Don Frederic - why?

                                                    
                                                    
                                                         pictured by www.Ridehesten.com
                                                                       courtesy of Thomas Bach Jensen who did me the greatest favour of all allowing me to use his fabulous photo!                        
                                                              
                                                                         Don Frederic by Don Frederico x Wolkentanz I x Liberty M

Violating!

Subtitled:
Paul Schockemöhle does it again!

… yet again I find myself violating my own rules and principles of breeding:
never use an unproven young stallion who you know nothing about and who you have only seen once under saddle…

But how can I resist when Paul Schockemöhle does it again?
…

Being a regular visitor of the annual stallion show Paul Schockemöhle hosts in February every year I am used to equine spectacularity and better-left-unquestioned-myths it takes to turn promising young horses (ideally black coated) into star kicking stellar trotters and highly bespoken “dressage stallions of the future”. Same is true for jumper stallions. Unreal.
Reason I came up with my very personal motto already years ago:
never trust a stallion you see at Paul’s show!
As these stallions are “made” like no other horse in the world and can only be judged by their foals and foals alone.

… the latter, however, is true for every other stallion, too.
Thus: never use an unproven young stallion!

So who is this very Don Frederic, who made me violate all my breeding rules and principles in a heartbeat?

First of all:
He is not black!
That already tells you something about his status of excellence. If a chestnut can make it amongst the prestigious crowd of ideally homozygous dark stallions at the Schockemöhle empire he must be a league of his own, outclassing the dark crowd by far.

Second:
He is the champion of the Redefin (Mecklenburg) licensing 2011. But since Mecklenburg, as one of the “new” east german states, is of meaningless impact to german sport horse breeding, his champion title from last year never gained much recognition. The stallion remained unknown to most of the german sport horse breeding scene including myself.
However, in this very case ignoring the Redefin Champion of 2011 might have been of later regret to many, since when the stallion left the Redefin licensing he already took some interesting anecdotal evidence with him:
rumour has it, that it only took the stallion’s first appearance at the Redefin hard ground inspection when a certain Mr. Schockemöhle already received a bit of impressive six digit figures for the evenly impressive chestnut. Very Mr. Schockemöhle is said to have denied the sexy bid laughing out loud, stating:
“No, thank you! This stallion is going to make me a fortune at the PSI one day!”

Truly the most remarkable answer for two reasons:

1. the man is right refusing to sell such stallion at this point in time as in the right hands such quality can be turned in to a real fortune further out the maturity curve. As this chestnut is a true rough diamond. It is the “added value” of the coming years that counts. Big time economic leverage. And we all know that there is no better place in the world to add equine value than the empire of Paul Schockemöhle – marketable value, that is.
2. now that we know that the owner’s intention is to sell the stallion anyway we already know that there is even less value in breeding to this stallion on top of being unproven in the first place:
barely anything damages a young breeding stallion’s image and future beyond repair as early sales does. As everybody assumes the very stallion is sold for good reasons.
And usually these assumptions are right.

Hands off!
                                                    
                                                                                        www.stall-wedermann.de    Don Frederic at foals age - amazing how the pictures match!
                                 "A little bit of evil in the eye" , someone stated. This little bit of evil in the eye combined with such hindend makes him a striking combination to me ...

That much about history and circumstances conducting the stallion. Time to tell about Don Frederic’s first public appearance under saddle and why he did to me what he did to me…

Vechta, Sunday afternoon in February 2012 and we were sitting tightly packed on our seats, watching the best the Schockemöhle collection has to offer, considered the most desirable stallions to breed to... I truly enjoy this circus every year and certainly have learned a lot about how stallions are being “made” big but nevertheless got dumped short after. Watch and learn, that’s what this is all about. Plus, it contains the most valuable entertainment factor of all. Just don’t take it seriously.
So when Uwe Heckmann yelled in the mic:
“And now we show you that even our jumper riders make an excellent job in the dressage saddle!”, I was all alerted. As there is only a single valid conclusion to be drawn from a jumper rider being needed to show a dressage stallion:
even the world’s most capable dressage queens from the Schockemöhle team cannot cope with this stallion.
That tells you something.
Brief look in my catalogue and yes, the conclusion makes perfect sense since here comes a son of Don Frederico. An anecdote says it all:
There used to be a professional barn up north in Germany and the sing on the door said:
“Monthly fee mounting and training 600 Euros.
For progeny by Sandro Hit an Don Frederico costs double.”

