are the good ones. Therefore, if you are stricter, then you hope the breeders use them, but you like to have the information as soon as possible, that’s why you give young stallions a chance.”
It’s interesting that the jumping horses seem to be getting shorter and the dressage horses are getting taller…
“We’ll see tomorrow, but the dressage horses can be too big. In the past we had a rule, the minimum size is one sixty with no maximum size, but now we have the discussions, especially in dressage that maybe it is necessary to have a maximum size. For a dressage horse, 1.80 is too big, the higher the horse the more risk the veterinary problems. We need to give the sign to the breeders that they can be too big, for the young stallion, 1.65 to 1.70 is ideal.”
And with the jumping horses you don’t mind if they are a little bit shorter?
“Length enough in the body, that is important. I like not the square, I like a rectangular model. For a two-year-old horse, 1.65 is good enough, when he is grown up, it becomes 1.70, but they need length in the body, too short and too little, that is the biggest problem.”
Did you see any problems in the breeding in the horses you saw?
“More and more we become international and everyone is looking for the same horses, horses that have scope enough, but also a lot of elastic, the fences cannot become bigger and we need a different canter, not like the canter for dressage, in dressage they like a lot of expression, a lot of strength in the hind leg, and for jumping horses it is important that they are quick because the time becomes shorter and shorter, because we cannot build the fences higher. Now speed is much more important in the selection – in the past you can build a wall of two metres, and they take a lot of time to get over it, but now the time is shorter and shorter.”
The breeding is becoming more international? Are we losing the distinctive breeding of the different studbooks?
“Yes, more and more we use the same stallions to get the same horse.”
A universal horse…
“Yes, then the problem is in-breeding. In the past if you had too much the same breeding, then you could go to France or Germany and look for other mare or stallion lines, but more and more it is a risk. With ICSI the mare can have seventy offspring, unbelievable for a mare, and that is a risk for in-breeding.”
When I look at the pedigrees, I see a stallion like Heartbreaker, once, twice even three times, on the same pedigree…
“It is a risk for the future.”
But how do we get out of that, when the breeders are looking for the same stallions?
“It is for the studbooks to select stallions with different pedigrees, so the breeders have the chance to make an out-cross. Maybe the Thoroughbred again, or Trakehner. When you have a heavy horse, then maybe you have to use the Thoroughbred again.”
But where will we find jumping Thoroughbreds?
“That is the problem.”
I saw a stallion today with Laudanum but that was the last Grand Prix jumping Thoroughbred stallion…
Sky Fall, by Chacco Blue out of a Diamant de Sémilly mare, out of one by Narcos II out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Laudanum
“There was also Heraldik in one dam line. When everyone uses the same stallions then the studbooks need to make a plan that we select out-crosses, in-breeding always gives problems, veterinary problems, longevity, lots of problems. We should learn from our royal families, kingdoms go down through in-breeding.”
Another of my regular commentary team is the man in charge of France’s biggest stallion station, Arnaud Evain.
Every year I find you here looking at young stallions…
“Looking for the next Dutch stars, but also looking to see the progeny of other European stallions which are represented here.”
What have you seen interesting so far?
“I liked a couple of sons of Mattias, and I had the confirmation of some other stallions that I already knew, the good and weak points of Emerald, of Eldorado…”
What are they?
“As a stallion owner I am not in a position to say what are the good or bad points of my competitors’ stallions.”
But what is Emerald putting on his progeny?
“He himself has a lot of Le Tot de Sémilly in terms of a good mind, rideability, and in the end it will be more and more amateurs trying to compete with the professionals, so we need to make rideable horses.”
Mattias, what do you think he is putting on his young stock?
“I haven’t seen enough under saddle, just free-jumping ability, but okay they are with good trainers, so I need to see more, but they attract my attention but we will see in the future. I will probably try to import some semen of Mattias to France, and we’ll see how it works.”
Breeding in France is still strong?
“We as GFC, our stallions covered 5000 mares in France last year, which is about 40% of the total. We thought about some people who wanted to sell their foals, and it was not so easy to sell foals, so it might be that some of them might not breed next year, so we expect normal growth with maybe a small set-back. Not the breeders with quality, but the amateurs with one mare, if they don’t sell the foal, they will not breed the mare.”
