Benetton Dream - why?
Benetton Dream by Brentano II x Rotspon x Davignon
In summer 2007 Benetton Dream rose like a phoenix being the mostly bespoken
stallion at the Verden World Championship of Young Horses:
not having been introduced to the hannoverian licensing the year before he
surprised the audience by his incredible dominance in the class of the three
year old hannoverian stallions at the championship like no other horse did
before – these were licensed stallions! – he simply blew them away.
The nomination to attend at the Warendorf Bundeschampionat in September was
selfunderstood, so was the fact that he became Bundeschampion of the three year
old stallions. And finally, at yearend, he moved on to Schlieckau to pass his
30-day test which of course he completed as the unreached winner amongst a group
of stallions whose quality, according to my understanding, outclassed those who
he had beaten in Warendorf before by far .
As it was in Warendorf when I saw Benetton „life“ again after having
„experienced“ him in Verden before. And I had no intentions whatsoever up until
my friend Heinz all of a sudden shouted out:
"Jeeeh, Sabine, this stallion would be the perfect match to your thouroughbred
mare!
Just look at this frame and profile and hindleg – those angles and activity and
everything naturally uphill … and all these good old traditional hannoverian
bloodlines you like so much!”
Hearing Heinz say that and comprehend “he was right!” was one and the same
thing:
purest intuition and I agreed with him about everything he said!
And so it came that yet
another breeding idea for one of my mares was provided to me by one of my
friends – remarkably even more so since it was about a stallion who I thought I
knew well and most certainly had already established my very decided opinion on.
Just that it hadn’t “clicked”
with any of my mares – up until Heinz came… sometimes you simply don’t see the
wood for the trees!
Thus,
when my t.b. mare Ionia is being bred to Benetton
Dream this year I will be breaking with two of my traditional breeding
principles at once:
turning away from proven heritage transferrer („bewährte Vererber“) to choosing
a completely unproven young stallion instead and giving up on further t.b.
influence („Blutanschluss“) within the stallion, something I consider very
important when breeding a t.b. mare to any given wb stallion
as such...
So what is it about Benetton that inspires me so greatly that I willingly give
up on two of my sound principles?
Let’s step back to The World
Equestrian Games of Young Horses in Verden in August 2007.
I hold the starting list for the 3 year old stallions in my hands and my heart
beats faster:
two sons of Brentano II are listed and I am more than happy to see that after
all, the promotion of this grand old stallion in line
with the promoted renaissance of the Bolero-blood does seem to yield fruit in
Hannover!
So where are they, these two sons of Brentano II?
The first of them is quickly identified, a large chestnut much in the type of
his sire, yet lanky and immature. Very nice riding horse.
For the second it takes more than first sight
identification, a huge big eyecatcher with lots and lots of charme – I am amazed:
This is a Brentano son?
A second look at the pedigree and here it goes:
damsire Rotspon is more than obvious in this horse – lot’s of Rotspon daugthers
I got to see over the last months and years while travelling
the northern hannoverian breeding area immediately pop up in
my head:
size, frame and substance, but melting charme at the same time and lot’s of it –
the gentle giant here in front of me blends in perfectly…!
Rotspon's grandson, he surely is.
His walk is simply sensational, a 12 out of 10, while the canter work is of so
much natural uphill and powerfull jump through that the 20 x 60 dressage arena
is much too short for him – as such, the rider seems to be hitting the break
continousely and if any, this is the only
negative issue the two of them provide for if
one wanted to critize anything about the entire performance.
What an “engine” this horse must be if only ridden on the race track,
being able to challenge this giant
canter… My imagination is running wild, you can tell.
The trott is made of huge leverage given his size and the fact he knows how to make use of his joints and bones – amazing to see a horse this size and young age move so powerfully and balanced at the same time – swing, push and rhythm seem selfunderstood, everything well closed up and of impressive beat.
I am all excited about him and it becomes quite
clear pretty soon:
so is the Verband.
This is the „most wanted“ Champion of the 3-year old stallions and the
Hannoverian Verband is willing to set a sign – and right so.
No better way maintaining the traditional old bloodlines and at the same time
stay clear of fashionable S or holsteiner C and L - instead, adding „prove“ to
„prove“:
Furthermore,
within he last couple of years grandsire Rotspon truly established himself as
one of the most succesful sport horse sires, just that noone seems to have
noticed:
The FN yearbook 2007 states roughly 300 registered sport horses by Rotspon who
made up for € 200.000 winning moneys. Rotspon has only been 12 years old in 2007
but has already overcome the two year elder Sandro Hit with respect to progeny
winning moneys with these numbers!
... just that noone really seems to have noticed...
Now let’s pedigree speak:
I have already talked in depth about his sire Brentano II
here and I am more than happy to see that even
the hannoverian verband seems to consider this son of him the potential
appropriate succesor of the Brentano II heritage. As there still is no
meaningful son of Brentano out there to really make an impact on the breed and
carry on the sire's precious heritage in the male line. Benetton Dream has it
all to maybe become this long desired son. Time will tell.
So let's move on to Benetton's damsire
Rotspon, specially precious in my eyes as a “Mare-maker” (damsire, that is) and bearly
beatable as a riding horse maker anyway with respect to ridability and mind,
really aiming after his sire, Rubinstein. With Argentan and Pik Bube two grand
old performance sires, each of them having had major positive influence
specially on the Hanoverian mare base, following in his falling damline.