So far my thoughts had travelled when the gate opened and Don Frederic stepped in. First thing I saw was a lanky but mighty chestnut and an uprigth jumper rider sticking in the saddle, perfectly quiet, simply letting the horse go – and I mean GO!
Visible dynamics carried the two along up until the short side of the arena and this was my first opportunity to really look at the horse, see how it was built and angled and how it functioned in the sum of it’s parts.
It blew me away as I had never expected such bundle of sheer functionality at a Schockemöhle stallion show. This had nothing to do with kicking frontlegs or selected longlegged beauties with puppy heads that are usually being sold to the crowd at this place. This was all about deep set cannon bones, closed up hindend, effiency stepping under and amazingly well balanced dynamics, given the horse was not even three years old. The continuos dynamics of the horses back visible right behind the saddle with every step it took spoke for themselves. The combination of rhythm (Takt) and dynamics simply blew me away. And what I enjoyed most: this was not about star kicking frontlegs but frontlegs working parallel to their almost always diagonal hindleg, suggesting most useful and realistic push and power all through the horse and it’s back – a well swinging back despite the upright rider sticking in the saddle completely untouched… And the entire horse presented itself in an almost natural selfcarriage and uphill tendency with the nape being the highest point just as it should be (be usually never is...). This jumper rider sure knew what he did and he did a marvelous job not forcing the stallion into any unnatural pose. Hat off! 
Wow!!!!!
Then came the moment when the rider asked the stallion to canter – the chestnut jumped in the air, exploded, it seemed, the moment had it all:
uphill, power, elasticity, well jumped through – these were the features well maintained throughout the entire canter. Eye candy since this was a naturally engaged horse simply functioning in the sum of its parts. Stunning but realistic. Nothing “made up”. This was something one could dare to breed for. Naturally given features and no professional artwork. Then came walk and even the walk was convincing, too. Well swung through the horse and of good room coverage. I’ld give it an 8 to 9 at any time.
And yes, I could tell this was the champion of the Redefin licensing and boy, this could have been the champion of any given licensing out there – what a mover! A complete horse and no made up fake.
This was a true riding horse defined by functionality, not a show kicker. This was what we consider a “development horse” ("Ausbildungspferd"), a term that meanwhile has become the most valuable tribute to me since it means:
this horse is worth being developed to the max over years. While the “max” is being defined as “Grand Prix”.
The term implies that someone is willing to put a lifetime of work and effort into such horse.
Completely different from “fast sales”and star kicking show horses.
And I could see someone do so and put a lifetime of work and effort into this chestnut. And at the same time it made perfect sense to me that this someone wouldn’t be and couldn’t be Paul Schockemöhle for the simple reason that PS makes money identifying but not developing horses like this.
It made sense that this horse won't be part of his stallion collection any more any given time in the future as PS will make his money by selling on the stallion in due course to someone who takes the lifetime risk and award turning this stallion into something that is worth much more than a well proven breeding status:
Grand Prix, that is.
Provided this stallion meets the right person to handle and develop him he truly has it all.
Long way to go, but you don't find many promising young horses of such quality, specially not when they start their carreer as a supposed to be breeding stallion in the first place.
Since the difference between a popular breeding stallion today and a capable Grand Prix horse lies in the details:
The first nowadays has to be a stellar showmaker to catch people's attention.
The latter, however, needs to be provided with naturally given functionality that usually doesn't come along with stellar showmaking.
Functionality is not what most present breeders look at. Lifetime trainers, however, do. And they know why.
Reason why a succesful sport horse and a popular breeding stallion nowadays are two different things.

