Sir Donnerhall
by Sandro Hit x Donnerhall x Feldherr x Grundyman xx
Sir Donnerhall
truly is the most revolutionary breeding in my very personal young and
idealistic breeding program so far - why?
First of all, i have not necessarily been a loyal fan of legendary grand Donnerhall
himself for the simple reason that Donnerhall descends form an old draft horse
damline. Nothing wrong about draft horses as such - just that this simply
doesn't reflect the breeding goal of modern sport horse breeding at all.
Specially when it comes to looking for superiority in damline origin with
respect to sport.
Breeding regress rather than progress in the purest of all kinds when looked at
from a purely genetic point of view.
Reason why many of the Donnerhall kids and often grand (grand) kids (those that
noone talks about) lack athleticism and type. One can't blame them for
that - it is in their genes. And well consolidated in there, too.
However, more than 70 licensed sons and uncounted State Premium Mares plus lots
and lots of well performing sport horses do provide for a solid basis to refer
to Donnerhall as a true stamp stallion. And this is not only true for kids
resulting from a breed to Pik Bube - probably the most popular and best known
cross when talking about Donnerhall kids. The most proven cross, too. Nick
breeding?
Oh well. Nick breedings are hard to come by. Usually they owe their existence
to given circumstances rather than well thought of breeding philosophies. In the
case of Donnerhall and Pik Bube those circumstances are obvious:
Pik Bube was the proven sire at Gröhnwohld Hof back then and Donnerhall used to
be the test-stallion to check out on mares if they were in the desired heat in
order to become inseminated... usually by Pik Bube. If they weren't sired by Pik
Bube already. In that case Donnerhall was given a chance - simply since he was
available. No more, no less. Times were different back then and it did take some
time for Donnerhall to finally step out of Pik Bube's shade.
After all, Donnerhall did sire valuable progeny not only out of Pik Bube mares.
And the most bespoken grandson of these today is most certainly Sir Donnerhall.
I wrote down my thoughts about his sir's bloodline "mistery" year's ago: the slightly
different Sandro Hit story.
The affinity to me lies in the (hopefully...) genetically mainfested double- (if
not single...) jumping orientation in the case of Sandro Hit.
And it will hopefully double up or manifest when breeding to his son Sir
Donnerhall.
So here we are, speaking of damlines lacking recognition:
In the case of Sir Donnerhall it is exactly the somewhat "doubtful" damline that
inspires me most - as the holsteiner history of it (even though not to be
tracked down beyond certain generations and as such having caused resistance and
doubt with respect to Sir Donnerhall's approval in the first place) hopefully
provides for reliable sources of a certain double orientation with respect to
well manifested jumping talent and canter quality as such.
Sir Donnerhall's second dam Contenance is a daughter of
Fleming, a son of Farnese, a truely old-holstein performance stallion of
doubtless recognition. Farnese provided for proven sport horses of excellence
long before the necessary refinery influence became important in the holstein
breed. Not only did he sire horses of unlimited jump but most reliably they
would also show gaites far above average - dressage horses, even though they
weren't bred for it. Most popular example of our current breeding history is the
outstanding Landadel - performance genes at their best and the one stallion who
was "let go" by the Holsteiners obviously for reasons of misconception:
had Holstein known what Landadel accomplished in Oldenburg - they had never let
him go.
Nowadays Landadel is known to be the best son of Landgraf I and this is
after all owed to his dam by Farnese, too. In Oldenburg Landadel not only stands
for jumping horses but in many cases for dressage horses, too. Most prominent
example certainly Stedinger (by Sandro Hit x Landadel x Futuro), and as
coincidence has it:
yet again another son of Sandro Hit...
A
staircase wit of history?
Not at all, I'ld say.
Contenance, the above mentioned granddam of Sir Donnerhall, descends from a dam
by Moltke. Moltke is yet another grand old Holsteiner performance sir. The
falling damline shows the thoroughbred stallion Grundyman xx in fourth
generation. A stallion, whose influence and stamp simply can't be denied even in
today's progeny by Sir Donnerhall. As it simply can't be a sheer coincidence
that the kids of Sir Donnerhall come along even more refined than those of his
fellow compagnion Samarant, a stallion who shows t.b. influence (via Andrang xx)
already in third generation, yet, he doesn't stamp his kids in such a refined
way Sir Donnerhall does. Quiet obviously Sir Donnerhall seems to be able to
stamp his get in a rather unique and distinguishable refined way despite the
somewhat heavy genes his damsir Donnerhall often provides for in different
crosses.
Countless premium foals and show titles so far do speak for themselves.
After having seen some foals by Sir Donnerhall descending from diverse breedings
(sometimes out of mares I would have considered "obsolete" at best) I simply
have to admit:
this stallion does stamp his get and passes on his heritage a lot better and
more dominant than one would have thought.
His foals are of noblesse and
swing, well carried trott and push and usually doubtless canter.
