95 Colts Selected for Second Phase of 2024 KWPN Stallion Licensing

Breeding

KWPN

A whopping amount of 95 dressage bred colts have been selected for the second phase of the 2024 KWPN Stallion Licensing which will take place in 's Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, on 1 - 4 February 2024.

The KWPN kicked off the pre-selection days in Ermelo on 13 December 2023 and lasted no less than six days as 247 colts were registered for this first phase.

The KWPN licensing committee this year consists of Bart Bax, Johan Hamminga and Wout Plaizier and they generously accepted a group of 95 colts for the next round.

Blue Hors Monte Carlo Offspring Stands Out

For the first phase popular sires Las Vegas and Jameson were the best represented with no less than 14 offspring entered for the first phase, but their get did not convince as well as some other sires.

Horses.nl covered the pre-selection in depth and made a striking analysis of the offspring.

Young Sire Monte Carlo Stands Out

Statistically the most successful sire of the first phase was Blue Hors Monte Carlo, who only sired five colts foals in 2021 that are KWPN registered as the stallion mainly stood up for stud in Denmark at his owner's place. Three of them were presented in the first phase and all three were accepted for the next round! Horses.nl praised the offspring for its movement and good connection from back to front.

(Interestingly in Denmark, Monte Carlo was bred to 118 mares in 2020, so foals born in 2021. At the Danish warmblood stallion pre-selection not a single Monte Carlo was presented!)

Las Vegas presented his first crop of colts. He sired 69 male foals in 2021. Of the 14 that were entered for the pre-selection, 12 showed up in Ermelo and 4 were selected. Horses.nl posted that Las Vegas stamped his offspring in type: large foals with a lot of expression in front and big feet, but the back and loins could be stronger. Bart Bax commented that often the topline and the walk and canter were the problem points. The Las Vegas that stood out was the one out of an Apache dam, owned by Nico Witte and Jan Anker.

Le Formidable presented his second crop of colt and only 2 of 9 presented move to the second phase. Horses.nl remarked that the offspring lacked connection in the topline. Bax stated that several lacked self carriage and did not have enough canter. On the hard surface some appeared to be downhill built. The one that stood out the best was renoir (by Le Formidable x Zack), while a second that passed was Ready to Rumble (by Le Formidable x Ampere), who finished third at the 2021 KWPN Foal Championship.

The other younger sires that presented their crops the statistics were as following: Merlot VDL (3 presented / 0 through to the next phase), Livius (2/0 through), Lennox U.S. (2/1 through), Mowgli V.O.D. (1/0 through), Bloomberg (1/1 through), Lord Romantic (1/1 through), Lowlands (1/0 through) and Mister Maserati (1/0 through).

Older Stallions

Offspring by older and foreign bred stallions were presented on the first few days of the pre-selection. According to Horses.nl the offspring that stood out the most was that of Lantanas and Kjento. Lantanas sired 32 colts in 2021, 4 were presented and three were selected for the second phase.

Popular World Young Horse Champion Kjento sired no less than 159 (!) colt foals in 2021, 11 of them were presented in the first phase and 4 were selected for the next round. Horses.nl believed the Kjento offspring are rather compact and take much after Negro. Some could be more long-legged and with more elasticity. The ones that were picked convinced with their gaits. Gert-Jan van Olst saw 10 offspring by his stallions make it to Den Bosch (4 Kjentos, 3 Glamourdales and 1 Everest).

The Helgtrand owned Oldenburg bred So Perfect had the most offspring through with five sons selected out of 10 presented, but there were no real standouts, most lacking self carriage. Bax said that he gave the offspring "the benefit of the doubt" which is why they selected five.

The Helgstrand owned KWPN bred and Westfalian licensed Dynamic Dream has been a very popular breeding stallion across Europe. For KWPN he saw just 2 of his offspring selected

Conclusion After First Phase

A nameless colt by Taurus x Lauries Crusador xx
made a big impression

“As a stallion inspection committee, we, of course, always look forward to the first crop of stallions. It is nice to see that we have been able to select one or more complete sons of various young stallions for the next round. These are stallions who made a good impression today, both in terms of conformation and in terms of three basic gaits,” said Bart Bax, chair of the stallion licensing committee.

"I think we will be heading to Den Bosch with a nice group," Bax concluded.

The complete list of colts for the second phase here.