KWPN Licensed Stallion Santano Passed Away

Dressage

Oldenburg

Horses.nl reported that the Oldenburg and KWPN licensed stallion Santano has passed away. He was 23 years old.

Santano was a 2002 born Oldenburg by Sandro Hit out of P.Siltana van hof Olympia (by Silvano N x Calypso III). He was bred by H. Poettgens.

Oldenburg and KWPN Licensed

Santano is out of a top producing dam, P. Siltana van Hof Olympia, who also produced British team horse Sintano van Hof Olympia, North American Young Riders Champion Gitano van Hof Olympia, and international U25 horse Hotmail V,

The bay stallion came into ownership of Berend Minnen of Resim Dressage and was approved for the KWPN society in 2005. He did his performance test in 2005 and scored 7 for walk, 8.5 for trot and canter, 8.5 for dressage potential and between 5 and 6 for jumping. He was approved for Oldenburg in 2006.

The ride was allocated to Maaike van Gresstek, who steered Santano to victory in the 2006 Pavo Cup Finals. She also rode him in the 2006-2007 KWPN Stallion Competition circuit, in which she finished third.

The ride on Santano was then handed to Edward Gal who rode him on the 2008-2009 KWPN Stallion Competition circuit and finished third in the final.

Out of the Spotlight

With Van Gresstek in the 2006 Pavo Cup Final

The stallion disappeared from the spotlight after his year with Gal.

He ended up moving to stallion station Schreven in Weert, before Fabian Solowiew took him over 2021. Solowiew rears horses in the Eiffel district in Germany.

Fabian confirmed the passing of Santano on Thursday morning 30 October 2025.

"He didn't wake up in the morning," Fabian told Eurodressage. "Honestly I thought he was sleeping as his hearing was too good anymore. He had a lovely retirement."

Breeding Stallion

As a breeding stallion, Santano ended up siring 427 KWPN registered offspring, but none of his sons were licensed with KWPN. He has 23 daughters who became KWPN elite mare. There is one licensed son with the NRPS studbook: Sir Royal (out of a Le Byou P x Kaiserstern xx mare)

In Germany, he has 99 offspring registered for sport (also includes KWPN registered offspring).

Santano's most popular offspring in sport was probably Sue Hearn's Grand Prix horse Eminent (by Santano x Gribaldi), Sara Hassler's international small tour ride Boitano (by Santano x Whinny Jackson), as well as FEI level horses Chanel (Cynthia Makishima), Denzel (Tina Konyot, Ben Albright), Ebano (Chia Hui Lai), Cantano Tetti (Pia Stallmeister), Hayden B (Rikke Dupont), Cees (Kim Noordijk), and Djambalaya (Jessica Leijser).