Second damsire is Davignon and via Donnerhall and
again Pik Bube the same is valid what has been said before:
stamping stallions of their own, legendary performance blood, not necessarily of
the modern or even lighter kind, but outspoken ridability and attitude.
The double up on Pik Bube plus Argentan will certainly provide for well
consolidated „maintainance“ and if lucky even double orientation – hopes are
high when meeting on mares with jumping genes these might not be deleted
entirely… as such, gaites and power of those, find good grounds in the heritage
of these two sires. An aspect that made Davignon himself being one of the mostly
desired stallions in his youth, his ranking at the front positions of the
„Zuchtwertschätzung“ (breeding valuation index) over many years speaks for
itself.
Third damsire Weltmeyer
provides for the strongest and most dominant trott movement to be found – not
only in Hannover. It is probably fair to say that Weltmeyer is the one and only
stallion out there having had such an impact on the entire breed and still doing
so…. Even today the old myrmidon is being refered to as the utlimate hindleg and
impulsion „maker“ and it has become common to see Weltmeyer-daughters being
crossed to „fashionable“ hip line stallions in order to pep these up for the
better with respect to hindleg quality…
Weltmeyer most certainly is a stallion putting “spirit of time” to a limit as
this stallion has proven to be timeless through his qualities, proving
nowadays desireable features like “longlegged” and “modern”
useless if the necessary engine is lacking – while the weltmeyer engine as such
has always been and will always be desirable and mostly necessary,
even if delivered in a somewhat old fashioned style… Just that it took
time to be fully recognized and valued by the breeders worldwide - not a
coincidence that today (in 2009, that is, as I am writing the english version
of this text delayed...) it is all of a sudden Weltmeyer again who recieved
the most of all mares at the Ankum stallion station where he has been stationed
all his life, along with fellow companions like Brentano II and Londonderry.
Via Weltmeyer and Rotspon Benetton Dream is exposed twice to the influence of
precious old trakehner Absatz blood and I truly hope
that the double up on Absatz will be sufficient to provide for necessary
“nobless” in the heritage of Benetton Dream. As Benetton’s pedigree is cleary
dominated by the “heavy” old blood.
What I really like about Benetton’s pedigree is the
fact that it is more than only a line-up of prominent damsires. Benetton’s
damline proves that Benetton himself is not a
product of coincidence. Benetton is the first foal out of his
dam Rotkäppchen, who has meanwhile born another two foals whose development will
be worth watching. Rotkäppchen’s dam Dornrösschen by
Davignon was once bred to Don Davidoff and delivered the exceptional dressage
horse Daimler, owned by the famous french Xavier Marie. Daimler qualified
for the WEG of young horses in 2007.
Dornrösschen’s dam Windrose by Weltmeyer is a highly decorated StatePremiumMare
who became european VizeChampionMare at Brussles in 1992. She is also dam of the
licensed sire Winterprinz by Warkant who today is a highly succesful breeding
stallion in the US where he became "Horse of the Year 2005" and was shown in
sports succesfully up to Intermediare. In July 2004 Windrose's 4year old son by
De Niro became the most expensive auction horse at the Hannoverian Ridinghorse
Auction in Verden.
The further falling damline of Sangrita by
Sender, domiciled at Walter Lochte, also delivered licensed stallions and highly
succesful sport horses in both disciplines, jumping and dressage. Amongst others
there is the Celle State Stud stallion Loch Ness by Lauries Crusador xx x
Warkant, Evergreen by Eiger x Wendekreis, also Celle, and Galippo by Grosso x
Absatz, the latter being licensed in Westfalia..
That much about pedigree and genetics. Remains the often heard argument Benetton
Dream might only be an "endproduct".
Oh well. It's in the nature of things that any given young stallion - the more
spectacular he appears, the higher the probability - might remain an endproduct
incapable to mulitply himself. I even considered super star stallion Belissimo
an endproduct up until recently, given that he lacks to be an outspoken "foalmaker"
- the value of his heritage clearly lies in his matured riding horses and I have
meanwhile learned this for good. I would also consider the highly bespoken
Quaterback simply an endproduct so far up until his get proves to be valuable -
as a stallion of such extreme move and gaites can only loose when bred - you
can't expect such extremes to be duplicated.
However, in the case of Benetton Dream genetics do suggest that there is more
about him: his bloodlines are well consolidated with no outcrosses adding danger
of genetic dilution, the convincing row of damisres meeting on a valuable
damline in itself should limit the potential risk of him being an endproduct
only.
Breeding my thoroughbred mare Ionia xx to Benetton
Dream simply appeals to me specially since she has had two foals by his father
Brentano II, so the planned foal will be 3/4 identical to it's half siblings and
as such most certainly somewhat compareable - a comparison I can't wait to draw
since it will take me further out on my individual learning curve breeding my
t.b. mare to wb stallions - a challenge in itself already, since adding tb to wb
is an experiment I am well aware of. If it will be a succesful one only time can
tell, guarantees are never given, no matter how strongly one obeys certain
principles of breeding.
What's driving me here is purest intuition and intuition can not be forced - but
if it imposes itself upon you you should go with it open hearted and see what it
brings...
one year later:
Ionia has given birth to Bogart*, a colt by Benetton
Dream and I can only consider the "experiment" a true success. Bogart has
already been sold as a stallion prospect, something I had never expected to
happen given half t.b. in the first place bears a lot of risks, half t.b. out of
a t.b. dam (rather than empolying a wb proven t.b. sire) does even more so.
(*click on the engl flag symbol on the top
right of his page for engl text)
