Foundation Sire: Caletto II

Welcome to Foundation Fridays, a new feature for Warmblood Stallions of North America. Each Friday we will be featuring a foundation sire - one who has been influential in the development of warmblood breeds. We pull from the incredible archive of The Horse Magazine, published by Chris Hector of Australia. Thank you, Chris, for permission to draw on your expertise!

Caletto II
1976 – 1984
169cm Brown
Breeder: Klaus Martin Both, Obendeich
Stood at: Woerden 1981-1983, Wellinghausen 1983

Despite only standing for four seasons, Caletto II may well be the most important son of the jumping super-sire, Cor de la Bryère. In the WBFSH top fifty rankings for 1991-2000, Caletto II ranked 16th thanks to the jumping efforts of 14 progeny.

Considered the perfect Holsteiner type, Caletto II was a sensation right from the start. He was acclaimed Champion of his stallion licensing in 1980. He also showed wonderful jumping technique, and later proved this in the showjumping ring with Herbert Blöcker, where the stallion won many tests for riding horses.

At a regional show in September 1984, while waiting to go into the arena after being proclaimed best in the show, Caletto II reared up, fell over and broke his neck!

He was described thus in the Stallion Book of the Holsteiner Warmblood Breed by Dr. Dietrich Rossow: “Significant stallion of Thoroughbred, performance type. Harmonious and deep bodied. Smooth topline, slightly herring gutted. Muscling not well let down through the haunches. Clean, correct legs and feet. Good walk and trot, absolutely marvelous canter. Very good jumper. Extraordinary form over fences, brilliant with knees. Good temperament.”

As a sire, Rossow was equally enthusiastic: “Improvement sire! Offspring mainly of his type with Cor de la Bryère hindquarter. All are performance horses. Five approved sons, 91 approved daughters.”

According to The Holsteiner Horse whose authors include the current Holstein breeding director, Thomas Nissen: “He was lighter, more elegant than his brother and passed that on to his offspring – even when paired with mares of heavy build. That is what differentiates him from Caletto I, who produced his best progeny with Thoroughbred mares. Many generations later, the pedigree of Caletto II still stands for quality and aristocracy.”

The great a loss of Caletto II is shown by the fact that he ranked 16th in the standings for 1990-2000. His daughter Classic Touch was one of the greats, winning individual Gold at the age of eight at the Barcelona Games with Ludger Beerbaum. The Caletto II daughter Operette was ridden successfully by Jan Tops at Nations Cups at Barcelona, Rotterdam, Calgary and Aachen. Other top jumpers include Campari (Carsten Otto-Nagel), Cassiano Joter (Karina Johannpeter) and Cascadeur who competed in the 1994 WEG with Bo Kristoffersen.

Caletto II’s son Caretino jumped internationally with Bo Kristoffersen and later with Ludger Beerbaum, and is himself the sire of Caretano Z, who was leading the 2000 TNT Sires of the World Standings when he tragically died following colic complications.

Caletto II sired 112 registered Holsteiner mares, many of who feature on the pedigrees of successful horses, such as Cento (Capitol), Lasandos (Landlord), C-Indoctro (Captiol), Cassini I and II (Capitol), Clarimo (Clearway), Casino (Capitol), Lord Calidos (Lord), and Lerano (Lord). Eleven sons of Caletto II were licensed in Holstein, the most important being Caretino I.

To read this article as it was published on The Horse Magazine website - along with full pedigree of Caletto II, click here. The publisher and creator of this incredible resource, Christopher Hector, is the author of The Making of the Warmblood Horse.

There are several stallion descendants of Caletto II in North America. Click on the following links to read about each of the ones on WarmbloodStallionsNA.com:

Imothep

Victor E

HH Himself

Darthus

Dakota VDL

Cabardino

Foundation Sire: Absatz

We're starting a new feature for Warmblood Stallions of North America: Foundation Fridays! Each Friday we will be featuring a foundation sire - one who has been influential in the development of warmblood breeds. It's something we did for years in the WSNA print magazine. As with most of those articles, we pull from the incredible archive of The Horse Magazine, published by Chris Hector of Australia. Thank you, Chris, for permission to draw on your expertise!

Absatz

1960 166 cm

Breeder: Wilhelm Brunkhorst

Abglanz’s influence in Hanover was most felt through his son Absatz, who was out of the Hanoverian mare Landmoor, who on her sire’s side traces to the famous English Thoroughbred, Perfectionist xx, and on her dam’s side from the Shagya stallion Shagya XVII-12, who came to Trakehnen in 1925. Absatz was the sire of stallions such as Argentan, Arsenik, Akzent I and II, Admiral I and II, Aktuell and Aderla. All told, Absatz sired 40 Approved sons, 605 competition horses and 142 Verden auction horses.

Thanks to the magic of frozen semen, he continued to sire foals long after his death, and it is rumored that a vintage cache of Absatz semen is still "cellared" at Celle. Absatz’s modern influence is perhaps most strongly felt through Weltmeyer, who is out of Anka by Absatz.

