It was an early wake up call this morning. 7 AM. In principle that’s not so early at all but it all depends on how late you went to bed the day before. As a Danish pow wow went on in my hotel room last night there was no bed time until the last party animal had left the improvised champagne and Irish coffee bar.
Literally as soon as the door closed I fell asleep only to be woken by the alarm at 7 A.M. It seemed like 10 minutes later. Still dazed and confused I pressed the snooze button a first time... out of four in total. A hot shower refreshed me and brought me back to my senses before heading down for breakfast. The buffet was not very impressive. Almost 90% of the cold cuts, eggs and fruit had been eaten by a ravenous crowd when I arrived downstairs. The Weight Watchers would have been proud of this meager continental breakfast.
We arrived on time at the Vechta equestrian centre for the second day of the 2010 Oldenburg stallion licensing which entailed in-hand presentations, loose running and jumping in freedom. The dressage colts were presented first and it took until noon to wrap up the morning session featuring horses catalogue number 1 through 41.
Four stallions really impressed today and I expect them to be in the top four of the premium ring tomorrow morning. The highlight of the day was the Sir Donnerhall x K2 x Partout x Finley M. The tall black colt does not have the prettiest face but he really pushed himself off the ground today showing very good engagement and tons of suspension. He is active and quick behind, which makes him stand out from the many “scrapers” we’ve seen in the ring. This young stallion is not a total stunner. He lacks a bit of understep in trot, his jump was mediocre and his walk is quick and could have more shoulder freedom, but he’s a tall, stately stallion, black and beautiful, a very decent mover with a highly interesting gene pool.
The grey Don Schufro x Sandro Hit x Calypso I x Tin Rod xx lived up to the expectations. The sturdy colt moved strongly and playfully in freedom. He has a good motor but could have been slightly more electric. He lacks some length in his neck, but not in the way that he has his “head attached to his shoulders, “ as Thomas would say. And boy, did Calypso pop up like a jack-in-the-box. This grey beauty can certainly jump and was one of VERY few colts with technique and scope over the fences.
Sissy Max-Theurer’s Rosandro x August der Starke x Rohdiamant was the only representative of the R-line in Vechta out of 29 stallion prospects in total. The R-bloodline, which dominated Oldenburg breeding for decades and marked the rideability of its horses, has virtually been eaten by mice, or trampled by the SS., (understood as the Sandro hit Staffeln). Leaving behind all melancholic mumbling on the forelorn R-legacy, the muscled dark bay stallion was really a delight to watch. The colt, which apparently has been nicknamed Rosaugilas, has an elegant trot with good shoulder freedom. In walk he showed ample ground cover but the rhythm was not always constant. Though the colt missed some length in the neck, he makes an excellent dressage horses and possesses more than decent jumping abilities (thank you Argentinus).
The Sir Donnerhall x Royal Diamond x Krack C continued to impress the crowds. The refined, long legged chestnut with his nice face and friendly eye strutted his stuff in freedom. He was quick from behind with very good understep and sufficient shoulder freedom. Also in canter he showed good balance and self carriage. He’s not the world’s next show jumping star, but his performance over the fences was up to par compared to his peers. He also showed an excellent walk with good relaxation. As soon as the selection committee announced the licensing of this colt, a group of Belgian fans veered from the crowds cheering and waving the national flag and scaring a black Sir Donnerhall colt to death.
There were a few other stallions who showed quality and promise for the future despite a few minor points. The Diamond Hit x Sandro Hit has much expression and lovely gaits but stiffened his topline when he became the least bit tense. The Dimaggio x Wolkentanz II showed great gaits but appeared weak in the loin. The Quaterback x Donnerhall was powerful in trot but horrible over the jump. The Sandro Hit x Don Gregory was exquisite in type with a nice trot and walk but he could have engaged the hind legs more under the body. The Swarovksy x Furst Heinrich had a nice scopey canter and a good jump over the fences, but during the walk in hand he was uneven behind and his hip slightly collapsed to the right. Pity (he was licensed nonetheless). The Werder Fan x Sandro Hit was superb on the lunge line but appeared a bit nervous in hand and his canter could have been more uphill. However, without a doubt, this dark bay colt showed the most impressive scope over the jumps of all dressage horses. A jump of 80 centimers he cleared with a lift of 1.50m. A bit exaggerated one could say.
The annual Oldenburg stallion licensing is the paramount setting for assessing the breeding qualities of a stallion. How good are certain sires? To which mares are they best paired? What do their offspring inherit? This year Quaterback was presented to public and official scrutiny and in our opinion the stallion was disappointing. No matter how nice he is as a dressage horse, he does not pass on his greatness to his offspring. Quaterback (by Quaterman x Brandenburger) clearly marks his offspring. He produces a uniform collection: chestnut, pretty faces, a lot of leg movement, nice knee action, but he also passes on some less desirable traits, such as a stiff topline, a sloping crotch, low set necks, and fixed tails. Seven Quaterback sons were offered for licensing in Vechta, four of them were licensed and only one truly deserved the approved status. Same goes for San Amour (by Sandro Hit x Plaisir d’Amour). He absolutely thrilled the crowds when he himself appeared at the licensing, but the four sons we saw here in Vechta this year had extremely poor walks (most of them paced). They had a lovely face, a beautifully set neck and a dark jacket but they all had X-legs behind moving vary narrowly in the hocks. The San Amours generated mixed emotions: beautiful to look at, but are they the basis of a breeding program?
