Ingrid Klimke Buys Ownership Share in Westfalian Stallion Formidable Star

Dressage

Germany

German Grand Prix rider and eventing Olympian Ingrid Klimke has bought an ownership share in the 8-year old Westfalian stallion Formidable Star.

Formidable Star is a 2013 born Westfalian stallion by Franziskus out of Romanze (by Rubinstein x Parademarsch).

He is bred by Heinrich Sauer, who is best known as Damon Hill's breeder. Ingrid's new stallion is out of Damon Hill's dam.

Formidable Star

He was licensed as a breeding stallion at the 2016 Westfalian Stallion Licensing in Munster-Handorf and was named "Formidable Star" then.

He did his sport test as a 4-year old in Munich March 2017 and failed with 7.26 points (minimum score to pass is 7.5). He redid the test a month later in Munster-Handorf and passed with 7.94 points. As a 5-year old he did the mandatory sport test again in Munster in march 2018 and earned 7.70 points.

Formidable Star has only been very lightly competed. He made his show debut as a 4-year old at a local show in Unna-Massen in October 2017 under Anna Stryczek. In 2018 he did eight shows though, mainly Bundeschampionate qualifiers, under Lara Heggelmann (former working student of Ingrid) and Andreas Müller. The stallion's last competition was in July 2018 in Saarburg, where he won the L-level dressage horse test.

New Arrival

The dark bay stallion arrived in Ingrid's stable in November 2020, owned by Dr. Ariane Reinhart. Ingrid liked him enough to secure the ride on him by co-investing in the Horse. He has been renamed "Freudentänzer" for sport.

"I actually met him already as a 3-year old and thought he was very interesting because of his pedigree," said Ingrid. "He's the last foal out of Damon Hill's dam and has Franziskus as a sire."

Klimke continued, "Sternchen, as we nicknamed him, is a small charmer with a special aura. His big, quiet eyes reflect his intelligence and friendly character. Because of his compact conformation and his enormous elasticity he's a pleasure to ride."