Benetton Dream, Hanoverian Stallion of the Year 2024

Breeding

Hanoverian

The 20-year old Benetton Dream was named the Hanoverian Stallion of the Year 2024 during the annual stallion licensing in Verden, Germany, on 23 November 2024.

Breeder Axel Windeler from Verden-Walle accepted the prize, which consisted of an oil painting by the artist Manfred Busemann and a well-endowed cheque. The Hanoverian breeding society has been honouring the Hanoverian stallion of Year for over 30 years.

B-Line Revival

In Benetton Dream FRH’s first breeding season in 2007, only 3.41 per cent of all coverings featured the once so popular bloodline of Bolero. Belissimo M, the 2018 Hanoverian Stallion of the Year, had already given a small boost to this paternal bloodline. Both privately owned stallions have helped revive the Bolero bloodline’s prestige.

Young Horse Success

The impressive dark bay stallion by Brentano II was born on 21 May 2004 as the first foal out of Rotkäppchen (by Rotspon x Davignon x Weltmeyer) in the stable of his breeder Axel Windeler. His sire Brentano II was already 20 years old at the time. Benetton Dream FRH combines two of the most important Hanoverian dam lines: the dam line of Alferate through his father Brentano II and the dam line of Sefaza through his mother Rotkäppchen. Focusing on strong dam lines has always been part of Windeler's breeding philosophy and is a cornerstone of his success.

At the age of three, Anna-Sophie Fiebelkorn began riding Benetton Dream FRH and rode him to his first successes in riding horse tests. They won the 2008 Hanoverian Young Horse Championships in Verden and the2007 Bundeschampionate in Warendorf?

This was followed by the licensing in Adelheidsdorf in October and the three-day performance test in Schlieckau in December in the same year. He passed the test with a weighted final score of 9.3 in dressage, also at the highest level. With an abundance of early acclaim, Benetton Dream moved into his stallion box at the Poll family's Hörem stud farm in Gilten. He was sure to be in high demand.

In 2009 Holga Finken took over the ride and placed 14th at the Bundeschampionate. In 2010 Yvonne Reiser took over and produced him to Prix St Georges level.

Sold Twice

In 2012 Frank Schmidt's Hamburg based company Kanganya GmbH acquired Benetton Dream and handed the ride back to Fiebelkorn initially. He did six national competitions at Prix St Georges level in Germany. In 2013 the horse was pulled from Fiebelkorn and put in training with Juliane Brunkhorst, who premiered him at Intermediaire II and developing Grand Prix level in the summer of 2013. In that period he stood at Eckhard Wahlers' WM station.

With Vilhelmson at the 2016 CDI Wellington

In the autumn of 2013 the Swedish Lövsta Stutteri bought the stallion as a Grand Prix prospect for Swedish Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfvén. The stallion had his international show debut at Grand Prix level in Wellington, Florida, in January 2015, achieving mixed results in Florida, but finding consistency back in Europe in the spring and summer of 2015. They returned to Wellington for the 2015-2016 winter and also headed to Rotterdam that year. The pair scored between 67 - 72% at the time. In 2017 he got injured but returned to the arena briefly in 2019 at age 14. He did his last CDI in Wellington in March 2018.

Offspring In Sport

As a breeding stallion Benetton Dream FRH has a breeding value of 159. This certifies that his offspring, like himself, have reached Grand Prix level.

Internationally, he is represented in this class by, among others, Beryll (Hubertus Schmidt) for Germany, Bluebarry Dream (Young Shik Hwang) for Korea, Belfast (Ruben Mengual Reig) for Spain, Atterupsgaard's Botticelli (Charlotte Jorst) for the USA and Belantis I (William Matthew) for Australia. The grey was highly successful with the Danish rider Alexander Yde Helgstrand in the Young Riders class in the past two years before he came into Swedish ownership.

Benetton Dream FRH has also already proven himself on the dam's side. For example, Mondrian by Millennium is already victorious in Grand Prix at the age of nine with Lisa Müller. His dam Baluna belongs to the first crop of Benetton Dream FRH and is already regarded as one of the particularly valuable three-star mares in the Hanoverian dressage horse breeding programme. Diaton by Dimaggio represented the Hanoverian colours in the final of the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Ermelo last year and this year he became German Vice Champion of the Juniors with Maria Teresa Pohl. Don Martillo by Don Juan de Hus was the World Champion of young dressage horses under Ann-Christin Wienkamp after which he disappeared from sport.

Benetton Dream FRH is considered a “Bolero-Booster” through his sons and grandsons, especially through Bon Coeur, who was awarded the Grande Prize last year and is now also stationed at Lövsta Stutteri in Sweden.