We are back from the stallion show in Den Bosch via a month working with dairy farmers in Kenya. Only zebras and a few polo ponies to feed a horse addiction in Kenya !
The stallion show met all expectations with wonderful horses and many, many, people dedicated to breeding sport horses. The quality of the young horses was spectacular and many older stallions including some of the foundations stallions gave a lot of insight into the breed.
There were some wonderful young individuals shown and were the talk of the day they were presented. However, the basic livestock breeding principle that “the breed direction is determined by the sires which are selected to sire the next generation of sires”. Looking back the decision to use sires such as Jazz, Flemingh, Nimmerdor, and Voltaire has shaped the breed. Think of the impact of 500 Gribaldi offspring each year on what the breed looks like.
We saw the early results of dividing the selections into jumper lines and dressage lines. We saw two distinct groups of horses as a result of the selection decision to specialize. The neck set of the two groups is one of the indicators that there are two directions evolving.
In the mare lines of the stallions approved for the next round we saw a lot of Jazz and Krack C influence. Interestingly, the Wolfgang son , Oscar appeared in the pedigree of three of the six dressage finalists. With the emphasis on mare lines were thrilled to see the Oscar son , yet to have a name , which was named the dressage champion is from the same mare line as our Veganieta. As a breeder it is exciting to see offspring of the sires we have used presented as sire prospects. We saw sons of Johnson, Verdi, Tango, Concorde, Jazz, Orame and Sandreo, all sires we have used in our breeding programme. We also saw Johnson, Tango and Verdi under saddle. We had seen them two years ago and their development was impressive.
The dressage night was a real show, complete with fireworks Las Vegas style! The younger stallions were presented first and then it progressed to the light tour stallions and the FEI stallions. The presentation of Totilus was everything it could be. Every ride we have seen previously there is something which could be improved but there was nothing in this ride which could be improved. Totally relaxed, expressive and in front of an enthusiastic crowd !
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