You still have a population of amateur breeders with just a few mares?
“That’s all over Europe, but in France the ones who breed zero to one mare every year, they are over 60% of the population of breeders. If you go to one or two mares, then it’s 75% of the population of breeders, and close to 50% of the production, it’s huge.”
I was talking with some of my Dutch colleagues and they were saying that here the price of land is so high that the amateur breeders are being pushed out of the market…
“It is not the case in France. In France access to land is far cheaper than here. France is very administrative, we like to make rules and you cannot buy land without authorization. Here in Holland the price of the land is the same whether you can build something on it or not, in France the price of land on which you can build is much the same as here, but the land you can only crop is about ten times less.”
Last night at the breeders congress, there were people worried that the distinctive breeds were disappearing, one French breeder was saying I want to breed traditional Selle Français, but you with your semen imports have probably done more than anyone to make the Selle Français less French…
“We know that the inheritability of the performance is 20% genes and 80% the general environment, from the conception to the jump-off of the Grand Prix. Definitely we all breed with the same genes, all of us for a hundred years. If you go back to the Thoroughbreds which are the grand grand-sires of all the stallions in Europe, they are the same. We all breed what I call ‘bastards’. There are no more purebreds except the Thoroughbreds and the Trotters.”
And Trakehners…
And Trakehners, but where are the Thoroughbreds and the Trotters and the Trakehners in the world jumping rankings? All the top studbooks in the rankings, are studbooks of bastards. There are Selle Français bastards and Holsteiner bastards, but they are going to be different because the Holstein breeders are not the French breeders. It’s very easy to figure it out – take a group of 30 mares, take them from Oldenburg because they all look the same, dark brown and 1.63cm, so you have the same pool of genes, and make a tank with the semen of a couple of Trakehners, a couple of Anglo-Arabs, couple of Warmbloods, 20 different stallions in the phenotype, and give one group of mares with one tank to the people in Holstein, the same group of mares with the same tank in Normandy, same in Sardinia, wait thirty years and you will have three different populations of horses.”
But is that changing because the identification with locality everywhere in the world is becoming less, especially with the internet, it is more and more international and less and less local…
“It’s true for the genes, but when you buy a horse you have the name of the breeder and his address, so you know the horse is Holsteiner, but has he been bred in Holstein or in Normandy, then stop talking of a studbook and start talking of a group of people. The people in Germany will not like the same mare to breed to the same stallion, as the same mare and same stallion in Sardinia. Because of the people, because of their choice or what they like, what qualities they reinforce, what defects they will tolerate, the group of people will make the group of horses different, and it won’t take a long time, six generations are enough, it goes very quick with horses. With the same group of mares if you only want horses one metre seventy, you will achieve it, or one sixty-two, with the same horses you will achieve it. It’s up to the humans, it’s not a question of genes, it is a question of human choices.”
But is the market not becoming more universal, they all want the same horse…
“The market is becoming more universal and the wealthiest part of the clients, the Middle East, America, they care about the phenotype. They sit on a horse, oh he’s a nice mover, I like his technique, I like his mouth, where is he bred? Okay but that is not the priority, the priority is what they see. Still they go to Germany because they like the way the Germans select their horses, or they go in France because they like the way the French select their horses, and the job of the studbooks is to keep their own identity which is no longer an exclusivity of genes, but it is a characteristic they are looking for that makes the difference between a Selle Français and a Holsteiner.”
“We will forgive a lack of amplitude in the trot with the Selle Français, more than the Holsteiner will do. So we are not going to use the same stallions, we have some stallions the Holsteiner will not use because the trot is not good enough, and the good trot of the Holsteiner makes the weak backs that the Selle Français breeders don’t want to use. The Selle Français breeders have a horse in their dreams which doesn’t look like the horse of the German dreams, and everyone chases their own dreams.”
