Be Sure, Most Popular Breeding Stallion for Danish Warmblood in 2022

Breeding

Danish Warmblood

The Hanoverian premium stallion Be Sure has been the most popular breeding stallion of 2022 with Danish warmblood breeders. Two Benicio sons captured first and second place in the most wanted list.

Each year the Danish warmblood society publishes the amount of coverings stallions have in their country. Unlike German breed societies, Danish warmblood is transparent about these numbers, just like KWPN in the Netherlands.

1. Be Sure, Most Wanted

Bred by Ludwig Fuchs in Germany, the rising 5-year old Hanoverian stallion Be Sure (by Benicio x Scuderia) was named premium stallion at the 2020 Hanoverian Stallion Licensing and sold at auction to Helgstrand and his co-owners for 380,000 euro.

A year later he did the 2021 Danish Warmblood 35-Day Stallion Performance Test and scored the third highest mark of 868,0 points. At the 2022 Danish Warmblood Stallion Licensing they named him champion of the licensing in the 4-year old group. At the end of the year, Mette Sejbjerg Jensen rode the bay stallion to silver at the 2022 Danish Young horse Championships with 90.80 points.

Danish warmblood breeders in Denmark preferred Be Sure the most this year and 122 mares were covered by him.

2. Blue Hors Baron

In second place is the rising 10-year old Hanoverian stallion Baron (by Benicio x Sir Donnerhall x Friedensfurst). He is bred by Albrecht Middelkampf in Germany and sold to the Danish Blue Hors stud in January 2022.

The chestnut Baron has already done quite a trip through Scandinavia in his life. He initially sold as a foal to Sweden at the 2013 Hanoverian Elite Foal Auction and was first approved for breeding at the 2016 Danish Warmblood Stallion Licensing in Herning. He successfully completed his 10-day observation test in Denmark and in the autumn of 2016 he was a high scorer at the 35-day Stallion Performance Test achieving more than 800 points.

In December 2016 Baron was purchased by Gestut Westfalenhof in Germany, where he stood up for stud until his sale to Denmark. Baron covered 112 Danish warmblood mares in 2022.

3. Jovian

The WFFS positive Dutch warmblood stallion Jovian (by Apache x Tango) went from 9th place in 2021 to third place in 2022. Jovian is not KWPN licensed but approved for the Danish and all major German studbooks. He had a rocket career in sport as the double Young Horse World Champion and making his international Grand Prix debut at the age of 8 this year.

Jovian covered 92 mares in Denmark

Top 10 Most Used Stallions in Denmark - 2021

Some interesting trends are to be noticed? Just like last year, Denmark's biggest stallion station with the largest portfolio of breeding stallions, Helgstrand Dressage, has five stallions in the top 10. Its rival, Blue Hors stud, with a much smaller book of stallions has four sires in the top 10, just like last year. Hesselhoj Donkey Boss (by Hesselhoj Donkey Boy) had 78 coverings in 2021 and 75 in 2022 and is the only privately owned stallion able to break through the monopoly the other two stations have in Denmark.

The recently deceased Iron made quite a drop in the ranking between 2021 and 2022. He did not have as many return breeders. Iron (by Ibiza x Hohenstein) was the second most used stallion in 2021 with 98 Danish mares and in 2022 he dropped to 64. Also World young horse champion Revolution made quite a drop, from a third place in 2021 (89) to 10th place in 2022 (63). The leader of the 2021 ranking, Blue Hors Monte Carlo probably had the biggest drop in the top 10, going from 142 Danish mares in 2021 to 75 in 2022.

The top 10 of most used stallion in Denmark for 2022 looks as following.

1. Be Sure - 122
2. Blue Hors Baron - 112
3. Jovian - 92
4. Blue Hors St. Schufro - 89
5. Blue Hors Farrell - 78
6. Hesselhoej Donkey Boss - 75
6. Blue Hors Monte Carlo TC - 75
8. So Perfect - 73
9. Iron - 64
10. Revolution - 63