2004 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing

Grafenstolz TSF and Munchhausen TSF, Unexpected Stunners

Two horses that made a stunning impression at the Althengst Parade were the Trakehner stallions Grafenstolz TSF and Munchhausen TSF. The dark bay Grafenstolz TSF (by Polarion x Camelot x Arogno) is owned by Gestut Birkhof in the South of Germany, and has been one of the most successful German young horses of the year. Writing history by qualifying for the German Young Horse Championships in dressage, show jumping and eventing, Grafenstolz TSF won the Eventing Bundeschampionate and one month later added the title 2004 World Young Horse Eventing Champion to his list of achievements. This highly refined Trakehner has nice movements but could show more suppleness in his gaits. Nevertheless, this bay excels in his athleticism, easily taking 160 cm jumps over a Birkhof banner. Very impressive.

A nice surprise was Munchhausen TSF's performance under the Danish Fie Skarsoe. Munchhausen is a dazzling beauty, but so far he has not really convinced me with his hind legs. Not really stepping under the body, Munchhausen is a gorgeous front leg mover. Fortunately, at the Althengst Parade the bay Hohenstein x Konigstein x Arak offspring finally got his act together. Trained by Jan Bemelmans, Munchhausen has developed into a talented Grand Prix horse with a beautiful piaffe-passage tour and is finally taking more weight on the hindquarters.

Another Trakehner worth mentioning was Hofrat (Gribaldi x Guter Planet) who looked very promising under Holga Finken. Finken also got the best out of Dormello (Dream of Heidelberg x Freiherr). Dormello tends to be very stiff in the back and long in the neck, but under Finken, the liver chestnut loosened up, was nicely on the bit and showed some nice gaits.

Text and Images copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage. No reproduction Allowed

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