You were saying that all today’s sporthorses descend from those foundation Thoroughbred stallions. I did some research recently and I found that Furioso the Thoroughbred was so influential in jumping, eventing and dressage, but where do we find Thoroughbred stallions, in the whole catalogue here, I saw once Laudanum and once Heraldik, where are the new Thoroughbreds…
Furioso xx
“That’s because you have only the pedigrees to three generations, but if you go to seven generations, we don’t use the Thoroughbreds, but we use their sons, they are there. Most of the horses you have seen here at the KWPN stallion show are between 30 and 60% Thoroughbred. Not in the first three generations but if you go to the sixth or the seventh, you’ll find them because those Thoroughbreds have been very popular everywhere in Europe between the years 1950 and 1975, and then we were using the sons or grandsons, but they are still there.”
I was talking with Arie Hamoen and he was worried about the possibility of in-breeding because everyone was using the same stallions, he was saying that Holland needed an infusion of new Thoroughbred blood, but where do you find it?
“I’m happy to hear that because once again I am here with my catalogue and you see all those Thoroughbreds in the fourth or fifth generation of all these Warmblood stallions, so the genes are here. Today we breed by the phenotype, what is your definition of blood? To have blood it doesn’t have to be Thoroughbred, it needs to be blood, good blood. A horse like Heartbreaker, you don’t see Thoroughbreds in his pedigree in the first four generations but in the fifth one you see 60% Thoroughbred and there you understand why he is bringing so much blood in his progeny.”
But are you worried if you look at a pedigree and see Heartbreaker three times on that same pedigree?
“If it goes with the strong points of Heartbreaker, I’m happy, if it goes with all the weak points of Heartbreaker, I am scared.”
In principle it doesn’t worry you?
“No, and I don’t think we are in danger of in-breeding because we have such a large population of females in Europe, so we can easily cross a Clinton/Heartbreaker out of a Dutch dam line with a Clinton/Heartbreaker out of a French dam line and escape the danger of in-breeding. We select by the phenotype…”
ˆNot the blood…”
“What is your definition of blood?”
I think you wrote it was the distance from the leg to the brain…
“The distance between the stimulation and the reaction, how quick can a horse react, and how long can he maintain this quick reaction. If the direction is good, we call that good blood, if the reaction is bad, you call that bad blood. But the blood is the ability to react quickly, at the same speed throughout the twenty or thirty minutes of the working session. Blood is nothing to do with sensitivity, you can have very emotive horses with not much blood, and you can have bloody horses with no emotions. Right now I am preparing a glossary of all those terms like ‘blood’, because we use those terms and we don’t know exactly what we mean.”
Next I asked Bart Henstra of the jumping stallion commission, just what he liked about the top horses that made the premium ring?
“I think they were very complete horses, they had a good pedigree, good conformation and they also had athletic jumping ability. We select a lot on athleticism and eagerness in jumping, they need to be easy in the jumping, want to do the job, need to be careful. We especially like light-footed, athletic horses. All for in the championship were easy in the scope, easy to make their fences.”
When you are looking at the pedigrees, are you looking at increasing the outcross, decreasing in-breeding?
“We also take that into consideration, but we also look a lot into the dam line, we like to have a lot of sport in the dam line, especially mares who competed themselves, that’s very important, but we also take into consideration in-breeding and the relation to the total population.”
How would you rate this year’s crop of stallions, good, great, not so great?
“I think we have been a little more strict in how we select, but I think the ones we selected were really talented horses, we are looking forward to seeing them under saddle, in the autumn they can do the performance test and we’ll see how they continue, but so far they are looking good.”
Another member of the selection panel, Eric van der Vleuten said they were looking for scope:
“In the past they always said that in Holland, we have nice horses, but lacking in scope. What we are looking for now, is to have blood horses, light footed but also with scope, that’s what we try to improve all the time.”
Were you looking for taller horses?
“They don’t have to be really tall, okay they have to be not small, they have to be a nice size, but what is important is the reach they have in the canter. A small horse can look like a big horse, it can have a big stride, a lot of power.”
A different sort of stride, not like Glamourdale?
“No, no, no, we don’t like too much with the head up, we like more that they can go easy forward, nothing is in the way of them making a good jump.”
Did you see any problems for the breeders?
“We would like to have a couple more horses approved, but we have been strict enough, but I think we need to be quite strict in the selection because we want to have the best horses. Overall I think we were happy with the horses we selected, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality, so overall we were happy with the horses we selected.”