When asked in an interview in 2000 about the most influential stallions in his time at Celle – which stretches from 1973 to 1979 as assistant to Dr. von Stenglin, and from 1979 to 2007 as the director of the stud – Dr Burchard Bade paid tribute to the refugees from the East:

“We must say that there has been a very big influence of the Trakehner horses. That, and the selection of our broodmares. Our broodmares went from 34,000 in 1947, to 1960 when we had 4,000 broodmares. That is a big opportunity for selection, to get rid of the old types. And during that time we had the very good chance to use the Trakehner stallion Abglanz and his son, Absatz, and the grandsons, and great-grandsons. They had a very big influence on the ‘type’ of the Hanoverian horse, and in riding quality as well – although in Hanover, I think we had good quality in riding horses before then, but to better the type, the Trakehner horses were very important. In Celle in 1949, there arrived 39 Trakehnen stallions from eastern Prussia.”

To read this article as it was published on The Horse Magazine website - along with full pedigree of Absatz, click here. The publisher and creator of this incredible resource, Christopher Hector, is the author of The Making of the Warmblood Horse.

There are several stallion descendants of Absatz in North America. Click on the following links to read about each of the ones on WarmbloodStallionsNA.com:

Allerbester

Apiro

ES Donavan

Rosall

Shine (Alesi) 

Eva-Maria Broomer: "I am a Breeder"

Eurodressage.com last summer posted a wonderful article by Eva-Maria Broomer, called "I am a Breeder," and it's worth a read. Eva-Maria is from Germany and now lives in England, attending Manchester University. It must be interesting being a breeder and also a student, and she's also an equine photographer!

She describes breeding as "a special brand of madness," and muses on what made her decide to pursue it. "...There are a myriad of things I could do (and would, in fact, love to do) if I didn’t breed horses. Going on holidays, sleeping, and actually riding are just a few of them." And yet she breeds horses, and has no wish to give it up.

Eva-Marie talks about the "high" cost of foals, the pride she takes in her mares ("They represent choices I made, like an artist would choose a colour palette and canvas"), and ultimately, what makes her proud of all who breed.

Click here to read the full article.

Six Horses Cloned From One Mare Help Rider Win Polo Match

Cloning horses is not a thing of the future. I didn't see this article when it came out, over a year ago, but it's quite amazing. 

Six cloned horses help rider win prestigious polo match, an article on ScienceMag.org, written by Jon Cohen and posted on 13 December 2016.

Katrin Hinrichs is a veterinarian at Texas A&M University in College Station, and she cloned a previous horse that Cambiaso rode. The article states, "Hinrichs says breeding a great stallion to a great mare is still the best way to make better horses. 'Cloning is a sideways move,' she says. 'It doesn’t improve the breed.' But polo players don’t necessarily want to breed better horses, she says. 'You’re playing polo to win.'"

There are many issues surrounding clones, and clones in competition especially, but this statement clarifies one of the basic and most important ones. 

I think cloning is of interest to breeders because - while the aim of both is to produce a great horse - the aim of breeding is to create a better breed as well. With breeding, the goal is to produce better and better horses with each generation, and if we are careful about how we define "better," the whole breed will also improve. With cloning - the breed stands still. 

Highly regarded polo competitor Adolfo Cambiaso competed in the Argentine Open using six different clones of a single mare named Cuartetera, and he won the event.

Contefino Offspring: Recent Success

Royal Oaks Farm would like to share an update on Holsteiner stallion Contefino’s offspring, who have been doing well recently. Contefino is a Holsteiner with an International jumping record, who earned a 10 for jumping ability and a 10 for technique at his approvals in Germany. He seems to be passing it on!

Contefina, ridden by Ashley Bond, was Five-Year-Old Young Jumper Champion for 2017 with her owner/rider. 

Cadillac, ridden by Ben Ebeling. Ben, son of Jan and Amy Ebeling, rode Cadillac in his first Grand Prix at Thermal.

European-bred Contefino 6, shown here competing at Tryon, looks a lot like his sire. He is ridden by Harold Chopping.

Introducing a 2017 model, Casanova MI, bred by Mahaffey International.

Please click here to visit Contefino’s Stallion Profile page for Contefino videos and information.

Thank you, Oldenburg SSA Stallions!

Friends of the Oldenburg Horse Breeder Society would like to thank all the stallion owners and frozen brokers who participated in this year's auction to benefit our awards program.  While you might have missed your opportunity to bid this year, do be sure to consider these Oldenburg approved and activated stallions for breeding!

via fresh:  

Banderas
Bliss MF
Checkmate
Debonair MF
Delta Force
Dheputy
Diamo Blue
Duke of Clarence (Weser-Em)
ES Toronto
Fairbanks
Friendscout II
MW Feinermark
Parcival
Pikko del Cerro
Rohmeo
Royal Prinz
Sagnol
Sinatra Song
Sir Gregory
Sternlicht
Tacorde
Valentino 

or via frozen: 

Benidetto
Rocazino
Shakespeare
Supremat
Tantris

For more information go to www.oldenburghorse.net 

Horse & Hound's Seven Things You Always Wanted to Know About Breeding

Britain's Horse & Hound magazine has just published an article to help the general equestrian public understand a little bit more about breeding - and the terminology involved. It covers quite a variety in just seven questions, including what the heck it means when you say a horse is by Stallion I x Stallion II. I never thought of it, but that would be confusing! If you don't know that Stallion II is the damsire, it sounds like you're breeding 2 males! They also tackled the gestation question, giving a conservative range of 320 to 350 days. Someone commented that they knew a Standardbred mare who always went over a year. As we just covered in this article, that's not really outside the normal range.

I like this outreach! Maybe we need to do something similar among riders in North America.

Read the article here: "7 things you always wanted to know about breeding, but were too embarrassed to ask"