The 24-year old Hanoverian breeding stallion Heslegards Louis has passed away on 2 June 2016. The stallion died from an aortic rupture and died instantly.
Heslegards Louis was born in 1992 and bred by Hans and Johann von Decker in Germany. He was by Lauries Crusador xx out of Woge (by World Cup I x Grande x Wendekreis.
He was first licensed at the 1994 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing and later approved for Oldenburg and Bavaria. He was discovered as a 2 year old by Heslegard in Denmark, which explains why he obtained the Heslegards prefix which he kept his entire life. He did his 100-day stallion performance test in Denmark in 1995.
Louis was based in Denmark from 1994 til 1997 and trained by Fie Skarsoe amongst other riders. He began breeding in Germany at Gronwohldhof stud, where Karin Rehbein took him into training. She first competed the chestnut stallion in 1999 at Prix St Georges level.
In 2001 the horse sold to the German born Grecian rider Gerda Lehmann and they made their show debut at small tour level in Germany at the Saillauf regional show. Two months later Tanja Traupe took over the ride and brought the stallion to Grand Prix level. The pair showed at only three competition, before Lehmann got back on the horse in September 2001, which marked the beginning of their Grand Prix career together. Their career highlight was representing Greece at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Heslegards Louis was retired from sport in 2005 and moved to Walter Wadenspanner's stud farm in south Germany, where he only bred sparingly. He has sired only 12 mares that are registered as broodmares with the German equestrian federation. He has no licensed sons. Thirty-five of his offspring are registered as sport horse with the German FN, and six of them have reached S-level.
His most successful offspring is Henriette Andersen's now retired international Grand Prix horse Louis d'Or. Lucky von Heslegards, a 9-year old Oldenburg by Louis x Bukephalos x Magnus, is now competing at Grand Prix level by Nicole Hinkelmann.
"Louis was always healthy and went every day into the field," Mia Wadenspanner told Eurodressage. "As stallion he was doing live covering. On his last day he was in the field the entire morning. Then we took him in for covering a mare. He was very vivacious when he was covering. Five minutes later, when he was back in the stable, we found him dead in his box. We got Louis in 2005 and now we are sad about his abrupt death, but we were able to give him a good life for many years."
Photos © Dirk Caremans
Related Links
Karin Rehbein and Heslegards Louis
KWPN Stallion Facet Sold to the United States
Lauries Crusador xx Euthanized
Scores: 1999 CDI-W Stuttgart