The passion for breeding

The passion for breeding

I attend many horse shows, and l look at the pedigrees of the horses competing there, with avid interest. I was most interested to see a horse by Quadrillo (Quidam de Revel x Tin Rocco. ) Quadrillo, passed away far too young but left behind a good number of offspring, that are now jumping at FEI level. So why l was so excited to see the progeny of a young stallion that only bred for a mere three seasons? I worked with the breeder of Quadrillo,at Gestut Pohlsee for about six months. I did this because of Tin Rocco, a stallion that l much admired and who had been stationed there for three years. A halfblood that had in his time barely chances to get mares, it was thirty years ago not so easy for private owned stallions. I was fortunate look after the direct family of Quadrillo, and by doing so, l learnt a lot about Tin Rocco!

At the Ogplabeek show, l had a conversation with a Marc van Dijck and I met thanks to him a breeder that I didn’t know. We talked about many stallions, but then he asked in particular, if I ever heard about the stallion - Kashmir van Schutterschof who is currently the sixth highest ranked breeding sire in the Rolex/WBFSH sire rankings. I said: “Of course, why are you asking me that?” and he said: “Because I am the breeder of Kashmir.”

We discussed during this conversation another matter regarding: Is breeding is becoming too expensive? The income of stallion owners with the arrival of ICSI. Theoretically there can be born many more foals now with the use of one straw, but how is it with the payed covering fee? Should there be paid a covering fee for every birth certificate? I am curious to the opinion of other stud owners and how they deal with this new technique?

So, another question of horse breeding at the show started with the stallion, Limbus, who had some good offspring competing at Ogplageek. A rider asked why the stallions from the Ladykiller - L line, were not being used so much anymore in Holstein. The answer comes down to money, to give an example: A Livello is being paid less well than an offspring by Casall, according to several breeders.

Another foundation stallion is Cassini I, he is earning his credit for making sporthorses. A breeder from Belgium said: “Cassini I his great value is that he is producing ridable horses who want to perform.” We take a halt with Capitol I, if we look a bit further into Cassini I his pedigree, 16 stallions from the Capitol I line are listed in the Rolex/WBFSH Sire Ranking. During the last stallion approvals in Holstein there were two stallions that represented this Sire line. Both didn’t got approved. Is this the next line who will be out of favor?

I had this year contact with quite some breeders for background stories, interviews and just because I was interested in their breeding. There are a lot of breeders for who I have a great deal of respect for, but this year are Harm Thormählen, Eric Levallois and Luc Henry to mention three. I have written before about Harm in a previous blog, his vision about breeding is fascinating and it really worth the while to visit him. To listen to him about what mares he has and how they are bred and with what lines he is having success. I know Harm now since 2004 and I still don’t visit him often enough. For Eric is breeding his ‘second passion’ after he was forced to stop his riding career because of an accident. Every year there are about 25 foals born at Haras de Beaufour with international bloodlines. He had in the last three years about 27 foals by his top stallion Diamant de Semilly. If have been this year also several times at Eric his stable, the main reason was to see Hannah I and her offspring. I noticed during the introduction to his foals a very nice Captain Semilly offspring. Captain Semilly is a young stallion by Nartago, who is again by Carthago.

The only one that I haven’t visited so far from these three breeders is Luc Henry. We had a few times contact this year because of an article, a fascinating man who is being guided by his passion for breeding. An example of a breeder who started small and has built up his breeding with a vision. Who is not being led by commercial breeding and dares to take the risk for using a young stallion.

I have visited about ten years ago a breeder in Germany who was breeding with Hanoverians: Heinrich Eckhoff Sen., this man said that there are two characteristics that are very important to have success: “Passion und Übung” passion and practice. Those words I have never forgotten and will never forget.