1978 – 1999  Brown 17hh

Breeder: A Johannsen

Described by that indefatigable chronicler of the Irish Horse, Nicholas O’Hare, as ‘the most successful Continental stallion to stand in Ireland’, Cavalier Royale was indeed one of the most successful sires of competition horses at the 2008 Olympic Games, where he was represented by Call Again Cavalier ridden by Mary King in the British Eventing team, Kilkishen and Capt Geoffrey Curran in the Irish team, Ben Along Time and Clayton Fredericks in Australia’s silver medal winning team and the showjumper, Calibra II and Lotta Schultz in the Swedish team.

By Cor de la Bryère, Cavalier Royale was out of Ligustra –  In her veins flows the blood of three of the great Thoroughbreds to come to Schleswig-Holstein: Ladykiller, Cottage Son and Anblick, along with that other great refiner, the Anglo Arab, Ramzes, through his son, Roman. That being said, Cavalier Royale is just over half ‘blood’ horse: 51.76%

Cavalier Royale was Ligustra’s first foal but her career as a broodmare was exceptional. In all she had eleven foals, eight of them by the great Cor de la Bryère. Her second foal, Caprivi, by Capitano, was an approved stallion. Cavalier Royale’s full-sister, Thymana, was a Holsteiner studbook champion and is the grand-dam of VDL Groep Spiga.

Cavalier Royale’s full brother, Cicero was champion of the 1984 Holsteiner licensing before he was exported to the United States where he is best known as the dam sire of Cristallo (Caretino), a jumping star with Richard Spooner.

Another full sibling, Vanara was the dam of Courage II, another of the Holsteiners that came to Ireland and bred great eventers. Despite a very short career on the Emerald Isle, he arrived in 2002 as a 12 year old, and died in 2006, Courage regularly featured in the WBFSH eventing sires rankings top five, and had the most eventing representatives of any sire at the Rio Games.

Cavalier Royale is another of the legion of great stallions who have failed to be recognized by their licensing committee. Presented at the Holstein Approvals, he was sold to Switzerland as a unlicensed stallion, where he was competed by Hansueli Sprunger in showjumping competition. He was sold to Ireland in 1989.

Cavalier Royale’s career was given a kick start by his connections – he was brought to Ireland by Seamus Hughes, a well known figure in the Irish horse industry, in partnership with the Swiss dealer, Max Hauri. While the breeders trusted the judgement of the stallion’s owners, the Irish Horse Board was harder to impress, and refused to give the horse fully approved status, and classified him as a Supplementary sire.

Paper or no paper, when Cavalier Royale’s first crop performed brilliantly as three-year-olds in the loose jumping class at Millstreet, his success as a sire was ensured, and he produced over 1000 foals before he was killed in a fight with another stallion in John Hughes’ yard in 1999.

Cavalier Royale stood for most of his life at the Williamstown Stud of John Hughes, and in an article in Breeding News, John’s niece Marion told Adriana van Tilburg:

“Cavalier Royale came to Ireland thanks to the famous horse dealer Max Hauri, who was a brilliant horsemen and who rode in the Olympics himself in eventing and showjumping. His two sons, Markus and Thomas Hauri, are both riders and have jumped on Nations’ Cup teams for Switzerland. They are now more into dealing and breeding horses.
“Max Hauri noticed the mare quality in Ireland, he liked Cor de la Bryère and thought it would be good to give a bit more power to the Irish horses, as well as better balance in movement. So he said to my father, ‘you should buy this horse, and use him in Ireland because he will be a good horse for the country.’ So my father bought Cavalier Royale, but because he didn’t like stallions gave him to Michael Quirke, a friend of ours. He stood him at his farm for three years, and then my uncle, John Hughes, took the horse. They both did a good job, Michael and Paddy Quirke covered a lot of mares with him because they liked him. My uncle was a vet in Dublin for reproduction and was starting with embryo transfer, so used that a lot when we got him. He really loved Cavalier Royale, was passionate about him. He used to put a donkey or a sheep in the stable beside him and kept the radio on all the day to keep him happy. He has thousands of pictures of Cavalier Royale and has a beautiful farm in Dublin.”

And what did Cavalier Royale give his progeny? Marion again:

“I used to break my own young horses with my father. With the original Irish horses it took two years to teach them a flying change. With Cavalier Royale offspring they could do a flying change right away because they have a higher elevation in their canter so it is easier and more natural for them to change. Maybe with the Irsih horses it had to do with the Thoroughbred influence as they are normally not good at changing. Cavalier Royale also put more power in the jump.”

Cavalier Royale jumped internationally and was a Puissance winner at 7’3” before a hock injury curtailed his sporting career.

Following agitation from breeders, Cavalier Royale was finally upgraded in 1997, after blood tests proved he was the sire of François Mathy’s European showjumping star, Amos. This horse was originally christened Tisscrum Cavalier, and won the West Coast Grand Prix with Rich Fellers before returning to Europe. Other top competitors in the US included Cameron Hills Shanroe, La Dona, McGuinness, Bantry Bay and Shannondale Truman. McGuiness, ridden by Rich Fellers ranked second on the US rankings for 2004, with winnings of $144,348, with placings in 18 competitions including the Shell Derby Cup in Calgary and the Del Mar Grand Prix.

Rich Fellers and McGuiness 

Cavalier Royale has also been a hugely successful sire of eventers, as the results from the 2008 Olympics show.

Benalongtime and Clayton Fredericks winning at Malmo 

Cavalier Royale has yet to produce a top stallion son. One likely candidate is Chippison, who jumped with distinction for Ireland at the 2006 WEG in Aachen. This stallion is homebred by his rider, Marie Burke and was an embryo transfer product out of a Flagmount Boy mare, Chipmount. The Irish Horse Board has refused to accept his breeder’s word of mouth verification of the dam’s pedigree, and the stallion is classified as a Supplementary 1 sire.

Cavalier Royale was in 5^th place on the 2012 WBFSH Eventing Sires rankings, but had fallen to 56^th on the 2013 list.