1993 – 2021 169 cm Black Breeder: Gabriele Harder-Brune
Licensed in 1993 in Neumünster
At the 2020 Bundeschampionate Sandro Hit was influential on the showgrounds at Warendorf where he made his name – but mainly on the dam line. Sandro Hit was the grandsire of three of the Five and Six year old dressage finalists, the dam sire of four, and the great dam sire of two…
At the 2021 World Young Dressage Horse Championships the first and most striking aspect of the entries list is the domination of Sandro Hit. The black stallion may never have competed after his success as a six-year-old, but he has certainly been a dominating influence in young horse classes. This was to be expected, what is perhaps slightly more surprising has been Sandro Hit’s success at a sire of Olympic Grand Prix medallists, in Tokyo, his collection included the team gold medallist, Showtime FRH (Rotspon), and all three of the silver medal winning American team, Salvino (Donnerhall) and grandsons, Suppenkasper (Spielberg) and Sanceo (San Remo).
Salvino and Adrienne Lyle
But he is still a force to be reckoned with in the young horse classes, at Verden this year, we find him written all over the age groups, but without a single foal of his own, his blood spread by sons and grandsons. The lineup of grandsons is impressive Spörken (Sir Donnerhall / Lauries Crusador xx), Santano (Sancisco / Dream of Heidelberg II), Spielberg (Sunny-Boy / Rozier), Blue Hors St Schufro (by the great grandson, St Moritz Junior out of a Don Schufro mare), Standford (Sir Donnerhall / Diamond Hit) and Sarotti Mokka Sahne (Soliman de Hus / Lauries Crusador xx), all have one representative.
Sandro Hit’s son Seebach (Caprimond) also has one.
But it is when we examine the list of dam sires that Sandro Hit really has the numbers. Sandro Hit himself is dam sire on seven occasions, his sons, San Amour (Plaisir d’Amour), Stedinger (Landadel), Blue Hors Soprano (Contender) and Sungold (Grundstein II), once, and Sir Donnerhall (Donnerhall) twice.
Sandro Hit’s half brother, Diamond Hit (Don Schufro / Ramino) is dam sire three times, even Sandro Hit’s sire, Sandro Song gets a mention, dam sire of Powerpoint de Tamise (Dark President). The next most prolific dam sire is Fidertanz (Fidermark / Ravallo) with four.
Sir Donnerhall and Ulf Möller – like his sire, a star at the Bundeschampionate
Even now, twenty one years after his emergence as a young horse superstar, no other stallion polarizes the breeding community like Sandro Hit.
You either love him, or you hate him… indeed there are some who rudely add the letter ‘S’ to his suffix, but there is no denying his influence. He has indeed sired more dressage sires than any other stallion of modern times. In 2007, he was the most prolific dressage sire of licensed sons, with 67 – which put him into 4th place on the Sires of Sires rankings. In 2008, he had moved into 2nd with 88, but still the largest group of dressage specialists, and he held that position in 2009 (with 88), 2010 (90) but dropped to 3rd (still the highest dressage stallion) in 2011 adding three more licensed sons for a total of 93.
His fans point to the charisma and presence of his offspring, their fashionable dark colouring and an impressive canter, all exhibited by his many Young Horse class winners – his detractors point to an out–behind trot, a wicked walk and a dubious temperament. It looked for a while as if he was just a Young Horse sire, but now there are some very successful FEI level Sandro Hits. The most successful have been Dorothee Schneider’s two: her Rio ride, Showtime FRH (winnings €125,772) and St Emilion (winnings €54,834. The 2019 Hanoverian Stallion Book lists 16 dressage competitors with earnings of €10,000 or more.
Santano and Christopher Burton on course at Rio and on their way to a medal
There were three by Sandro Hit in the dressage competition at Rio, and rather surprisingly, the stand out star of the cross country was another Sandro Hit, Santano II ridden by Christopher Burton.
Showtime and Dorothee Schneider, Gold Medal Team members at Tokyo
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He was an influential sire at the last WEG in Tryon, as Gemma Alexander’s chart demonstrates:
In the Grand Prix at the 2018 WEG Sandro Hit was represented by his grandson, 13thplaced, Sammy Davis Jr (San Remo / Wenckstern), and in 14th, his son, Salvino (Donnerhall).
Sammy Davis Jr and Dorothee Schneider
Dorothee Schneider who rode Sammy Davis Jr at Tryon, also competes, Sandro Hit’s most successful son, Showtime FRH (out of a Rotspon mare), not surprisingly, Dorothee loves the S line:
“Yes, I have a few horses with the S blood, Sammy Davis Jr, St Emilion, Showtime FRH, all horses with S blood, and for me, they all have a big character and when you have that character on your side, and you can work together, they want to work. They have a very special character, they have very much energy, not only behind but also in the head. They can manage their body, and when they want to work with me, they do a good job.”
