1978 – 2004 165 cm Brown
Breeder: H. Huirne
It was in January 1981, when the three year old, and until then, un-named bay stallion, Ulft was baptized with the name of the village in the Guelders county.
Let the Dutch expert, Jacob Melissen take up the story:
“He was a comparatively small colt, standing just 16 hands, with 8.25 inches of bone, but his movement in hand was superb. He showed an almost perfect driving action of his hindlegs – but his total appearance failed to impress the judges sufficiently for him to be ranked in the top group of colts.”
“At that time, the newly selected colts were ranked in two groups, depending on their quality. Twelve colts were placed in the first group – all of which have disappeared. The last one was the French bred, Ursus. He died in 1993, but the majority had disappeared after their performance test, or after their first four years at stud. Who remembers the names of Uithof, Tigrato, Unyx, Ubbo, Umberto, Utewaal and Uitblinker, nowadays? Yet they were the ‘stars’ of that totally forgotten first quality colt group!”
“In the second quality group there were 17 young stallions, listed by the judges, of whom there are only five at stud! The former showjumper, Olympic Treffer (in Italy), Utrecht in Holland but only licensed by the British Studbook, AES, and finally – Ulft, Uniform and Triton in regular service in the KWPN (Dutch Warmblood) Studbook. As Triton had been selected in the ‘last chance’ show, and therefore not listed in any quality group at all, you may consider the ‘keur’ stallion Ulft, and his ‘preferent’ colleague, Uniform, are the last survivors from the year of the letter ‘U’.”
After the performance test, where he finally succeeded in taking fourth place, Ulft started his career. In 1981, he was bred to only one mare because by the time his performance test was completed, the breeding season was nearly over. In the following years, he served some 1,730 mares, an annual average of 123 coverings.
Most dressage fans remember Ulft’s most famous foal – Ferro, ridden by Coby van Baalen but Coby also rode the sire: ” Ulft was the first licensed stallion I got to ride,” Van Baalen told me. “He was then owned by Mr van Tuyl from Gameren and he put him in training with me to be shown. At that time, there were still special classes for stallions called “bestgaand rijpaard” (best performing riding horse). It was always a battle between Ulft and Uniform.”
Out of his 1,250 foals, six sons were licensed: Boston, Conveyer, Dublin, Dukaat, Fair Play and Ferro.
Dublin and Ferro stood at stud in Holland and they have carried on their sire’s heritage by delivering grandsons into the breeding scene. The KWPN authorities have always had the greatest confidence in this lineage. Ulft has a high reliability of heritability (91%) in jumping and has dressage ability as well.
