1999 171 cm Bay

Breeder: Paul Schockemöhle

Paul Schockemöhle is a marketing genius, and his skills are abundantly in evidence in the case of his ‘hot’ stallion, Balou du Rouet. The stallion perhaps has appeal to German breeders because they are mixing the strange and unknown – the Selle Français jumping star, Baloubet – with the comfort of a mare that is solidly German. Balou’s dam, Georgia, has also produced the licensed stallion, Cornet’s Balou who was the Five Year Old Jumping Horse Champion at the 2011 Bundeschampionate.

Her sire, Continue combines the elite Holsteiner stallions, Contender and Tin Rocco. Continue is the sire of the licensed stallion, Cowondo Z. The grand-dam, Georgette II produced the licensed stallion, Sandrissimo. In the third and fourth generation we find Domino and Gepard who were very influential in shaping Paul Schockemöhle’s mare band.

Balou showed his jumping qualities in the 30 day test in 2002, where he achieved a 9.2 score for jumping. He qualified for the Bundeschampionate in 2004, and in 2005, he won several young jumping horse tests and was a Bundeschampionate finalist. He had several advanced wins but never competed at an international level.

Despite this rather modest performance record, so far Balou has produced 40 (!) licensed sons, including Balzachi, Balloon, Baldeur, Balou’s Bellini, Balou’s Star, Bonaventura, Burberry, Baltimore, Bon Balou, Bacaccio, Blueberry, Balou’s Crack, Balero, Amazing, Baccord, Bali and Ballybo H, none of whom have set the world alight.

He is the sire of Bundeschampionate competitors in the five and six year old classes. 176 of his progeny are successful at Advanced level. Bacardi has won €139,779 in prize money – in 2015, he won three times, all at the same show, Ciekocinko***, taking out the 1.50, the GP and the 1.50 against the clock with Marc Bettinger – although the field was not first class. The licensed stallion, Horse Gym’s Balzaci with Felix Hassmann has prizemoney of €315,569 – in 2015, he won two 1.50 classes, one at Odense***. the other at Ommen***. In 2016, his only recorded result was a 40th in the four star GP of Lipsia.

There are 1145 horses with winnings of more than €3,847,280 according to the 2021 Hanoverian Stallion Yearbook. There are 36 of his progeny who have won more than €15,000. Winners of more than €100,000 inlcude: Babalou 41 (180,020); Bacardi (137,779), Balance 30 (225,673), Baloubet 4 (211,334), Balzaci (527,281), Bangkok Girl (116,317) and Brooklyn (156,144).

Balzaci (Ex Libris) – a winner of over half a million euros with Felix Haßmann

On the 2017 FN breeding values, Balou has a Jungpferdeprüfungen (young horse) value of 144, and a Turniersport (open competition) value of 127.

On the 2018 FN values he scores 152 on the ranking of sires of open competition horses with a reliability of 95% – this is not enough to put him into the top ten.

On the 2017 Hanoverian rankings, he rates 145 for jumping and 74 for dressage. He scores a negative 93 for type, just 80 for the neck.

On the 2018 Hanoverian rankings, his jumping value is 142, and his dressage value is 96. He scores 94 for type, although the ‘neck score’ has improved to 83.

First Class van Eeckelghem

On the WBFSH rankings for 2016, Balou was in 7th place with his most successful points earner, Daniel Deusser; First Class van Eeckelghem (Feischnitt van de Richter), with the second highest points earner, Bowie Z (Jumpilot), Babalou was the 3rd highest.

Todd Minkus and Babalou win the $130,000 Adequan GP*** in Wellington in 2016. In March 2017, the pair won the $100,000 Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Ocala, the closing leg of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2016/2017 North American League season.

On the 2017 rankings he is in 8th place with 68 points earners, the most successful of which was Bianca (Cardento) a genuine 1.60 star, who carried Steve Geurdat to an individual bronze at the Tryon WEG.

Steve Guerdat and Bianca

Balou du Rouet is one of the most popular jumping sires in German today. On the 2021 FN rankings for jumping he scores 133 as a sire of young horses, and 144 in the highest level rankings.

Like many great jumpers, Balou has a negative Hanoverian value for type – 91 – but a 2021 value of 148 as a sire of jumpers, which puts him into third place on the Hanoverian jumping toplist, behind Stolzenberg and his sire, Stakkato.