At the end of the two day approval for young stallions at the Weser-Ems-Halle in Oldenburg, 33 of the 62 young stallions admitted to the approval received a positive approval rating. Ten of these were awarded a premium.
With five approved sons, Sandro Hit not only had the largest off-spring lot but also became the highly applauded Champion Stallion. Reserve Champion was a Rohdiamant son. The 1c premium was awarded to a young stallion by Royal Dance and a Wolkentanz II son received the 1d premium.
Jumper breeding is as strong as ever in Oldenburg: three extremely talented jumpers by Clintino, Quattro B and Landor S were among the premium lot.
A moment of fright took place when the young stallions were allowed to run free, holding the breath of every spectator in the Weser-Ems-Halle for a moment. A young stallion jumped out of the ring up into the stands of spectators. Fortunately, the result could have been much worse: seven spectators were slightly injured but their injuries were minor enough that they could remain for the rest of the event after being treated by a doctor. The stallion also suffered only minor bruises.
"The Medals"
Just for statistics: in the field of dressage, along with the "D's" (a total of eight) and the "R's" (a total of seven), the "S's" are gaining significance. Five off-spring by the 1999 German Champion and World Champion of young dressage horses, Sandro Hit, were approved, the most outstanding of which was the stallion owned by Gerd Sosath (Lemwerder) out of a mare by Landadel who the mare and stallion commission proclaimed this year's Champion Stallion.
"A decidedly good-looking, extremely elegant model with a correct foundation, outstandingly bold movements, equally adroit and talented jumping and a sovereign presence that stands out. You don't see a stallion like this very often", is the way Dr. Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinghof, Oldenburg's breeding director, portrayed catalogue number 54, the brown darling of the 2002 approval.
Close behind was Harli Seifert's (Bunnen, near Lönigen) Rohdiamant son (dam by Grundstein II; Cat. No. 47), a full brother of last year's Premium winner, Rubin Royal, and another off-spring from the successful Rudilore family, which also produced two German Vice Champion jumpers in 2001, Couleur Rubin and Conterno Grande. "A modern type and just as good as the champion stallion as far as movement quality is concerned", said Dr. Schulze-Schleppinghof indicating a close result.
"This Reserve Champion also belongs to the absolute extra class category." The quality of the places that followed was also very high: a son from the first crop of the 1998 Champion Stallion, Royal Dance, who is a half-brother on his dam's side of Sandro Hit and Diamond Hit, bred by Gabriele Harder-Brune in Bramsche, received the 1c Premium (Cat. No. 50).
Jumping and Dressage Bloodlines
The premium ring in the dressage camp was made up as follows: two Wolkentanz II sons received premiums: the 1d premium (dam by Rubinstein, bred by Claus Fenske in Wardenburg, Cat. No. 62) and the 1g premium (dam by Feiner Stern, bred by Aloys Klaas in Lingen, Cat. No. 61). Donnerhall and his son, De Niro, sired the 1f premium stallion (dam by Alabaster, bred by Richard Weigert in Groß Nemerow, Cat. No. 17) and the 1h premium stallion (dam by Rohdiamant, bred by Elisabeth Münstermann in Wallenhorst, Cat. No. 25).
Especially talented jumpers in the premium ring (1e, 1i and 1j premium) were sired by Clintino (dam by Cordial Mèdoc, bred by Kurt Freese in Bramsche, Cat. No. 5) and Landor S (dam by Carolus, bred by Gerd Sosath in Lemwerder, Cat.No. 35). The stallion by Quattro B (dam by Zeus, bred by Heinz Lüschen in Wardenburg, Cat.No. 40) possessed double talents.
In the pedigrees of the approved stallions in the jumper camp, you also find sires such as Lordanos (Cat. No. 37), the Thoroughbred stallion, Rivero (Cat. No. 43), Caretano (Cat. No. 3), Quebec (Cat. No. 42) and I Need You (Cat. No. 9), the latter three of which presented sons for the first time in Oldenburg
On the dressage side, trademark stallions such as Rubinstein (Cat. No. 44, 45) and his son, Royal Diamond (Cat. No. 51) as well as Florestan I (Cat. No. 31) and Welt As still prove their dominance, the latter or which presented a three-quarter brother of Olympic Game winner, Bonfire (Cat. No. 60). Don Larino, a newcomer, celebrated a great debut: three of the five sons presented by this German Champion and Main Premium winner were approved (Cat. No.18, 19, 22). With this achievement, this stallion from Maisidden joins the ranks of the "D" line of sire personalities which was also further enhanced by Donnerhall (Cat. No. 12, 13) and De Niro sons (Cat. No. 23).
Where Did They Go?
Since there was no auction this year and the stallions were sold privately, it was not known by the deadline for this press release where all of the stallions had gone. We do know for certain that the Champion Stallion, in spite of numerous, highly lucrative offers, will remain in his old stable at his breeder's station in Lemwerder. The Reserve Champion was purchased by the Blue Hors Farm in Denmark and will have Don Schufro, a top dressage sire, as a stable mate. The 1c premium stallion, a Royal Dance son, will also remain with his owner, Paul Schockemöhle in Mühlen.