FBW Dejavu, WCYH Bronze Medalist and Mount St. John Foundation Mare, Passed Away

Breeding

Great Britain

FBW Dejavu, the 2005 World Young Horse Championship bronze medallist and the foundation mare of Emma Blundell's Mount St. John in the U.K., has passed away. She was 23 years old.

FBW Dejavu was a 2000 born Baden Wurttemberger mare by Dacaprio out of Gazelle (by Gluckspilz x Adlerfarn II x Ceylon). She was bred by Alfred Schmelcher.

Multiple Medal Winner at Bundeschampionate and WCYH

The mare was first competed as a 3-year old in 2003 by Olaf Zinnicker, who scored a silver medal with her at the 2003 Wurttemberg Young Horse Championships in Tubingen.

The liver chestnut sold to Simon Kohlenbrenner and Nadine Plaster and the latter developed and competed her since. The new pair made its debut in 2004, winning the Wurttemberg Young Horse Championships in Tubingen as well as the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf.

They continued their success tour through 2005, winning bronze at the World Championships for young dressage horses in Verden. A year later they returned to Verden for the WCYH and landed just off the podium, in fourth place. At the 2006 Bundeschampionate they were 9th in the finals for 6-year olds.

Plaster's last competition start on FBW Dejavu was almost a year later after the Bundeschampionate at Hofgut Allerer in July 2007. They placed 6th in an S-level class.

Mount St. John

At the time the 20-year old Blundell purchased FBW Dejavu late 2007 as a young riders horse with potential for Grand Prix. The spelling of the mare's name changed to "Deja Vu".

Unfortunately the mare picked up a suspensory injury a few months after purchase and before Emma even got to compete her. Despite her trying everything to get her back to fitness, Dejavu couldn’t sustain the intensity of the work at the level. She was turned into a broodmare and became the foundation mare of Mount St. John stud.

She produced 14 foals by embryo transfer, initially all of them turned were fillies until 2016 They are Front Row (by For Compliment 2009), Fascination (by Furstenball 2010 - now owned by Hof Kasselmann), MSJ Top Secret (by Totilas 2011), MSJ Fascinate (by Furstenball 2012), MSJ Fame (by Furst Heinrich 2013), Febee Honeyblossom (by Furstano 2015 - owned by Kohlenbrenner), MSJ Socialite (by Sir Donnerhall 2015), MSJ Top Secret II (by Totilas 2015), MSJ Benchmark (by Bordeaux in 2016, he became a licensed stallion and sold at the 2018 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing to Sweden). In 2018 there was MSJ Darling (by Dream Boy).

With Emma at Mount St John in 2014
(Photo © Selene Scarsi)

In 2019 Emma began sexing the semen so she would get colts. Four more were produced: Damien (by Dante Weltino 2020), MSJ Dante's Deja Vu (by Dante Weltino 2020), MSJ Game Plan (by Glamourdale 2021) and MSJ n.n. (by Vaderland) in 2022. That was Dejavu's last foal. Another ET attempt was made with sire Extra Gold in 2023 but that didn't catch.

Sad Farewell

On 25 November 2023 Emma announced the passing of her foundation mare.

"Single handed she has been the most influential mare for us yet, she started out as my U25 team horse but that plan sadly never got realised due to an injury," Emma stated. "With a rollercoaster of emotions I decided to try having a couple of foals and in the end Deja became an exceptional foundation broodmare for MSJ breeding."

Nadine Plaster, Joy and Emma Blundell,
Simon Kohlenbrenner with Dejavu in 2017
(Photo © Digishots)

Emma continued, "I learned so much from her and am so grateful to have had her in my life. I'm excited to continue following her offspring and grand children now for their futures."