The legendary Westfalian foundation stallion Florestan celebrated his 25th birthday at the Landgestut in Warendorf on 28 January 2011.Since 2009 the bay stallion has been retired from breeding at his home in Warendorf.
Florestan (by Fidelio out of Raute (by Rheingold)) is a legendary breeding stallion, especially of dressage horses, and even though he was not actively competed himself he proved his worth as a top producer.
Bred by Grit and Eberhard Schulte-Böcker, Florestan became the champion of the 1988 Rhinelander Stallion Licensing and one year later winner of the Stallion Performance Test in Warendorf with 129,02 points.
Initially Florestan was stationed in Bad Sassendorf, where he covered his mares live. He didn’t produce many foals in his first few seasons and critics suggested that he was ‘just a pretty face’. Nevertheless his first crops of foals won them over and in 1996, he was transferred to the State Stud at Warendorf, where he has been based ever since.
The WBFSH ranking lists Florestan on the 8th spot amongst the best producing dressage sires and 20th on the list of eventing horses. He is the sire of 88 approved sons and more than 2000 offspring are registered as sport horses. Many of them are World Young Horse Champions, Bundeschampions as well as Grand Prix horses: e.g. French Kiss, Fazzino, Florencio, Fidermark, Furst Fabio, Ferrara, Torricelli, etc.
Susanne Rimkus, head of the Warendorf State Stud, once described Florestan as following to Australian journalist Chris Hector: "What makes a sire special is that he makes more good foals than bad ones – and that he improves on the mare, and Florestan has a very large percentage of good foals. Of course he has some which are not, but he is a ‘stamp’ stallion, he stamps his foals, nearly all of them have the type of their sire, you can recognize them. Here comes a foal – ‘oh a Florestan!’ This is something that makes it easier for a sire. The other thing is that the Florestans are easy to handle, easy to ride, even if they don’t look harmonic, the riders say they feel good. This is the most important thing for the normal market, the rider who wants to ride on an evening after he has done his work, who wants to have fun, who wants to make a good picture on the horse. Florestans are easy to sit on, and that makes success."
Read Hector's complete profile on Florestan here
Related Links
Fascinating Fazzino Completes Florestan Festival at Verden
Florestan x Donnerhall Son, Price Highlight at the 2006 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing