29-year old foundation stallion Zeus has been put down at the end of August 2001. The French bred chestnut sire enjoyed his retirement at breeding station Gestut Vorwerk in Cappeln, Germany, but, although Zeus was healthy his entire life
, he started to deteriorate in August. Joachim Happ explained that Zeus could no longer leave his stall and had difficulties eating. It was in the horse best interest that he was put down.
Zeus was a stallion with three names. Bred in France, he was named Gordios and represented the French Breeding Society at the 1975 Equitana Horse Fair. On the Equitana fair grounds in Essen, Germany, Zeus' path crossed with the one of Georg Vorwerk. Vorwerk bought the chestnut with his striking blaze and named him Zeus, after the supreme god in Greek mythology.
3/4s of Zeus' bloodlines were Anglo Arabian and the stallion carried Talisman blood in the third generation. Talisman was also the dam sire to the foundation stallion Furioso II, who was a long time stall mate to Zeus in Cappeln.
Zeus immediately became a successful show jumping sire. Nevertheless, did Georg Vorwerk decided to lease him to Holland for three breeding seasons. Baptised Nurzeus in the Netherlands, the chestnut became the sire of famous sport horses Midnight Madness (Michael Withaker) and the licensed stallion Beach Boy (recently sold to the US).
Zeus' greatest achievement was the production of a whole family tree of breed show champions. Zeus was often paired with brood mare Cinderella and she gaved birth to five mares who all became State Premium Mares and represented the Oldenburg verband at regional breed shows. The Cinderella group was also the national "Family" champion in Verden in 1990. The family consisted of Chinchilla, Cleopatra, Chin Chin, Cabaret and Crystal. Chinchilla became the dam of four licensed stallions. Her approved full brother Zymbal I was a three times participant at the Bundeschampionate and a winning stallion at various breed shows. Zymbal II won various international show jumping competitions.
Other known progeny of Zeus are Zapateado, Zeno, Zandor Z, Monodie and Zodiac. Zeus produced 21 licensed stallions, 892 out of 2000 registered sport horse descendants gathered a win sum of 4.5 million Deutsch Marks and 46 mares were laureled with the State Premium Title.