Specially the latter does confirm my assumption that it might in fact be his
somewhat unproven and unheard of holstein based damline that simply provides for
a certain kind of genetically manifested heritage to count on when breeding to
Sir Donnerhall.
And if - on top of that - his foals will also be able to jump with desirable
scope and skill, well, then Sir Donnerhall might indeed be the kind of stallion
nowadays sport horse breeding desires:
a stallion who provides for multitalented athletic horses - exactly what the
current market is searching for!
All this is strongly backed up by the tiny negligibility that Sir Donnerhall
delivered an SPT result unheard of so far: A dressage index of 163 points has been unreached so far.
Of course he won his test by a clear margin. Remarkable in this context is his
visible jumping talent (114 index points) supporting his all-in-all score of 151
that finally made him the doubtless winner of the test.
Test riders gave a 9,5 for ridability .
However...
If there is light, there is shade, too.
In this case the shade is shed by the fact that statistics, specially with
respect to SPTs, are doubtful in the first place unless you know how much canon
food was there to make up for below average rankings in the scores. As the
scores of SPTs are derived from the mean and the bigger the number of below
average participants the higher the score of the shining winner...
As such, my very personal bottom line when breeding Sir Donnerhall to
Fannie Mae is this:
Fannie had an outstanding MPT herself (and there are no doubts with respect to
how these scores were gained as I was attending at the test and I do know my
mares's qualities) and she did prove that she does compare well with her full
sibling's qualities (Fabrice and
Fair Play):
Fannie's quality is not owed to a coincidence but a result of proven heritage.
If any, Fannie could come along slightly more typey and a little refined...
Thus, Sir Donnerhall does not need to improve anything in her, he is simply
required to only maintain what's there. If any, he is welcome to refine Fannie's
foal in his very special manner. No more, no less. Requirements asked from a
stallion of such format I feel realistic to deal with.
...
Three years later:
Meanwhile Fannie has had two foals by Sir Donnerhall,
Sansibar and Sawadee, both of them high
quality foals leaving nothing open to wish for. Evidence of that statement is
obvious as I had never bred Fannie back to Sir Donnerhall again hadn't it been
for the amazing quality of Sansibar in the first place and the fact that he sold
to Paul Schockemöhle himself, not even three weeks old...
Sawadee and Sansibar, despite full siblings, turned out to be completely
different foals for as long as I had the chance to see them grow - however, they
did have their common features with respect to shape and face in youngest age,
hindleg leverage and gaites as such. Both of them have a super walk but that is
certainly owed to Fannie, too. Front legs and length of neck was the most
obvious feature not in common and I can't wait to get to see them again once
they are both matured and what they might have left in common then or how they
differ...
However, I was lucky to get to see many Sir Donnerhall kids from his first two
years of breeding, meanwhile the eldest ones turn four and are well to be judged
under saddle:
type and shape used to be his very special trademark as a foal maker, it does
maintain to be his trademark even at matured age:
You can tell a Sir Donnerhall kid from any other horse around for it's noblesse,
longer shaped neck and nape, face, finer topline and longer lighter lines as
such.
From all those many Sandro Hit sons and their get that I have come across in the
past years I would say Sir Donnerhall is the one who clearly differs and stands
out with respect to stamping his get in his very special way. Question of taste
rather than a question of quality in the first place, but certainly unique.
Ridability seems to be very obvious, they look inviting to me to ride them along
myself. I do value that as a certain feature owed to his grandsir, Donnerhall.
And even though in the meantime I have become very critical with respect to the
heritage and influence of his sir Sandro Hit, hindleg activity and stepping
under is something that can be found in Sir Donnerhall's offspring as a
naturally given dower, despite the long cannon bone he does pass on. But no such
thing like "made" hindlegs or sheer "activity" lacking carriage. They do seem to
function naturally. If they will be able to bet "set down" once collective work
starts is yet to be seen.
As a matter of fact, specially in this current second winter of his crop around,
I have come across some overly delightful horses of swing, naturally carried,
uphill, close to being perfect - I found myself giving standing ovations to
them.
Funny enough though:
many of these descend from jumping damlines, mainly the Holstein "L" (Ladykiller
xx), and even more so:
most of these were grey...
It made me smile all over as this might set grounds for two things:
1. my very personal initial theorie that it is the holstein damline that makes
up for Sir Donnerhall in the first place migth as well prove true:
there's got to be a reason the most favourable side of his heritage does seem to
double up on furter (holstein) jumping genes...
2. I can't think of any better man but Paul Schockemöhle himself, the man who
made the world breed "black" in the first place, to work on a concept convincing
the world that time has come to now start breeding grey instead...
Would I breed to Sir Donnerhall again?
I certainly would.
I would even go so far and predict that from all those licensed sons by Sandro
Hit (far above 100 so far) it will probably be Sir Donnerhall to step into his
father's shoes and take over the leading position of the Sandro Hit line in the
future. And I dare to say that future has already commenced.