So this was why I spent the rest of the day in deep thoughts and I couldn’t get this chestnut, who carried an initial “Hands off!” warning all over him for various reasons, out of my head anymore.
So far his sire Don Frederico had been a no-no to me for reasons indicated above. Yet, the sire does show an impressive sport record himself including wins up to S class (Intermediare I) but more important:
he also states some impressive progeny sport records concluded by more than 900 kids registered by the FN with 13 kids already sucesfully competing in S class themselves, his most prominent kids being Isabell Werths Don Johnson (damsire Warkant) and Dorothee Schneiders Diva Royal (yet again, damsire Warkant). And while it might not be a coincidence that both his most prominent kids descend from a Warkant mare (Warkant being a half sibling to Weltmeyer, whose son Wolkenstein I is damsire to Don Frederic) this observation suggests more than anything else that every horse has a mother, too. Sucessful breeding is all about the right match in the first place... 
Sure enough I spent the next days researching the damline of Don Frederic, already delighted to know the most valuable Weltmeyer connection in his pedigree. Third damsire to Don Frederic is the jumper stallion Liberty by Lord Liberty, a connection that made me smile yet again as Lord Liberty was a mighty powerhouse of outspoken energy and yet another stallion who needed the "right" hands to perform at it's best. Lord Liberty truly stamped his get in an explosive manner and I always considerd his genetic influence a positve one since this was exqusit strong jumper blood at its best to provide for the right impulsion (and spirit...) in a dressage horse. No horses for John Doe, though, but incredible performance horses if you knew how to deal with them. Having said all this, Liberty adds the necessary jumping blood required to "pep up" Don Frederic's outspoken dressage pedigree. Carefully selected jumpingblood is the best and only way to prevent pure dressage lines from weakening and fading over generations with respect to impulsion (power from behind) and strength in the back.

                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                   Downtown, full sibling to Don Frederic
                                                                                                            www.stall-wedermann.de
Starting my research on Don Frederic's damline I was delighted to come across an old acquaintance right away:
in 2005 the evenly impressive Downtowm, full sibling to Don Frederic, was licensed in Westfalia and gained the title "Premium Stallion". He was sold to the Nijhoff Team in the Netherlands. Meanwhile Downtown is said to be sold on to Brasil. Downtown was different in colour and of even sharper frame, suggesting a slightly higher influence of Don Frederico over both their common damsire Wolkentanz I. Apart from colour Don Frederic might be stamped by his sire Don Frederico, too, but knowing Wolkentanz I as a lesser flamboyant but nevertheless reliable carrier of the Weltmeyer genetics one may assume that Don Frederic also resembles a lot of his damsire.
Time to have a closer look at his damline!

Most damlines are worth having a closer look at from a couple of generations backwards. The damline of Don Frederic is no exception to this rule and surprised me right away as this is the damline of foundation stallion Argentan (by Absatz x Wohlan), best known to be the sire of legendary Argentinus, as well as the damline of Emma Hindle’s olympic dressage horse Lancet (by Wenzel x Shogun x Absatz x Wohlan).
To only name a few more licensed stallions descending from this damline the following names might sound familiar:
Feininger by Falkland, Frenchman I and II by Falkland, Cent by Carenzo, Destano by Desperados x Brentano II, Western Star by Wenzel, Hochfein by His Highness x Feiner Stern and many more. The entire damline table to be viewed here also displays many successful sport horses and an outstanding amount of hannoverian show and auction horses, most notable Clark Gable by Calido x Accord II, competing in international S class jumping, and Chocolata by Contendro x Accord II, who made it into the final ring of the Hannoverian Herward Van Der Decken (Elite) Mare Inspection Show last year 2011.  
 
However, even the near family of Don Frederic and Downtown has a lot to offer. Their common sibling Diva Larina by Don Larino is successfully competing in dressage class L and M already at young age, she turned six last year. Their common dame What A Feeling by Wolkentanz I shows four kids having been successfully registered as sport horses. Grandmother La Le Lou by Liberty M scored twice herself in young horse dressage classes age 3 before she was turned into a broodmare. Third dame Winnie Lou by Wenzel was also shown in sport by the breeder’s family and shows quite some impressive track record in young horse dressage classes age 3 and 4, competing successfully at the Hannoverian Riding Horse Championship in 1988 ranking 5^th and 7^th.
Winni Lou was born 1984 and twelve (!) of her kids competed in sport successfully, two of them still being actively registered today:
a son by Don Larino and a daughter by Rosario, both competing successfully in dressage.

