2003 1.72 Brown

Breeder: Cees Klaver

Big Star’s breeder, Cees Klaver started his equestrian career with a riding school that he opened when he was eighteen years old. “It started with a pasture where I set up an arena with rope fencing and borrowed horses from farmers in the neighbourhood to use for lessons. I also provided refreshments, and that’s how it got off the ground. In those days, riding was truly a luxury, and people could ride at my place for five guilders an hour, a very low price…” Mr Klaver told Jenneke Smit (Cees Klaver: Success through his own vision, KWPN International 1/2013).

The riding school grew and so did Cees’ ambitions, he started giving some of his horses to top jumping riders like Sven Harmsen, Henk van de Pol, Rob Ehrens, Albert Voorn and Nathalie van der Mei, to campaign for him, and when some of the mares came back to him after their careers finished, he became interested in breeding, and eventually sold the riding school, and established Stal Klaver, with the aim of breeding jumpers, and the business grew and grew. In April 2014, the seventy year old, Mr Klaver announced that he was auctioning 59 of his 200 horses and cutting back a little on his activities.

Along the way, he bred two of the more famous stallions of modern times, Taloubet and Big Star. It’s no coincidence that the two descend from the great French stallion, Almé: “I use good mares out of proven lines and pair them mainly with proven sires. They have to be elastic horses with lots of scope, ‘blood’ and intelligence. I never use Thoroughbreds to get that ‘blood’ in the horses; instead, I use stallions that pass on ‘fiery’ characters like those with Animo and Almé blood.”

The Quick Star son, Big Star was originally christened What a Quick Star K, and he is out of a jumping competitor, Jolanda, who is by Nimmerdor and out of a daughter of Ramiro.

Klaver had faith in Big Star from the start but his faith was not shared by the KWPN licensing commission: “I knew he was very special. That’s why I presented him to the KWPN when he was two and a half years old. At home, he really jumped for a 10, but in the first round viewing he jumped for a 7.5. He was a young horse and he under performed. What’s more the committee wasn’t sufficiently convinced of his talent, which was unfortunate but I could live with that.”

According to the breeder, Big Star had the ideal upbringing: “Nothing bad ever happened to that horse; his confidence was never damaged. It’s the very intelligent and careful horses that are easily offended, and that’s why it’s very important that good horses end up in the right hands.”

The young stallion passed through the hands of Dutch super dealer, Egbert Schep, who was another to appreciate the by now four year old Big Star.

“As soon as we rode him, we knew he was special. We had him for one-and-a-half years. He was five and a half when we sold him, but we sold him for good money, for a five year old it was a lot of money and we have to pay our bills, so we have to sell now and then.”

As a six year old, Big Star and his new owner/rider, Nick Sktelton, took out the British young horse title, but it was in 2012 that the bay stallion started to show just how big a star he was… Big Star won at Gijon, Aachen, Hamburg, Antwerp and Wellington, and was then fifth at the London Games after looking a certain individual gold medallist right until the last round when he had his only rail of the competition. Since then he has been out of action injured. In early 2016, there were reports from Florida that Big Star was on the come back trail but he was eventually retired in May 2017, with Nick bowing at at the same time!
“It has come to a point, after months of thought and consideration, that myself and my partner Big Star have decided to retire from competition,”  Nick told Horse and Hound.

“Although there are many people, including my family, Gary and Beverley Widdowson, and my team, that were looking forward to us carrying on this year, we feel that Big Star has done everything that a rider could ask and it is time for him to relax and enjoy his stallion duties. I have always stated that when Big Star finished I would too. This sport has given me more than I could ever have hoped over the past 43 years and it is such a difficult decision to make, but I’m not getting any younger and it is nice for the two of us to end on the highest note possible.”

 Big Star’s son, and like him, rejected by the KWPN commission…

Big Star has not been used as a breeding stallion, although there are a few youngsters by him, including his son, out of a Jumbo-Jet mare, presented by Egbert Schep at the 2014 KWPN licensing, where, like his dad, he was rejected by the commission. He is currently being marketed by Paul Schockemöhle so he should get every chance…

I asked Paul Schockemöhle: With All Star, is it important to keep the line of Argentinus going?

“All Star was probably one of the best stallions by Argentinus, Arko was a good horse as well. Argentinus made good jumpers, and as well, some dressage horses. All Star was a good mover, even being a big horse, and solid, and that’s why I tried to get him on my station after he was finished and retired.”

What kind of mares will he suit?

“He for sure, needs blood horses. He’s quite a big horse, he has no Thoroughbred in the front lines, so he would need blood.”

Big Star has already produced six licensed stallions in the world. His oldest offspring, such as Jay Jay ES/Borja Villalon Puras/ESP, Lone Star/Joanne Whitaker/GBR, Chaccos Star TW/Felipe Ramos Guinato/BRA, Ashdale Starlight/Jonathon Buxton/GBR, Kelling Star/Charlie Jones/GBR, G-Star ES/Kim Hoogenraat/NED and I-Star/Bianca Schoenmakers/NED, are successful in the Youngster Tour. Big Star’s foals are also in demand: at the fifth edition of the DSP “Überflieger” auction in Donaueschingen, a son of Big Star was the top price, auctioned for 19,250 Euros.