Egbert Schep is the ideal person to bridge the two halves of this article since he is a force in jumping, and is now in dressage breeding. After some fairly intense discussion at the Breeders Congress – young stallions or established stallions – I asked Egbert his preference…
“Which I prefer? I prefer both. It depends if it suits your mare, but I use also young stallions. If you know them and they are good enough and they suit your mare and you think the young stallion is a good match, then why not?
In dressage they use many many young ones and not so many older stallions, and we are getting a lot of soundness problems with the dressage horses…
“More than the jumpers?”
I think so, if you breed to an older stallion then at least you know he is sound…
“But with the younger stallions why should they not be sound? The only thing is that you don’t know how their career is going to be, otherwise why shouldn’t you take a good young horse.”
Which young stallions do you like at the moment?
“There are a lot that are very nice horses. You can see it here in the competitions, in the 1.20m classes, there were five, six, seven fantastic nice horses that everybody can use, but they don’t use them, they use all the older famous names, and that is only because they think they can sell their foals better at the auction, and that is not the purpose of breeding. The purpose should be that you breed a good sport horse.”
If you had to pick from the young stallions now, which would you choose?
Egbert and Por Favor ES (by El Baronne (Emerald out of a Libero (Zeus) mare and the premium sash…
“I have now a five year old that was a premium stallion here, Por Favor, that horse I use a lot because he is a fantastic jumper and a fantastic type of horse. Then I have a young horse from Aganix that is coming four, but a fantastic horse, he’s big, he’s pretty, he moves for a ten, and jumps for a ten. They are horses that I use, on the mares that suit them – that is the main thing, the main thing is to make the right combination.”
In the dressage selection you have two by Las Vegas, you are not worried that he is taller than a giraffe?
“No, no, no, one that I have by him is really tall, the other is a normal size, but it depends on which mother they have.”
You don’t think the dressage horses are getting too tall and that is a soundness problem?
“I don’t think so, there are enough horses from 175cm to 180cm that are going Grand Prix.”
Are you a dressage breeder or a jumping breeder?
“I am mainly a jumping man, we have a few dressage mares but jumping is where my heart is.”
Dressage at the 2025 Stallion Show
Jovian and Andreas
On the first day of dressage selection, there was only one stallion with more than one son invited to go to the performance test – Jovian – who like his owner/rider, Andreas Helgstrand, is a somewhat controversial character. There were those who thought that at the age of eight, Jovian was too young to be competing Grand Prix. Then there’s those of us who find it such a loss to dressage breeding that the hysterical WFFS campaign banished Jovian’s sire Apache from the breeding barn because he was a carrier, distressing. In both the Jovian sons, the legacy of Apache shines through…
Where did you find Jovian? I asked Andreas…
“Here in Holland as a four-year-old, I saw him on a video and went to see him and we bought him.”
What turned you on about him?
“His powerful movements, a pretty horse. He won a four-year-old class here in Holland, that’s how we saw him on the video.”
So he wasn’t one of the cheap ones…
“He was not cheap, sadly not!”
It was good for him today, two into the performance test, what do you think he is putting on his progeny?
“Elasticity for sure, they all have a nice swing in the trot. I think that’s what he gives most. A nice frame with a good neck.”
Silverstone by Jovian out of a Charmeur mare
What sort of mares does he work best with?
“He himself is a big horse, and quick, and he’s a big mover, so he needs always mares with blood and a bit faster in the legs because he himself is such a big mover. If you take another big mover, they can get too slow, you need to mix it.”
There was some criticism of you riding him Grand Prix when he was only eight years old…
“The horse was World Champion two times, he was well on the way. Three times, he got ten in rideability from test riders. The horse has such natural talent, should I keep him home just for letting him stay there? I play with my horses, and everyone who knows our stables, knows how little I ride him. You don’t need to ride him a lot, he’s just super easy to do all the tricks with. So I just wanted to go out and ride him. Ten years ago there were many many at eight years old, now it is too fast, things are changing. When I was a kid they rode at the Olympic Games on six-year-olds, it’s not that we are killing them, some are just more talented than others.”
Apache
It was a tragedy that Apache’s career was ruined by crazy ladies on Facebook because of WFFS. Is it important that Jovian keeps on that line?
