Rock Forever Passed Away

Breeding

Westfalian

The renowned Westfalian breeding stallion Rock Forever has passed away on 17 September 2023. He was 20 years old.

Rock Forever was by Rockwell out of Lady Sunshine (by Landstreicher x Damokles x Pilot) and bred by Maria and Heinz Kënemann.

Reserve Licensing Champion

Breders Heinz and Ralf Könemann.presented him at the 2005 Westfalian stallion licensing where he was named reserve champion behind jumper Cornado.

At the licensing it was announced that the bay would be standing up for stud at Holkenbrink's stallion station in Munster-Albachten and to this date Beate Holkenbrink is listed as his owner.

He did his 70-day performance test in Munster at the start of 2006, followed by the 30-day test in Munster in November 2006. He fulfilled his licensing criteria through sport.

Success in Sport

Under Oliver Oelrich he won bronze at the 2006 Bundeschampionate, was the 2007 and 2008 reserve Bundeschampion and he placed sixth at the 2008 World Young Horse Championships. In 2011 he finished third in the Nurnberger Burgpokal finals.

In 2012 the owner's daughter Sophie Holkenbrink rode him as her young rider's horse and competed him in the Preis der Besten. The pair showed at small tour level. They moved up to Grand Prix level in 2015. They only competed in two internationals in their career, in 2017 at Under 25 level in Mannheim and Riesenbeck.

The pair's last competition was at a local event in Dattlen in December 2018 back at small tour level.

Retirement

On 8 March 2020 the then 17-year old Rock Forever was officially retired from competition sport at the Holkenbrink stallion show, where Sophie presented him to the public one last time in a special ceremony.

As a breeding stallion, the German equestrian federation has listed no less than 34 sons as licensed of which 21 are in Stallion Book I. Forty-four of his daughters are named state premium mare. He has no less than 786 offspring registered for sport in Germany of which 51 compete at S-level. Holkenbrink writes on his homepage that Rock Forever sired 53 licensed sons.

Famous offspring by Rock Forever are Rockman Royal NG (Judy Reynolds), Riptide (Matthias Goerens), the 2019 Bundeschampionate finalist Rock Revolution (Rose Oatley), the PSI auction price highlight Revenant (Rudolf Widmann), World Young Horse Championship participants Rock on Top (Nicolas Wagner) and Riano, Rocky's Sunshine (Henriette Schmidt), Rod Laver (Kim Bruning), Rausing (Chung Yoo-Ra), Foreign Affair (Alena Starr), as well as Grand Prix horse Rihanna Forever and Riccio (Martin Pfeiffer). He also produced licensed stallion Rocky Lee, sire of the million euro stallion Revolution.

Untimely Passing

Rock Forever was put to sleep on 17 September 2023

"He spent his entire breeding life on our station and enjoyed family connections in every respect," Holkenbrink stated. "Rock Forever NRW was one of the leading sires of his generation in Germany and has held his own for years with notable places in the WBFSH world rankings of the best dressage horse sires. He leaves a big gap on our station and we will always honor his memory."