Sandro Hit’s dam, Loretta has been an excellent stallion producer – bred to Don Schufro, she produced Diamond Hit who was Reserve World Champion Five Year Old Dressage horse and Bundeschampion in 2002; bred to the Rohdiamant son, Royal Dance, she produced Royal Hit, the 1-c premium stallion of the 2002 Oldenburg stallion licensing, and now a successful sire in his own right.
Loretta is by the Ramiro son, Ramino, who was champion of his performance test at Adelheidsdorf in 1983. He stood in Oldenburg from 1983 to 1987, while at the same time competing in showjumping with Melanie Kötter. The pair won team gold at the European Junior Championship in 1987, before he joined up with the Italian rider, Loris Pujatti, again with international success.
Ramino has proven a good sire of broodmares – he is the dam sire of the jumping stallion, Gio Granno; the 1997 Oldenburg licensing winner, Ronaldo, and his full-brother, Rubin Star W, who won his stallion performance test and was a finalist at the Bundeschampionate; Sergeant Pepper, two time Bundeschampionate finalist is also out of a Ramino mare. Loretta’s dam, Lassie is by Welt As who was the sire of international showjumping star, Leroy Brown, and dressage star, Bonfire.
Sandro Hit’s sire Sandro Song is out of Antenne II by Gepard, who left a lasting imprint on Paul Schockemöhle’s mare band. Gepard was a son of the great sire of showjumpers, Gotthard. The grand-dam Antenne won numerous Grand Prix with George Ahlmann. Her sire, Adlerorden was a top jumping sire in Westfalia, siring stars like Argonaut 7 with Bernard Kamps.
Sandro Song is one of the few stallions to have been both Champion Oldenburg Junior Stallion as well as main premium winner. He himself competed in both dressage and showjumping to intermediate level.
Despite the versatility of his sire, on his breeding you would have expected that Sandro Hit was headed for a career in the jumping ring – trouble was, he couldn’t jump, and turned in a very poor performance test, but Dr Ulf Möller, who managed the dressage section of PSI, found the way to bring out his ability and establish a new dressage dynasty. Ulf told me how the turnaround was achieved…
Ulf and Sandro Hit at the Bundeschampionate…
Here was a stallion that had done a poor performance test, he was not bred for dressage, but you saw something there and ended up with a World Dressage Champion, and now it seems a champion sire?
“Maybe that has something to do with the test. Now they don’t have to do that 100 day test and I think that is very good decision. Some stallions are too weak to do a 100 day test, and to do all those things like cross country jumping. Now we have a 30 day test and then it goes on their competition record, that is much better for the future. Okay he might be bred like a jumper, but he cannot jump. He makes a nice jump but he has no scope.”
With Ulf in the saddle, Sandro Hit dominated the six year old dressage championship at the 1999 Bundeschampionate. His presence and charisma were overwhelming, and, with Ulf, he found a showman who knew exactly how to conserve his horse to produce the big performance right on cue. They were also World Young Dressage Horse champions at Arnheim that same year before the black stallion retired to a sensational stud career.
Sandro Hit wins the 6 year old class at the first ever World Young Dressage Horse Championships in 1999
Perhaps, Sandro Hit can be ‘blamed’ for the current fashion of breeding to young sires – either licensing winners, or winners at the Bundeschampionate. It is certainly a development that has its critics who point to the fact that Sandro Hit quit the competition arena in his six-year-old year – the year that for most dressage horses, the work starts to get interesting. But Sandro Hit’s time was limited – he was in huge demand in the breeding barn, so much so, that for the first time, Paul Schockemöhle started thinking about keeping and standing his young stallions rather than selling them on. According to Ulf:
“Sandro Hit was the stallion that gave Paul Schockemöhle the idea to run the breeding stud seriously. Before he owned Don Schufro, but then he got a good offer, and sold him. That was his idea before – he had good stallions, but if he had a good offer – whoosh – they were gone. Sandro Hit was the first stallion where he got a really really big offer and said, no, I keep him. Then it worked, and gave him the idea that it is worth keeping the good stallions for a while and then to decide what to do – because it is a business, it is not a state stud supported by the government. At the moment I think we can offer every breeder in the world, a stallion for his special mare, because we have such a variety of stallions.”
Indeed there are those who suggest that because of Mr Schockemöhle’s ability to promote new stallions, and manipulate the market, PSI is becoming the de-facto National Stud of Germany… but back to Sandro Hit.
Not surprisingly, Ulf is one of his greatest fans:
“I think he is really a revolution in the breeding. An absolutely new bloodline – he has more than 65 sons now. Maybe Weltmeyer did this, but no other stallion.”
What qualities does he give his young stock?
“ He is really stamping his offspring. He is producing uphill horses, producing pretty horses, even with some ugly mares. He gives his colour, and he gives outstanding rideability, and he gives something that is difficult to say in words, he makes proud horses. This is what is important – but it also gives a responsibility to the rider that he understands this proudness, and don’t try and press this proudness out. The rider must allow this pride to come out of the horse – maybe it was a bit the same with him at the stallion test, they pressed him and I let him live.”
Samira by Sandro Hit out of a mare by Rockwell – an out-and-out star of the 2007 Bundeschampionate
Ulf is also well aware of the criticism that Sandro Hit’s Holsteiner heritage leaves him with the tendency to produce horses that are a bit out behind, and slow behind, in trot, a criticism that was directed at Sandro Hit’s Bundeschampion son, Sir Donnerhall who won the Six Year old Title in 2006.
“There was a big discussion about Sir Donnerhall’s hind legs, but the whole time I rode him, the horse was able to carry himself, and I think a horse is only able to carry himself when he is in balance and when he is using his hindlegs. That feeling is the most important thing, and I think as a rider, there are always things you can fix – but the quality of the horse must make this work worthwhile. Also with Don Schufro, or Ahlerich, whatever, all these horses had a weak point, every horse in the world has a weak point but the rider who is going to invest himself in the training, he must know if he can live and work with that weak point.”
“In the final round at the World Young Horse Championships, you could see that Sir Donnerhall was able to use his hind leg, and for sure, in the development, it will become better and better. And also the muscles are changing now, and this is what we want – but the main thing is that the horse is able to carry his weight on the hind legs and for sure, this is possible.”
What mare lines does Sandro Hit cross on?
“That is the really good thing with Sandro Hit, we have outstanding offspring from Donnerhall mares, from Rubinstein, from Weltmeyer, from Brentano, from Holstein bloodlines, like Calypso. This is what makes Sandro Hit super super interesting because this is a line that fits all the prominent lines, so now you have a new choice.”
Once it looked as if while you could breed radical crosses in jumping with success, French to Holstein, for instance, the best dressage horses came from bloodlines that were concentrated dressage producers. As usual, Paul Schockemöhle keeps his own counsel:
“You can breed wider with dressage horses,” he told me. “Once upon a time people thought you could only breed dressage horses with Donnerhall, Weltmeyer and Rubinstein. But then you find jumping stallions like Sandro establishing a dressage line through his son Sandro Hit, there luckily the bloodlines are not so close together – they don’t have to be so close together.”
What made you decide that Sandro Hit would make a dressage horse – there is not a lot of dressage on his pedigree?
“He was moving very well as a foal. As a two-year-old we knew he was a very good type, he was moving well, and we brought him to the stallion grading at Oldenburg.”
They didn’t like him though?
“But he passed, and then because he had a funny bloodline for a dressage horse so he had to prove himself, and he did.”
He then went on to breed very good foals, were you worried that he was a result rather than a cause?
“His mother breeds very good horses. She is a fantastic mover, from her I have a number of top foals. Diamond Hit who was reserve champion at the World Young Horse Championships is also from that mare, and Diamond Hit is probably better than Sandro Hit.”
Diamond Hit competing as a young horse
And later, competing at Grand Prix level
You are primarily a jumping breeder but you are breeding so many dressage horses?
“That is primarily for economic reasons, a three year old dressage horse that has good movement, you sell even better than a five year old jumper.”
Sandro Hit established the pattern of the ‘hot’ PSI stallions breeding 600 to 800 mares in a season, and as a result, there are Sandro Hits appearing everywhere – and a fair proportion of them have been successful.
Poetin at the Bundeschampionat with Kathrin Meyer Zu Strohen
The first cross that really worked was with the mare – Poesie – based at Neustadt-Dosse, the Brandenburger Stud in the former East Germany. She is by that great broodmare sire, Brentano, and bred to Sandro Hit produced first the World Young Dressage Horse Champion Poetin, followed by the three Samba Hit brothers – all of who starred in young horses classes and at the Bundeschampionate. Samba Hit I has been an extremely successful competitor on the small tour with Christian Flamm in the saddle.
Sandro Hit has been one of the more important sires in the foal auction boom. Suddenly the breeders are aiming not for a place in the Elite Riding Auctions for three and four year old horses, but to sell their foals at auction while they are still foals, and they are getting good prices. I put it to Ulf Möller that this development has worrying implications for the breeding program…
Is it a problem that breeders are breeding for foals because the big prices at the foal auctions – and there the money is for the foal with extravagant front legs, but maybe a little hollow in the back and when it grows up, not the nicest horse to ride?