“Who knew about this in the past before all the tests, maybe it has been in the breeding for years and nobody tested for it. I have never seen it, and at Schockemöhle / Helgstrand we say we pay you €10,000 if someone has a foal by one of our stallions with it, and we have never had to pay this. Maybe one time, but there were a lot of other things with this.”
You saw Apache, is there a lot of him in Jovian?
“Of course, they are both pretty looking horses.”
You saw the other stallions this morning?
“I also had another one approved by Sezuan out of a Stedinger mare.”
And do you think they are heading in the right direction here?
“I think they are heading in the right direction here in Holland, their dressage horses are very popular, but they have a depth from some years back, and they are absolutely on track, congratulations to the judges today, they were doing a very good job. They were tough, but I think that is right.”
Do you think there is a worry that the dressage horses are getting too tall?
“No. There are still small horses. If you come to my stable, there are still many small horses. People get higher and higher too, and I don’t think there is a problem with this. We have tons of small horses, from Jovian, from Revolution, all these big stallions we have, they still produce 1.60m horses sometimes.”
In your group, are there some new stallions that you think will become important?
“Daan the expensive one from Verden. Another is the Champion Stallion in Oldenburg, La Paix (La Vie x Sir Donnerhall I), Independent by Ibiza is super super good. Another is V-Power (Viva Gold / Fidertanz) he was champion in Westfalia, he makes amazing offspring. We have our grey Proud James, who went into the performance test with the highest marks ever in Holland. There are some very good young ones coming on.”
It’s incredible, once there were five or six really good dressage stallions and now there are just so many…
“Absolutely.”
Sonic
Amongst the colts that were selected for the performance test there were five by Las Vegas, but none made the premium ring, including the crowd favourite, Sonic, an eye-catching chestnut with lots of chrome, out of a Davino (Hotline) mare. Perhaps the Commission were remembering last year’s crowd fave, another flashy chestnut, L’Avenir, who took home the Champions sash and then failed to complete the performance test.
I reminded one of the major players on the Dutch dressage scene, Nico Witte, that it was fifteen years since our last interview, that time I was asking you about a stallion you discovered, Jazz, this time let’s talk about another of your discoveries, Las Vegas…
“I found him as a foal when I was looking for offspring of my stallion, Daily Diamond. I was in stables in the south of Holland. I didn’t like the Daily Diamond foal so much, but there was another foal in the stable. What kind of a foal is this, he’s by Ferdeaux out of a Wynton mare, Wynton was my stallion as well, my wife competed with him on Grand Prix level in the team. Can I see this one? Sure, and the breeder brought him out of the stable into the indoor arena, just six or seven steps. We have to buy this one, he’s unbelievable.”
Wynton, a competitor at Grand Prix level
“It was funny, after three years I had a Swedish delegation at my farm with 40 breeders, I said, I will present this one at the Dutch licensing, remember the name, I will call him Las Vegas.”
What is he giving to his foals?
“Very much a strong back, uphill tendency. In the conformation they are very very correct. So the first year of Las Vegas was okay but it takes a while with the young stallions for the breeders to know what they need, that’s how it was with Las Vegas, now this year we have a couple of really really good offspring at the stallion show.”
What sort of mares does he need?
“Not too big, 168, 170, with a good outline.”
With blood?
“Yes that would be good, blood on the dam line.”
When we talked fifteen years ago, did you think Jazz would still be so influential here at the stallion licensing?
“Yes, absolutely, at that time I told a few people that Jazz was a one in a million horse. Now we see him in the dam line, also with Wynton, you can see the influence of Jazz is really really there.”
Millennium
It was interesting to see the influence of Millennium, the somewhat controversial son of the even more controversial Easy Game (by Gribaldi who was great, and not in the least controversial). Millennium is the sire of Morricone (Rubin Royal) whose son, McLaren, out of a Sir Donnerhall I, mare, had three selected to go on to the performance test, while Morricone himself was the sire of another selected, out of a Florencio mare.