This year’s Oldenburg licensing committee was extremely generous. It makes one wonder why they are not just a tiny bit stricter in the pre-selection so they can simply approve all stallions accepted for the licensing. The committee made one’s jaw drop to unprecedented depths when they announced the licensing of lamentably poorly moving and incorrectly built stallions. Lovely dressage horses with a bright future in the show ring (the Hoftanz x Diamond Hit, Zack x Furst Heinrich) seemed to pass the test simply because they were owned by the biggest money producing stallion stations and owners. Two San Amours were accepted even though one of them paced like a camel in the sahara. It truly makes one wonder what the mindset of the selection committee is. Do they expect that ‘bad’ stallions are filtered out of the system automatically? When they don’t generate breedings, they get gelded and sold as a riding horse. Isn’t it more important to keep the bar high, create some backbone in the system and only allow the best of the best no matter the politics and finance behind it? This is probably too utopian.
Despite the fact that the Oldenburg licensing committee acted like Santa Claus on 6 December, they fortunately did not reject a stallion uncalled for. The best of the lot were accepted and it will be extremely interestingto see how they rank the best ones in the premium ring on Saturday morning.
Part of the Danish gang went for lunch in the officials’ tent and we were fed a very rich pea soup with sausages. I took a bite of some of the German dessert cake but it was so sweet that I feared my teeth would fall out from spontanous periodontal disease. As we didn’t care to watch the show jumpers in freedom in the afternoon our plan of action was to visit Reitsport Schockemöhle ( a super fancy tack store) and the Schockemohle stables in Mühlen to pat Furstenball and in search of Totilas. With my riding career currently in the freezer I felt no need to buy beautiful tack. I was like a kid in a candy store with no apetitite to buy. I was happy when we got back in the car to drive to Schockemohle’s stables. Three cars left at the same time and we all took different directions towards the barn only one kilometer from the shop. Within one minute we were crossing and overtaking each other as if we were stuck in an absurd movie. Hilarious yet frustrating.
Paul Schockemöhle built up an imperium with his show jumping and dressage breeding stallions but it’s simply shocking to see his soulless each time. His grey delapidated barn resembles an Anselm Kiefer painting and it makes one wonder why he didn’t spend one million less on Totilas and one million more on renovating his farm to create an up to standard high performance barn. The splash of new paint recently plastered on the walls of his E.U. stallion barn are a drop in the ocean. Fortunately the most important aspect of all horse keeping was in order: the stallions stood in clean stalls, they were well fed, but looked bored to death. The great sire Sandro Hit had the good fortune of being able to stick his neck out of the stall, but passers-by were bitten in the back when they came to close. The absolutely delightful Sir Donnerhall (probably one of the best licensed Sandro Hit offsprings, proven again this year in Vechta) was sweet and gentle and craved a rub. Each time a spectator neared his box, he leaned against his prison bars begging for a scratch. Furstenball was quiet and relaxed, his usual friendly self. Totilas was nowhere to be seen.
Like Sherlock Holmes’s on a mission we split up in pursuit to find Totilas but it only took one minute to discover the world record breaking stallion in the next corridor, standing relaxed in cross ties getting clipped. It looked like visitors were not allowed to enter the barn, but three of us felt bold and hesitatinglly went up to him. One of us walked straight to Toto and pat him on the nose, but as soon as I flashed my smal little party camera the groom became totally insecure and started telling us off: “no photos, no photos”. Even though Facebook is covered with photos of Totilas in his Schockemohle box taken by visitors, we were not allowed to touch or take pictures. The strange excuse that “he’s in E.U. quarantine” was brought to the fore. Don’t shoot the messenger. The fragile girl was just carrying out orders and we discretely left the building!
Totilas continues to be the talk of the town and even though Schockemohle hid himself in the corner of the VIP tent surrounded by his wing men, it has been confirmed by various sources, including Totilas’ official semen distributors in other European countries, that Totilas’ stud fee for 2011 will be 4000 euro in advance and 4000 euro when confirmed in foal. Only frozen semen will be distributed as Totilas will move to his dressage rider in the early spring for training. Furthermore, even though the rumour has been denied for months (and the horse’s mouth remains tight-lipped also to us) Matthias Rath after all might have become the official rider. There could even be a surprise in store tomorrow as Totilas might be shown in the Althengst Parade. Why else would he be clipped? To stand in quarantine and jump a phantom once a day? Time will tell.
Thomas and I drove from Schockemohle back to the hotel to work on the computer. I posted yesterday’s blog and updated the site with some new stories. By 18.30 pm our first guests arrived back in our room for more champagne, crackers and crisps. We made a prognostication of tomorrow’s premium ring. The hotel was buzzing with party music as 12-year old children were running all over the place supervised by their parents. We had dinner in the main restaurant but felt like we were semi-attending the party. The choice in food was extremely restricted and we wondered whether we got the left-overs from yesterday as all meat was “well done” and cut into very small pieces. Fortunately we didn’t find any pre-gnawn strips because that would really have put me off my appetite. I had a fun chat with Danish breeder Iben Leere Kamp on life in London and the best restaurants in Europe.
After dinner all of us (approx. 15 people) went back to our room for some after-dinner converations and fun. I finished my blog while picking up threads of Danish conversation on horses. What else is there in life ;)
by Astrid Appels
Related Links
Viva Vechta: A Fun First Day at the 2010 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing