International Trakehner Stallion Market Neumünster 2006

The Gala Show

The Gala Show in 2006 was sadly not one of the best ones in recent years. Too few interesting showcases of horses, and three appearances of hard-to-follow shamane "sharp shooters" with bow and arrows aiming from the backs of ponies were somewhat boring considering that the evening still lasted a full three hours. However, some showcases were truly outstanding, and a very good one was used as the opener: young Trakehner show jumpers, all proven in competition up to Bundeschampionat levels. The group was made up of the approved Lichtblick by Nerv, the last representative of this very good stallion line from East Germany; Maurice TSF by Abisko, and the two Waitaki sons Wezaki and Der Dürer TSF (approved). While Lichtblick lacked a good rider, and had obvious connection problems (at least for a German-trained eye; we dare to say no American show jumper rider would have a problem with a horse whose head is pointing in a direction where it is actually moving....), the stallion was a most powerful jumper with a keen and altert nature and excellent technique. Maurice TSF, who is one of the breed's most successful younger show jumpers, handled the course with ease. The even younger Wezaki and Der Dürer (5 years old) were great testimony for the huge gap the breed suffered with the sudden and untimley death of Waitaki this summer. His offspring are excellent show jumpers, who waste no time or effort on huge jumps, but "get the job done" beautifully and with a lot of will and nerve. The final round for these youngers was a good 4'5'', which says a lot about their athleticism.

This year's "Stallion of the Year" was the 22 year old Trakehner grand seigneur EH Michelangelo by Pasteur xx out of PS,SPS+ES Miami by Matador - Kosmos. Michelangelo had come from his home Gestüt Webelsgrund and looked great, displaying beautifully where TB blood has its strong points. The stallion was paraded around by Gestüt Webelsgrund's stud manager Eckhard Rönneforth and breed director Lars Gehrmann announcced why the selection this year had resulted in the stunning dark bay. Michelangelo sired some of the breed's most influential stallions, from the champion Kennedy and the Canadian based premium Guy Laroche to the reserve champimn Hirtenruf, the CCI** eventer Hölderlin and the popular Summertime. Nobody knew yet that Summertime's son Songline would be named champion the next morning. But Michelangelo also contributed to the breed through his outstanding daughters. Since 4 years, he is the breed's best, most consistent mare producer (based on inspectioon scores of his daughters), and even in America, Michelangelo's daughters have left a footprint at recent Annual Meetings: the champion mares in Conroe, TX, 2005 and now Columbus, OH 2006 were daughters of Michelangelo: PS Kolomba in Texas, and Sixtine *M* in Ohio! Michelangelo offspring win at FEI levels in dressage, and CCI** levels in eventing. He is a great example of a good allaround sport horse producer who also manages to sire breeding stock of the highest quality.

Stallion of the Year: EH Michelangelo

Since 2006 was the year of the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, the Gala hosted Silvermoon by Kostolany, the sire of the shooting star Matine, a Danish warmblood mare by Silvermoon. Seeing him move after such a long time hidden from the public (the stallion gets little attention in his home in Bavaria) was nice and the mechanics he displays clearly show where a lot of Matine's excuberant movement comes from. Sadly, Silvermoon appeared as if he had just been thrown back under saddle and his rider did only a fair job of presenting him nicely. Hopefully, the stallion will get more attgention now. Apparently, Ammerland Stud, the owners, seem to think the same, since his breeding fees just skyrocketed from a sane 600 Euros to 1500 Euros, which in the Europan market, is a tough call.

Silvermoon, sire of Matine

A great dressage demonstration was shown by the 2000 champion and reserve champion from Neumünster, E.H. King Arthur TSF and E.H. Hofrat. King Arthur by Buddenbrock, who had a most amazing 2006 show season all the way up to Inter I levels, impressed in his collected work with a lot of power and sit in his piaffes and passages, while Hofrat, clearly the lighter and more refined of the two, impressed with his lofty movement and the exceptional uphill canter. Another exhibition showed young Trakehner stallions that just finished their performance tests under saddle. This was a great opportunity to see the 3 year old 70 day test winner Herzog by E.H. Tambour and his stable mate Kasimir TSF by Ivernel under saddle. The most interesting horse of the showcase though, from an athletic point of view, was the bay approved Impetus by Vivus, who was approved in Neumünster in 2004. The stallion had placed very high in his 70 day test with outstanding scores way over 100 points in both dressage and show jumping and displayed beautifully what an exceptional athlete he truly is. One to watch for the future! Equally impressive was Gestüt Birkhof's massive, 17.3h chestnut Meraldik by EH Münchhausen TSF out of the full sister to the TB star stallion Heraldik xx. Meraldik is a lovely supple mover, and won the South German Riding Horse Championat in the summer of 2006. He was in the ring together with another EH Münchhausen TSF son: Mon Baron, celebrated premium stallion in 2005. We couldn't help it but see our "vision" from 2005 fulfilled: the stallion has a very old style, mediocre top line with a very flat croup that now, under saddle, showd quite dramatically. While his canter work is still at the top of its game (and granted, good uphill dressage canters are much needed in our breed), he lost overall compared to Meraldik.

A truly touching moment was the presentation of three special grey mares in the Holstenhallen. 23 year old elite mare Kandia by Mahagoni trotted around the ring like a 10 year old and was in impeccable shape. A great testimony to the positive influence of TB and Arabian blood, and the expert care her owners, the Schümann family in Hessia, take of her! Kandia is the dam of the premium stallion and Grand Prix dressage competitor Kaiser Wilhelm TSF, his full brother and elite auction horse Kronprinz, the elite mare, S-level winner and ruling State Champion mare in Hessia, Kandela, and the premium mares Kaiserweiss and Kaiserin. And all of the horses were sired by Hörstein's EH Lehndorffs. Talk about a truly "best match"! Kandia was then joined by 26 year old elite mare Regatta by Seeadler, who too, was in simply astonishing shape, didn't take one wrong step and just got everybody's skin crawling. Regatta had many foals in her life, and only one was a filly. But what a filly ... we all remember the shining grey star Renaissance Fleur TSF (by EH Tuareg) with Monica Theodorescu, who had just won the World Cup Dressage CDI in Neumünster in February of 2003 when a few days later, a freak accident at her barn shattered her fron tright pastern in multiple pieces and her career had ended upruptly. A career that many knowledgeable horsefolks in Germany saw her going straight for a spot in Germany's prestigious A-Team. Renaissance underwent a complicated surgery long before the world would talk about Barbero, and survived. Little news came from her owner, Elke von Lingelsheim, until it was a photo in a recent "Der Trakehner" magazine that showed her with her filly from 2006 (another female to continue the line!). So the Gala in 2006 was special in many ways when Renaissance Fleur TSF came back into the very same arena that 3 years ago had been the last spot of her victory!

Only one Trakehner stallion was awarded the prestigious elite title in 2006: Manrico, the bay son of Gipsy King out of ES Marcia by Vincent. Another beautiful example that a non-popular stallion can succeed and actually outdo many of his colleagues with much higher mare counts. Manrico stood briefly at Gestüt Hämelschenburg, where he left a number of very good daughters for the breed. For several years now, the bay stallion lives with Stephanie Herken-Wendt in Germany, where he is shown at Inter I levels in dressage and also breeds. He is one of the very last descendants of the impeccable Abglanz-line in the Trakehner breed, which has shaped a good portion of the modern Hanoverian breed via Absatz, but never got much attention in the Trakehner breed, much to our loss. Manrico's sire is the very good performance horse sire Gipsy King. Gipsy King is a full brother to Gipsy Lady, the dam of Birkhof's Grafenstolz TSF. He is also the sire of the exceptional 2004 premium stallion United Kingdom. Manrico's dam line also produced the very good Märchenprinz. The 2006 elite mare collection in Neumünster also contained the Manrico-daughter Charisma, a double premium and champion of her inspection and mare performance test; and without a doubt one of the best mares this year. Manrico is a well established movement producer and it showed beautifully in Charisma.

New elite stallion: Manrico

The "Trakehner of the Year 2006" was the dark bay eventer Birkhof's Grafenstolz TSF by Polarion. The stallion was approved with a premium in Neumünster in 2000 and after a late start in both competition and breeding (an accident left him unrideable and unbreedable for over 1 year) emerged as Germany's hottest younger eventing star. As a 6 year old, he was the first horse in the history of the Bundeschampionat to qualify in all three major disciplines (dressage, show jumping and eventing). He moved on to win the Bundeschampionat in eventing with a close to perfect score of 96%. Only a few weeks later, he won the FEI Young Horse World Championships in Lion d'Angers/FRA at CIC** level. What an accomplishment for a 6 year old! In 2005, he resumed his career with almost spotless performance results from all over Europe and ran his first full CCI*** as a barely 8 year old in the spring season in 2006, winning the individual bronze medal at the German Eventing Championships. It is not hard to picture this perfect athlete in the German Olympic Team in 2008 .... Grafenstolz, while a busy sport horse, also managed to breed 250 mares in 2006! And because all of that praise is not enough, when he came into the ring at the Gala, his superb rider Michael Jung made a show out of jumping a man-high obstacle made up of Trakehner flags, whil every other round, he showed off truly picture perfect one tempi changes and a lovely passage with rhythm, cadence and balance in his jumper saddle and short stirrups. What can we say...there is hopefully no end to this unique success story.

Birkhof's Grafenstolz TSF with the Heinen family as breeders (left) and owner Mr. Casper of Gestüt Birkhof