Bon Coeur, Winner of the 2023 Grande Prize

Breeding

Hanoverian

The privately owned stallion Bon Coeur is preparing to make a big impact on Hanoverian dressage horse breeding and will be awarded the Grande Prize. The award ceremony will take place in front of a large audience at a later date.

Horses have been bred by the Tietjen family in Taaken since the 1970s. They embody the typical Hanoverian breeder, always breeding with the same dam line and always with the hope of breeding that one very special horse one day. This one very special horse was born in 2012.

Bon Coeur by Benetton Dream x Sandro Hit is awarded the Grande Prize this year – an award that the breeder deserves.

Bon Coeur

Bon Coeur came to Eckhard Wahlers in Visselhövede as a colt to be raised as a stallion. Two years later he participated in the licensing in Verden. As a premium stallion Bon Coeur returned to the W. M. Stud where he moved into his stallion box. Cadence and elasticity are qualities that not only accompany him in his career in sport, but which he also passes on to his offspring.

Bon Coeur was one of the first stallions to pass his stallion performance test with the combination of disposition test and sport test. His consistent performance in all three gaits as well as his rideability at the highest level were impressive. The award of the Weltmeyer Prize 2018 was the logical consequence. Under the saddle of Lena Berwe, the black stallion became Hanoverian and Vice Bundeschampion at the age of three, one year later he won the winner's sash in the Hanoverian Young Horse Championships with rider Christin Schütte and again the silver medal in Warendorf.

When he was six years old, Jessica Lynn Thomas won dressage tests at medium level with Bon Coeur before the stallion went to Sweden to Lövsta Stutteri and Caroline Darcourt took a seat in his saddle. International successes up to Inter I are this pair's record so far. Bon Coeur is owned by Swedish Antonia Ax:son Johnson.

Legacy

Bon Coeur's offspring were six-year olds last year and are now about to make the jump to advanced (S) level. Many of them have the prerequisites for this, such as Boa Vista FRH, who won Hanoverian Young Horse and Bundeschampionate. In addition, his sons Bonjour became Hanoverian Champion and Bon Courage Hanoverian Vice Champion and Vice Bundeschampion. With Hann.Pr.St. Bon Bon and Hann.Pr.A. Bon Bon M, Bon Coeur also provided the reserve champion mare of the Herwart von der Decken Show in 2019 and 2020.

Bon Coeur's breeding values for basic gaits as well as rideability are, like his own basic gaits and rideability, uniform and clearly positive, his breeding value of the German Equestrian Federation for young horse tests of 147 is above average. In the meantime, the first foals out of Bon Coeur's dams have been sold at the Verden auctions and their first sons have been licensed. In addition, Bon Courage produced an impressive first group at the Verden licensing last year. The hope that Bon Coeur will have a lasting positive influence on Hannover’s dressage horse breeding can be derived conclusively from his heredity so far.