“The whole breeding character has changed in Germany. I often talk to breeders about this. Years ago, the children of the breeders were riding the product for one year, to show them a little bit. And this saved money because it is not so expensive. Now I think half the breeders have no background in agriculture, if they have a three-year-old horse they have to give it to a trainer, and this is hundreds of Euros, a month. That means after five or six months, you have a horse that is nicely broken in, but it cost you a lot, and still, if it is not top quality, it is too young to sell to an amateur. That means that once you put a saddle on the horse, the cost goes uphill quickly.
Rosario competing as a young horse
So the breeders have to produce a foal that they can sell. That puts the pressure on them to produce a sellable foal – but if you see offspring from a stallion like Rosario, we had a very nice one in our auction, then the breeders see, okay, maybe we won’t get a top foal, but we get a top horse as a three-year-old.”
“There are a number of stallions like this – but then with Sandro Hit, you can sell the foals very easily because they are very nice as foals. That’s why he will be there for as long as he lives because he gives you nearly a guarantee for the colour, for uphill movement and for a nice neck. As long as the breeders can get good money – and I don’t mean one hundred thousand – I mean a good price, then they use him.”
In the 2021 Hanoverian Stallion Book, Sandro Hit, is recorded as the sire of 1288 competition horses, with winnings of €1,564,309, with 204 ‘S’ level dressage progeny. He is also the sire of 173 jumpers, with 6 at S level.
His 2021 FN rankings are 128 as a sire of young dressage horses, and 154 for highest level achieved. On the Hanoverian rankings, his score for type is 132, with a dressage ranking of 130 as against a jumping index of 85. He scores well for canter (146) and trot (133) but less well for walk (104).
There are 18 horses that have won more than €10,000 in dressage, headed by Showtime FRH with €230,697 with the next most successful, another of Dorothee’s team, St Emillion.
Soliman du Hus, a Sandro Hit son sold to France
And the number of Sandro Hit licensed sons seemed to grow by the second. In 2007, a Sandro Hit x Donnerhall x Classiker son was the Champion of the Oldenburg Stallion Licensing. The same pedigree combination (Sandro Hit x Donnerhall) had already produced the Licensing Champion of the Hanoverian society in Verden the previous month. A young colt, Soliman, sold at auction for the top price of €700,000 to the French millionaire Xavier Marie of the Haras de Hus in France – although the director at Celle, Axel Bröckmann then secured an agreement for the horse to stand in Celle.
San Amour
On the 2019 WBFSH sire standings, Sandro Hit was in 3rd place behind Jazz and Johnson. His leading performer was Showtime, third individually in the world dressage standings, backed up in 18th by Salvino, who has won a string of Grand Prix classes with American, Adrienne Lyle. On the 2020 standings, he was still in 3rd place, while his son, San Amour (Plaisir d’Amour) moved into 9th spot.
Adrienne and Salvino at Aachen
Like Dorothee, Adrienne is a Sandro Hit fan but she is well aware of their strengths and weaknesses…
Your front-liner, Salvino, is a Sandro Hit and they are not always the easiest pony in the stable to establish a relationship with…
Adrienne is giggling: “It took a while. It was a whole year before we put him in the ring and everyone was kind of like, come on, what are you doing, he was owned by a syndicate at the time, and they were patient, they let me go with my gut when I said I need a year to get to know him and re-calibrate things and get us on the same page – it takes a while for sure.”
While the Sandro Hits have got a lot of strengths, it is generally not behind, the stallion himself was never the most engaged of horses, is that something you have to think about when you are training a Sandro Hit, developing that power behind?
“Definitely. Salvino has developed a really lovely piaffe / passage tour, which I know not all the Sandro Hits can, but it took a tremendous amount of strength, it took us several years of not only learning the mechanics of doing it, but gaining the strength to do it. Fitness is something I have found to be incredibly important for him – we cross train, we do hills, lots of stuff like that because without that strength he would definitely struggle. It’s not something that is naturally there, you have to be extra mindful to create the strength so they can get the engagement behind.”
Dorothee Schneider and Showtime at Rio
Santana and Sweden’s Minna Telde at the London Olympic Games
Sandro Hit had five representatives on the first entries for Rio list, his son, Sir Donnerhall (Donnerhall) had two, while two other sons, Sandreo (Flemmingh) and Stedinger (Landadel), each had one. His most prominent representative was the new combination in the German team, Dorothee Schneider and Showtime who were part of the Gold Medal team at Rio.
Dorothee Schneider and Showtime at the Bundeschampionships in their early days
View on Sandro Hit on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFMOSB4q6UI
Want to breed your own ‘S’ line star? International Horse Breeders has semen from Sandro Hit, and his sons, Samarant, Samba Hit, San Amour, Sarkozy and Sir Donnerhall
Sandro Hit
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