Scuderia Santo Stefano in Le Marche, Italy, is the brain child of British-German born Barbara Fuchs, who boasts 25 years of experience in versatile sport horse breeding. With a philosophy grappled to the German model of breeding and raising top quality sport horses, Fuchs has successfully realized her visions and dreams at brood farm Santo Stefano in Italy. Scuderia Santo Stefano now has home-bred sport horses competing at international FEI level across the Olympic disciplines.
Barbara Fuchs worked as a journalist in Germany for years before she got fed up with wise-cracking people who understood nothing about horses and used them only to improve their image. She and her husband Eberhard bought an old farmhouse in a very remote area of Italy, renovated the property and moved there with three brood mares. It was the beginning of Scuderia Santo Stefano.
Building from the Ground Up
Since 1992 Scuderia Santo Stefano has been breeding sports horses in Italy with an exclusive focus on German bloodlines. All horses are now registered as Italian warmbloods (S.I.) with the intention of providing the Italian equestrian market the expertise of decades of intelligent German horse breeding. "We aim to create our own brand, Santo Stefano Dressage Horses, in the same way as Leon Melchior did in Belgium with his Zangersheide show jumping horses," said Barbara Fuchs.
Santo Stefano has a versatile breeding program focusing both on dressage and show jumping. A dressage horse needs the elasticity and scope to clear a fence, as well as have the right attitude not to freak out in the face of an obstacle. "We want to produce and educate reliable horses, so that also young riders can deal with them," Fuchs explained.
The majority of Santo Stefano's bloodlines are based on the old lines of the great proven German sires such as Rubinstein, Rohdiamant, Fabriano, Escudo, Bolero, Donnerhall, Don Frederico, Wolkentanz and Weltmeyer. They currently stock 45 youngsters on their 4.5 hectares of land and have bred more than 100 horses so far.
"We have always believed in starting with brood mares with good pedigrees instead of only running after famous sires. Many of our mares were given to us for free, because Italian riders spent a lot of money on them at auctions and found out after a few months that they were not able to ride them," Fuchs admitted. "It is very disappointing to us that German stallions, that were advertised fiercely, disappeared from the market after a couple of years because either they had shown faults or were sold abroad at ridiculously high prices."
Santo Stefano has also been standing their own home bred stallion at stud, the 17-year old Corde Santo Stefano (by Cheenook x Chairman x Cor de la Bryere). He is a performance test winner with the best result ever in an Italian performance test (911 out of 1000 for gaits and character) and competing in show jumping.
"We have covered most of our 13 breeding mares with him for the past ten years," Fuchs explained. "We now have undeniable proof that all his offspring inherit his impeccable character and outstanding gaits, as well as his talent for both disciplines: dressage and show jumping. We breed good-natured, promising youngsters with excellent ride ability that even a child can handle."
Santo Stefano's Success in Sport
Barbara Fuchs is a realist at heart and knows that breeding on paper does not work. She avoids stepping into the pit-falls of marketing convincing inexperienced breeders to go for unproven, young stallions with flashy gaits. In Italy new equestrian centres and brood farms surface and publicly boast having the best lines as they spent much money on fancy stallions and auction horses. However many of them do not survive nor persist in their grand goals, and drop out when it comes to proving their philosophy in sport.
"We do not aim at the stars right from the beginning," said Fuchs who keeps both her feet on the ground. "In the 25 years of breeding experience we have learnt that can breed the best bloodlines you'll ever find, but it won't mean a thing if you do not find the appropriate riders who can take your horses to the top."
Fuchs explained that she shares the same vision as Carl Hester, which he explained in his book "Making it Happen": horsemanship and good dressage training to take horses up the levels instead of buying hypersensitive super stars that only professionals can handle.
Santo Stefano's most successful breeding product in the dressage arena is Santo Stefano Francis, a 14-year old Hanoverian registered gelding by Fabriano out of Wenzi (by Wenzel II), who took Italian Camilla Mauro to two European Junior Riders Championships (2012, 2014). Italian young rider Francesco Neri is currently ranked 80th on the FEI World Ranking List for Young Riders on Santo Stefano Ramas, a 14-year old Italian warmblood by Rubinstein out of Pyrah (by Polydor).
