Born 1984 – died 2005 171 cm

Breeder: Johann Lenzen

So universalised has the breeding scene become in Germany that it is somewhat heartwarming when a really Westfalien ‘Westfalien’ wins the stallion licensing – and that’s what happened in 2006 when the title at Munster-Handorf went to a bay colt by Ehrentusch out of a Ferragamo / Florestan mare. The colt is a full brother to the licensed stallion Edelmann, who sold for €225,000 to Sissy Max-Theurer and now competes as Eichendorff.

This is traditional Westfalien breeding, in an era where that studbook has basically been swamped with Hanoverian, Oldenburg and even Dutch bloodlines.

Ehrentusch’s sire, Ehrensold stood at the State Stud in Warendorf and was mainly used in the Rhineland area where he was a noted producer of competition horses. His most famous son was the dressage gelding, The Entertainer, first ridden at a World Cup final by Georg Theodorescu and later by both Reiner and Michael Klimke. But Ehrensold was also a solid producer of excellent showjumpers – his two stars being Italy’s Eileen with Giovanni Govoni and Switzerland’s Elastique with Willi Melliger.

Ehrentusch’s dam is the State’s Premium mare, Rheinfee, who was the reserve champion at Germany’s DLG show in 1989. She is also the dam of Klaus Balkenhol’s international dressage star, Ehrengold (also by Ehrensold). Her sire, Rheingold was the champion stallion of the Rhineland in 1977. He is by the well-known dressage sire, Romadour II.

Ehrentusch was the champion of the 1987 stallion performance test at Warendorf finishing first in both the dressage and jumping sections. At the 1989 DLG show is Frankfurt, he was reserve to Weltmeyer.

Ehrentusch has been a consistent sire of young horses at the Bundeschampionate – including Ecciavelle, Euro Design, I Cestelli and Espania. He has also produced a number of top priced auction horses, 33 state premium mares, and ten licensed sons including: ECU, Ehrentanz I & II, Ehrenwert, Edinburgh, Ehrenwort, Escobar, Externstein, Ehrenpreise and Ehrenmarsch. He has been a producer of really top dressage horses, like Etienne, a member of the bronze medal winning US team at the Sydney Olympics with Christine Traurig, Eichendorff, a Grand Prix winner with Victoria Max Theurer and Egalite, ridden by Nina Stadlinger for Austria at the 2006 WEG… he has also produced the international carriage horse, Excalibur W, driven by Josef Dobrovitz for Hungary. His showjumpers include: Emily with Rene Tebbel, Escada and Horst-Klaus Heleine and El Paso of Kenia with the Irishman, Denis Lynch.

On the WBFSH dressage stallion standings for 2007, Ehrentusch was in 9^th place with five representatives, the most successful being Austria’s Egalité with Nina Stadlinger however by 2013, he had slipped to 43^rd, with points from Eichendorff, and Isabell Werth’s El Santo.

How the E line was saved…

From my friend Thomas Harwig, here is the story:

“We have seen in the last two or three years a very interesting comeback of the famous E line. The founder of the E line in Westfalia was Ehrenschild (Eindruck II / Adlerschild), a stallion from the Hanoverian State Stud in Celle, who came in 1960 to the town of Melle which is right on the border of Westfalia and Hanover, and the Westfalian breeders used him. He was a big, heavy horse, but typical of his time, remember he was born in 1956 and came to Melle in 1960 – for this time he was a typical horse.”

“He sired the Westfalian stallion, Ehrensold (Fronvogt), whose son was the very famous Ehrentusch (Rheingold). We saw a lot of very good children of Ehrentusch, and a lot of them have the same characteristics, they all want to work, they had all very good hind legs. They were not beauty queens – or kings – but perfectly usable, and not only dressage horses but also showjumpers. You might remember El Paso from Paul Schockemöhle and later Eddie Macken. In the 80s and early 90s, Ehrentusch was very favoured, but then a lot of people said, oh Ehrentusch’s children, they are not beautiful enough, and his popularity slipped down.”

“Then one of the most famous breeders, Norbert Borgmann, the father of Stephan who runs the stud today, he used Ehrentusch with his very perfect mare, Florence (Ferragamo / Florestan) they produced Estobar, later Estobar NRW. He sold at the auction is 2006 for the unbelievable price of over half a million euros.”

Escolar

“From Estobar we saw his really best son, Escolar, two times winner at the Bundeschampionate as a three and four-year-old stallion where he received several tens for gallop and trot. Now we can see the first children of Escolar. The oldest are four but in the first season he covered only a handful of mares. The first crop we can really see are the three-year-olds and they have had a lot of success in Westfalia, and in the Bundeschampionate. The champion of the three-years-old geldings and mares class is an Escolar, Eternity who was shown by the stable of Andreas Helgstrand.”

“This story is a good example of two things. The first is, how great the danger is that a very valuable line can be forgotten – because if Norbert Borgmann hadn’t done his own thing with Florence, we would have had no Estobar, no Escolar, and no one would today speak about the E line. The second is that a lot of the strengths that were first seen with Ehrenschild, we can see three, four, five generations later. The very good hind legs, they all want to work, mostly not such beautiful horses but really horses you can use for working and working at a higher level, because they want to work.”

 Isabell Werth and El Santo

View Ehrentusch on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGAq4f-ptMY