Oldenburg Breeding Stallion Depardieu Passed Away

Breeding

Oldenburg

Depardieu, an Oldenburg licensed stallion and former international Grand Prix horse, has passed away on 11 November 2023. He was 25 years old.

Depardieu was by De Niro out of Elfi (by Luciano x Efendi x Markant). He was bred by Ewald Grotelüschen in Germany.

Reserve Licensing Champion

The black was presented at the 2000 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing in Oldenburg, where he was named reserve champion.

He did his 30-day stallion performance test in Vechta in 2001 and scored 8.36 for dressage and 8.15 for show jumping. He then achieved his full licensed status through sport.

He first stood up for stud at Böckmann's stallion station in Lastrup, Germany, and later moved to Klosterhof Medingen. He was also represented by Emma Hindle's Brookhouse stud as Depardieu was approved for all major German studbooks.

Sport Career in Germany

Depardieu was first competed as a 4-year old in 2002 by Ralf Hannöver, but Natalie Butkiewicz soon took over the ride and shortly afterwards it was Burkhard Wahler's turn, who rode him to victory at the 2002 Oldenburg Young Horse Championships in Rastede.

At the end of 2002 Portuguese Nuno Palma e Santos climbed aboard and won the 2003 Oldenburg Young Horse Championships in Rastede. In 2004 the stallion reclaimed victory in Rastede for a third consecutive year with Wahler in the saddle. Despite these successes, Depardieu never made it to the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf.

With Michaela Ahman at the 2013 Sunshine Tour

As of 2005 Nicole Kochskämper competed the horse and rode him in his first Prix St Georges level tests. They competed in the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualifiers in 2006 and 2007.

Depardieu did his first Grand Prix test at the home show in Medingen in September 2007 with Boaventura Freire and as of 2008 Norbert van Laak last competed him in Germany at national level.

Sold to Brazil

The stallion sold to Brazilian Valdemar Mattei who was based in Portugal. Swedish dressage rider Michaela Ricci (née Ahman) obtained a small ownership share and rode the horse initially.

Ricci took Depardieu into his first international show. They competed at Grand Prix level the 2013 Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera.

Two years later Valdemar Mattei Junior piloted him in two Grand Prix classes with mixed results, the first at the CDI Madrid in November 2015, the second at the CDI Lisbon in January 2016.

Depardieu spent his retirement in Portugal.

Legacy

The stallion passed away on Saturday night 11 November 2023 following cardiac arrest.

"When I got Depardieu he had never competed internationally and neither had I," Ricci told Eurodressage. "We grow up together and both had our first Grand Prix together. We taught each other a lot and we made a many beautiful memories together. After I stopped riding him, he went back to his owner where he stayed until he passed."

Ricci added that, "our beautiful black beauty has made quite a nice impact as a breeding stallion for the dressage sport."

He leaves behind a big legacy, particularly in Germany, where he was a popular breeding stallion in his younger years. He sired 4 licensed sons in Germany (Defender, Delalio, Deveraux, and Dream On), one in Denmark (Deemster), one in Holland (Zucchero). He sired 22 state premium daughters. With 210 mares registered with the German FN as broodmare, he especially made an impact as a dam sire.

In sport there are 368 offspring registered in Germany of which 25 reached S-level. His most famous offspring is Fabienne Lutkemeier's Grand Prix horse Diamonds Forever. He also sired FEI horses Delon (Svetlana Kiseliova), Don Dayly (Joline Thuning), Durbridge (Kathleen Keller), Deep Love (Rikke Dupont), Delgardo M (Johan Roodt), Diogenes (Stephanie Raffety), Dawson's Creek (Larissa Ries), and Dannemann (Allen Jay Swafford).