2009 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing

Day 2: Good Quality, No Super Star

November 20, 2009

The second day of the Oldenburg Stallion Licensing comprises the jumping in freedom. The stallions are presented in hand in trot, their conformation is briefly inspected again and the colts are then turned loose to move in freedom first before the are guided to the jumps.

As free jumping was on the program for today. I got up at 7.30h for breakfast before we went to the center. There was a huge queue of cars trying to park at 9 am but we cut corners and got ourselves a good parking spot close by.

A colleague journalist from Germany had reserved an excellent seat for me and in the Vechta stands, it is amazing how much you are surrounded by "famous" people. On my right I had WBFSH director Klaus Miesner with his wife Susanne. Behind me was the famous Dr. Genn from Muhlen, in front there was FEI dressage rider Oliver Oelrich and the German journalist sat on my left. Horse talk is all you hear!!

Many stallions presented themselves in such a different way in freedom compared to on the lunge line. Each stallion came in individually for his jumping and after six stallions, all were hand walked so the judges can assess the quality of the walk one last time before they announce which stallion is licensed and which not.

The judging panel, consisting of Dr. Evelyn Schlotmann, Wolfgang Egbers, Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinghoff and Ulrich Henschke (no Wolfram Wittig to be detected), was remarkably on the ball this year. There wasn't a stallion that didn't get licensed and actually should have been. However, on the contrary, the panel was generous handing out licensing cards because there were about five in the collection which shouldn't have passed!

The absolute winner of the "scandalous licensing of the year" award was catalogue number 34, a very unflattering, old fashioned looking grey stallion owned and presented by famous show jumper Rene Tebbel. This Sorento x De Niro x Erszand has a horrible topline and three stiff, unexpressive and very limited basic gaits. He looked normal, he was slow behind and had no talent whatsoever. Furthermore, this horse was not properly presented on the lunge line (Tebbel was already leaving lunge ring 2 while the second horse was still cantering in lunge ring 1). Explain me why this horse passed?!
Editor's note: the next day this horse was offered for sale at auction and nobody even bid on it!

Other miraculous approvals were given to Nr. 33, Paul Schockemohle's black Sir Donnerhall x Prince Thatch xx, which was irregular on the lunge line, showed no walk at all in hand and was totally stressed out during the jumping in freedom. Schockemohle was very lucky with yet another stallion: nr 30. a Sir Donnerhall x Banditentraum. Though the bloodline of this bay colt is very interesting and he has a lofty uphill front which made him a crowd pleaser in Vechta, he was weak in the loin, long in the back and not stepping under behind despite his active hind leg. This horse was also very tense and running like crazy during the free jumping. So no thank you.

The committee probably wanted to be generous to LUX-dressage, a Luxembourg investing company which bought price highlight Statesman last year for 400,000 euro, because their motivation behind accepting nr. 27, a Sandro Hit x Brentano II x Warkant was at my wit's end. This bay stallion had a very long lower hind leg which was slow and not stepping under. In walk he almost paced and his jump was not to brag about. Kyra Werdin's Samarant x Dream of Glory was also generously approved though probably he was one of the few colts with a super trot. His hind leg was quick and he really pushed himself off the ground, but unfortunately this stallion failed to impress in walk and canter and he carried his tail very stifly.

You might think that after three paragraphs of negative criticism on some lower quality stallions there weren't any good horses in the licensing lot. Yes there were and even many really nice ones, but you'll read all about that in tomorrow's article about the premium stallions.

There was a lunch break when the dressage colts finished the jumping in freedom and after that Thomas and I drove to Reitsport Schockemohle, the most amazing tack store in the area, followed by a quick stop at Schockemohle's stallion station around the corner. We went to look at Furstenball, the 70-day performance test winner of Schlieckau, which is owned by the Danish Lone Boegh Henriksen. Furstenball's neighbours are Furst Romancier and Sir Donnerhall. We also saw Sandro Hit snoozing as well as San Amour begging for a facial rub. Before we left the station I noticed that almost all farms in the area use power from solar energy and have massive amounts of solar panels on their roofs. Good idea to generate green energy.

We're now at the hotel and have planned on a small champagne party to wet our appetites before dinner.

Back to the 2009 Oldenburg Stallion licensing index