PLEASE NOTE TO SEE THIS ARTICLE IN FULL, COMPLETE WITH THE GRAPHICS READ THE ONLINE EDITION.

By Christopher Hector
Graphics: Gemma Alexander

Indeed, the numbers in the brackets are last year’s ranking, and we now see that there’s only one newcomer to the top 10 – Verdi.
Chacco-Blue reminds us yet again, how lucky the showjumping world was when Alwin Schockemöhle, then a member of the Oldenburg studbook, went to Normandy to look for a stallion. Alwin asked the Holstein breeding director, Maas J. Hell to join him on the trip, and together they visited Xavier Ribard, one of the first French breeders to stand a private stallion in competition to the State Stud department.
Years later, Ribard remembered the visit: “They asked me if I could show them some other stallions. I had another four, which I showed them on the side of the road, as there were stables only 10 kilometres away. They immediately pointed at Cor de la Bryère and asked if he was for sale. Because I had just received the advice to have him gelded by the director of the Haras, I sold him there and then.” (Article by Pascal Renauldon, Z Magazine, February 1998)
Chacco-Blue is by Chambertin, which makes him a great great grandson of Cor de la Bryère, while Chambertin’s dam has another cross of the French import; she is an own daughter of ‘Corde’. Chacco-Blue is out of Contara, by Contender (another Corde grandson). Contara is out of Godahra by the Thoroughbred stallion, Godavari xx, who bred in Mecklenburg, where he produced one 1m50 jumper, one 1m40 and three 1m10.
Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst rode Chacco-Blue throughout most of his career at Schockemöhle's, and he thinks that mare line was a key element in the stallion's genetic make-up: “I think the outstanding feature of the mother line is the granddam, a half-bred mare, Godahra II, by the Thoroughbred, Godavari xx (Tudor Minstrel xx line),” Alois told me. “In the Eastern part of Germany she was very popular, she used to win a lot of 1m30, 1m40 classes. She must have had really good sporting spirit, because she was winning and many people were talking about her. She was small (167 cms) but she had a big heart and she was a fighter. I guess this is a very strong part of Chacco-Blue’s bloodline. I believe that if you see the offspring of Chacco-Blue, almost 99% have a super technique, a big heart, a good work attitude, and this might come from this very strong grandmother.”.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY LOGGING IN AND RETURNING TO THIS PAGE