OBOS Quality – He proved to be a saint.

International breeding comes to mind when we look at the pedigree and story of OBOS Quality 004 (Quick Star – Reichsdame x Domino, breeder: Paul Schockemöhle). He is a mix between French and Hanoverian blood, born in Germany. This very impressive 29 year old stallion has been for the most of his journey based in Ireland. After he was sold as a six year old at the PSI auction. He is at the fifth position of the WBFSH Sire Ranking for eventing.

Hanoverian motherline in Belgium

This line is registered in Hanover under the name of the mare ‘Ankerauge’, this mare was born in 1932 at the farm of family Tietjen, in the breeding region of Stade. In total the Hanoverian Verband had 93 mares active through the generations from this line. Ten of them got awarded with the State premium predicate. Four horses from this mareline were active at advanced level dressage and nine jumped at 1m40 and higher. Currently there are in Hanover only six mares active from this mareline in breeding. Abendnebel was sold as a 14 year old mare to Belgium. That is where our story about OBOS Quality continues.

Nowadays it is often said that Belgium and the Netherlands have bought top genetics from Germany and are building their lines up from that. It seems that this is already going on for at least 50/60 years and before that we know that Germany has sold top mares to these countries. In the case of OBOS Quality 004 we have to go back to a mare called Abendnebel (Absatz – Fibula x Fernruf, breeder: Alfred Gottschalk). The sire of Abendnebel is one of the foundation stallions of Hanover, Absatz (Abglanz – Landmoor x Landeck, breeder: Wilhelm Brunkhorst). Absatz was the champion stallion of the stallion approvals of 1962 in Verden. His sire, the Trakehner stallion, Abglanz had the most influence in Hannover through his son Absatz out of the mare Landmoor. Her sire’s side traces to the famous English Thoroughbred, Perfectionist xx, and carries on her dam’s side the Shagya stallion Shagy XVII. Absatz was the sire of stallions such as Argentan, Arsenik, Akzent I and II, Admiral I and II, Aktuell and Aderlaß. Absatz was known as the masterpiece of Abglanz. This stallion Abglanz (Temit – Abendluft x Poseidon, breeder: Hauptgestüt Trakehnen) was a Trakehner stallion. As a yearling colt he was evacuated from East Prussia to the Stud Hunnesrück. This stud has played an incredible important role in saving many Trakehner bloodlines.

The mare Abendnebel found her way to Belgium, where she a broodmare from Maurice Verlinden. Boudewijn Schepers is a walking encyclopedia for BWP bloodlines. I asked him if he knows something about this line. In Belgium this line is known as BWP prestatiestam 20. He recalls: “Maurice Verlinden was always very active at mare approvals. His mares were very impressive. Last year we have approved a stallion out of this line with the BWP, Ruby D.C. (Kashmir van Schuttershof – Indy x Clinton, breeder: Rudy de Cooman). This line is not so big and all the success we know in Belgium can be traced back to Abendnebel. The mare Monza (Landadel – C-Weinnebel van Roelansebos x Weingau, breeder: Eric de Clippel) has built up also a very successful branch. Rudy de Cooman has also bred several good horses from this line. I didn’t know that OBOS Quality came from this mareline. I think he is an interesting stallion and his offspring born in Ireland have done so far a good job in sport. Flügel van la Roche was a very good stallion and he has produced a lot of good horses. Toon Hendrix purchased a lot of offspring by him. His offspring were very easy to ride, they wanted to work and they had a good character. It can be very well possible that the grandmother of OBOS Quality came thanks to François Mathy Sr. to Paul Schockemöhle.” The grandmother of OBOS Quality, Reichlichflugel, was by Flügel van la Roche. This stallion became very important in Belgium. This was for example shown during the Olympic Games 1976 in Montreal: François Mathy took bronze in the individual show jumping competition with the horse Gay Luron (V. Flügel van la Roche), bred in Belgian Limburg.

The breeder of OBOS Quality is Paul Schockemöhle, he recalls: “I purchased indeed the third mother, Reichlichflugel from Francois Mathy Sr. The mother of Quality was a tall mare and Domino was also a tall stallion and Quick Star was not that tall but still Quality became a stallion that was about 170cm. Domino was by Domspatz x Archimedes, he could jump very well and I purchased this stallion from Leon Melchior. He purchased Domino first at the Hanoverian stallion approvals and later I bought him from Leon Melchior. I still have this stallion quite a bit in my mares, because besides that he could jump well he was also very elastic. Quick Star was several years with me, also Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum. I organized that Quick Star came from the USA, through the help of George Morris, to me. Quick Star came and Meredith came a bit later. Quality was ridden here as a young horse by Miguel Febrer, he worked 30 years for me. I sold him at the P.S.I. auction. He produced a lot of good horses for Ireland. For example the mare Castlefield Eclipse with Paul Estermann who jumped at 1m60. Quality himself had also a good character and was relative easy, he had a good way of jumping and was pleasant to ride for a Quick Star. I don’t have the motherline of Quality anymore.” One year older then OBOS Quality is the gelding Lagerfeld (Lake Placid) out of the same mother. He jumped at 1m40 under the saddle of Dirk Ahlmann. Also Reichlichflügel produced a 1m40 horse; the gelding Goldfeuer (Gepard) under the saddle of Annette Hülsmann.

Miguel Febrer recalls: “I remember OBOS Quality very well. With this horse I had a special relationship. He is a horse that I remember fondly.”

Dr. Buchard Bade says about the stallions from OBOS Quality his motherline: “Domino belonged to Paul Schockemöhle. He didn’t covered a lot of mares. He was owned by Paul in the time he just started with the stallion station. I believe that Flügel van la Roche was sold as a young stallion to Belgium, he really did something good in the Belgian breeding. Absatz was not a jumping horse, he covered several years 100 to 120 mares and for sure he produces a few jumping horses. He really produced good types and his strength was in producing dressage horses. With the stallion Fernruf you go back to the jumpingblood, but that is already far away in the pedigree.“

Dr. Gerd Lehmann has a wonderful story about Landadel: “Landadel was a very sympathetic horse. I met him several times. I met him one time after he stood at our ‘Landgestüt’, he came out of the clinic. He had Laminitis and his front hooves were in a bad shape. He came to our ‘Landgestüt’ and we should take semen of him to make frozen semen. I really learned to know him in these weeks. I really got a connection with him. He was really a sweet sympathetic stallion. It did work to get semen and we had an outstanding vet who took care of him and afterwards he was able to cover still a few years. The wellness treatment he received in Warendorf did him very good and he recovered quite well.” The mare Monza is by Landadel from the motherline of OBOS Quality and has built up a great branch in Belgium.

This is the first part of my article about OBOS Quality. The complete article will be published in the June issue of Breeding News; https://breedingnews.com/ This online publication is an international publication completely dedicated to breeding.