While diligent analyses of any given damline sure provides for hints why a stallion comes along the way he does (defining phenotype via genotype), any damline analyses can only give a carefully considered hint to the necessary but vague assumption how the stallion in question might produce himself – or if he doesn’t produce himself at all.
As the best stallion in the world is useless unless he is bred to the right mare.
So I found myself in trouble trying to identify the right match to Don Frederic – the first valuable hint came from a friend who knows Don Frederic’s breeder and damline and her very first suggestion was:
“He needs (refined) mares where he can add his own frame!”
Actually this was the key note that I had been missing so far in order to have my gutt feeling work with respect to my own mares… Intuition is the major part of succesful breeding and I would never breed any of my mares without the necessary intuition driving such cross.
Indeed, there was a good reason intuition had been lacking so far since all I thought of were my proven broodmares Fabrice, Fannie Mae and Ionia xx. And none of them had “clicked” when I thought of Don Frederic.
Fabrice could have been “clicking” but there were a few details that kept me from seeing her with Don Frederic. However, hearing my friend mention “frame” and at the same time associating lesser frame and “refined” it clicked big time – here she was:
Bunny, Fabrice’s beautiful daughter by Belissimo and of course I hadn’t had her on my radar screen since Bunny only turns three this year and is still playing in the mare herd while all my conscious thoughts were playing round my proven broodmares...
In my head Don Ferderic and Bunny immediately merged to become the perfect match and while this was an intuitive merge in the first place I couldn’t think of any better match the more I came to consider the idea over and over again:

While Bunny is unproven herself in any respect (as a broodmare and under saddle - I plan on taking her to our Münster barn this spring to mount and train her all by myself, just the way I did it with her sister La Jeanne before) I have been searching for a stallion to breed her to all those months before. I would have prefered to breed her to a rock solid proven stallion like Don Schufro, but 2.200 Euros are a lot of money to be spent in the first place and private breeding funded by monthly salary needs to be held within a reasonable economic frame. Bunny's latest development suggests that she is a typical daughter the way her mother Fabrice stamps her get:
highly noble (refined) horses of perfect exterieur harmony and visible "lines" - meaning:
distinctive exterieur and a well outlined profile of lighter frame. Just like La Jeanne. And even though Fabrice provides for size (her first son "Happy" by Quattro B grew well beyond 1,70 m and even La Jeanne has grown up to 1,70m at four years of age) all her kids are "light" - so is Bunny. So is her full sibling Brisant turning two this year, having turned into a most promising stallion prospect in professional hands, hopefully to be seen at the Hannoverian licensing later this year.
Bunny is the best foal I ever bred - reason I kept her as a future broodmare to build my breeding program on in coming years. Her elasticitiy and impulsion can be found in Brisant, too. Already two good enough reasons to believe that the quality of both of them is not a coincidence and neither of them are end products but suggest that these features are gentically manifested and ideally being consoldiated even in further breedings. If only they meet on the right "nick breeding".
Don Frederic could be such "nick breeding" to Bunny. At least from a visible (phenotypical) point of view:
Both complement each other in lines and profile, neither of them needs to add to the other with respect to gaites, impulsion or naturally given functionality. They both have it all, starting from a well functioning hindleg given by a naturally closed up hind end reaching UNDER the horse rather than falling out behind, thus transferring the impulsion through the entire horse, loose and naturally swung through the body. Both are of naturally given uphill tendency, too.
A perfect match with nothing to loose on either side if worst comes to worst and just the way I had identified my very first breeding of Fabrice to Quattro years ago. My concept of breeding back than was driven by a very simple but yet so true philosophie called:
strengthen strengthes.        
Nothing to loose at all.
At least nothing to loose given that both parties involved are of unproven (genotypical) breeding background so far and I am well aware of these risks. But you have to start somewhere and even the most carefully considered breeding still remains an art and cannot be defined scientifically. 
Thus, I can only hope for my damline analyses of Don Frederic proving to be somewhat valuable and at the same time rely on beautiful Bunny, a filly I bred myself whose damline genetics I know inside out - all the pros and cons included within that damline.
I am well aware of any given risks. Yet, you only know afterwards if a certain breeding is crowned by success, no matter how proven both parties involved might be. After all, breeding is an art, not a sience. And the major key to this art is intuition and a healthy gutt feeling.
And my gutt feeling tells me that breeding Bunny to Don Frederic is intuitively right.  
And I can't wait to have her here in Münster, dealing with her, handling her, mounting her and finally breed her.
Pleasant anticipation at it's best, already looking forward to an impressive chestnut foal next spring... 

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