Italian 12-year old (!) Andrea Neri rode the 11-year old Italian warmblood Leo Pascal Santo Stefano (by Londonderry x Wenzel II) at the 2015 inaugural European Championships for Children to finish 23rd in the team championship test. The show jumper Santo Stefano Gianna, a 15-year old Hanoverian by Grandom out of Lorena K (by Legat) has been competing internationally at Grand Prix level in 3* CSI events under Italian Stefano Magaro.
Barbara Fuchs has also given the ride on Rhaoul Santo Stefano (by Rohdiamant x Chromatic xx) to a young Italian rider Laura Sanna, who has started competing him at E-level and is working her way up to Grand Prix under the guidance of Dutch trainer Joyce Heuitink.
Swimming Against the Tide in Italy
Fuchs openly admits that making a change in the Italian breeding and dressage world is like swimming against the tide. She points the finger at the lack of knowledge and understanding within the authorities -- the Italian Equestrian Federation (FISE) - as well Italy's betting mentality that show jumping and dressage are an opportunity to gamble and make money like racing.
"We can't sell foals at the age of six months as we should, because people are not capable of raising a young horse," said Fuchs. "Horses stay with us until they are four years old with all the costs for starting them. Even then it's difficult because there are only a few people capable of training a young horse. We are expected to sell horses ready to go to competitions and, of course, to win. A typical question: "How high does
he jump?" The horse should be 'experienced' and "please, he should not throw off his rider" never mind how much he pulls the horse's mouth or attacks with spurs! You will agree, this is asking very much from horse breeders who are, furthermore, expected to sell for "half the price" because Italy is so much in crisis."
Fuchs is also highy critical of the poor performances of the Italian riders at the 2015 European Dressage Championships in Aachen, where Team Italy finished last. Two of its riders were unable to fulfil FISE's own-set team selection criteria of 3x 66% in the Grand Prix, but the Italian Dressage Committee still decided to field a team, pressured by Italian dressage bobo's.
"The Italian performances in Aachen were devastating. I got really depressed realizing that I have put 25 years into breeding horses for people that will never get dressage off the ground," Fuchs admitted. "The Italian press makes it sounds as if the country has won the Europeans and does not even mention that they finished last. Officials cite poor excuses that it is all due to the fact that the horses are too old and say the riders were brilliant. They say it is the fault of FISE. I wonder why other small countries performed well, such as Norway, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, all by themselves without help from their federations, but with efficient trainers?!"
Fuchs is certain that the problem is not the lack of horse quality in Italy, but the lack of knowledgeable people to train riders and horses.
"Four generations of young people have been tought to ride wrongly. They are not capable to sit in balance without tearing the horses in the mouth, leaning backwards and stretching their feet to the front," she said frankly. "And if there is somebody talented like Camilla Mauro, they disappear from the scene because they do not have the money to continue and were put off by the inefficiency and lack of support from FISE."
According to Fuchs, there is no protection and encouragement from the Italian breeding authorities, UNIRE/ASSI/MIPAV nor the Federation.
"The market is full of unauthorized dealers who buy cheap horses with either physical or mental defects, triple the price, and resell them in Italy to unsuspecting customers who think they have a bargain. Terrible accidents happen because un-qualified trainers who had their share in the deal are not capable of training these poor people and their horses," Fuchs continued.
Staying Positive
Fortunately Barbara finds happiness in her own breeding yard and the daily life at Santo Stefano. The growing partnerships with the Neri kids and their Santo Stefano horses, Laura Sanna on Rhaoul Santo Stefano, Giada Tanzi on Corvo Santo Stefano, as well as Mauro's fantastic successes on Santo Stefano Francis give her a boost of energy.
"We try to be optimistic of the future in spite of all the difficulties and economic problems we have to face every day. Cor de la Bryere’s owner in Holstein was convinced of his horse despite all the criticism he received from most of his contemporaries and we try to follow his example," Barbara explained. "We are convinced that Corde Santo Stefano has inherited all his ancestors' qualities and will pass them on to his foals. He was given to us by destiny and we are supposed to fulfil our task as breeders. We try to be optimistic in spite of many obstacles, convincing our-selves every day: "Yes, we can!"
For more information about Santo Stefano, visit www.scuderia-santo-stefano.com
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