The McLaren son, Saint McLaren SG out of a Wynton mare was one of the seven to compete for the Championship sash. He was joined by Sylvester (Bordeaux / Zhivago), Everglow Gold (Escolar out of the Sir Donnerhall I daughter, Weihe’s Hope, out of Isabell Werth’s dressage star, Weihegold). Simply the Best (Ferguson / Dream Boy), Scott Nicolas (For Romance / Vitalis), Scaramouche (Toto Jr /Negro) and So Unique (Vivino / Boston Sth).
It was So Unique, another flashy chestnut, who took home the sash. The champion’s bloodlines are a wonderful blend of German and Dutch with even a touch of French. His sire, Vivino is by the very Dutch, Vivaldi (Krack C / Jazz) out of the very German, Desiree by the De Niro son, Dancier out of a Feinbrand mare.
So Unique
So Unique’s dam, L’Unique, is by Boston Sth by Johnson out of a mare by the French 1.60m showjumper, Quattro. She is out of Zamba Dream by Samba Hit, a full-brother to Dressage World Champion, Poetin, out of a mare by one of those all-purpose Dutch stallions, Farrington by the 160m jumper, Wellington, out of a mare by the first Dutch dressage super sire, Doruto.
One person who I turn to over-and-over in my search for insight and information is Johan Hamminga, a key figure in the development of the Dutch dressage horse. Johan is a wonderful trainer and a breeding expert, what did he think of this year’s collection?
“On the Commission we have seen a lot of stallions, more than eighty. Especially we are looking for the stallions with a lot of expression, ‘bloody’ models, the bloody types that are light footed, with a lot of bounce from the ground, and in a good balance, when they are moving in the arena, they can keep their balance easily when they are moving free. It will also be easy when you are riding them, when the horses are free-moving and out of balance, then it will be difficult for the rider to keep them in balance.”
Which stallions did you like their progeny?
McLaren
“From the young stallion, McLaren we saw very nice models, very nice in the head, well formed necks with long, uphill muscles, that’s important, I think. Then when they are combined with a mare with a strong hind leg, there’s enough power from behind and there is enough engagement, then you can get a very good horse”
Saint Mclaren by Mclaren out of a Wynton mare…
Was part of the aim to get more Trakehner blood, from Morricone, from Millennium…
“Then comes Easy Game, Gribaldi, Trakehner blood is important. We also have mares from Ferro, they have a very good hindleg, and mares from out of jumping lines, normally they have a good hindleg and they can carry themselves in an easy way. McLaren was for us, a young stallion with very modern types.”
Did you like any other young stallions?
“Las Vegas makes a nice horse. You saw him yesterday evening , with Diederik von Silfhout, Las Vegas is a very tall horse, but he is good in his frame and the horse has a lot of potential to collect, a very nice front leg, shoulder freedom, and he can carry himself in an easy way. I think for the future for Holland that is a very good combination.”
And you didn’t like the one the crowd liked, the chestnut by Las Vegas with all the white….
“We liked that chestnut of course, he is out of Ina-Sina, a dam line of very good jumping horses. He has Goodtimes in the dam line who also makes a very good hind leg from Nimmerdor. We liked that, but the canter from the chestnut was not so good. In trot it was spectacular, but when you see a horse with such a big trot, he has to collect. The audience likes that when he is moving so big and so much forward, but in the canter it was not so easy for him to collect, that was the reason we said, he has to go under the saddle in the performance test, it is better to invite him to the performance test, but don’t give him a premium.”
Once again Bordeaux put a horse into the Championship ring, he has been such an important stallion here in Holland, what does he give?
“Bordeaux is the sire of a lot of sporthorses with a good character, stable, not crazy. Strong with a good form, they are built in a balance with a nice neck and they are easy to ride.”
Livius by Bordeaux
One that I liked that missed out was Livius, I liked both of his young stallions but neither were invited to the test…
“Bloody types with a lot of length in the neck, sometimes they are a little long in the back then it is not so easy to collect them from behind. The loins have to be very well muscled and wide because all the strength you develop from behind has to go through the loins to the bit, and that is the most important thing.”
Do you think dressage breeding in The Netherlands is healthy at the moment?
“I think we make small steps forward. The Dutch dressage horses have become more modern, more light-footed, but we have to spend more time on the training, and on the riders.”
My feeling, especially looking at some of the young horses in the warm-up arena is that the horses are nicer than the riders…
“Of course, we have to spend more time on that.”
