By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: Peter Llewellyn
One name came up regularly when looking at the 103 showjumping horses at the World Championships in Herning – that of Quidam de Revel (Jalisco B - Dirka x Nankin), bred by Amaury de Broglie. In fact, one in three horses had Quidam in their pedigrees...
Either directly or via his sons and grandsons such as Quinar, Nabab de Reve, Quo Vadis I, Quintero, FRH Quaid, or Quaprice Bois Margot.
Having the World Championships in Denmark offered a great opportunity to talk to countryman Thomas Velin about the influence of Quidam de Revel in breeding. After his father, Flemming, acquired Quidam de Revel, Thomas competed with the stallion at the European Championships for young riders in Millstreet in 1994 and in 1996 in Klagenfurt Messehalle. In 1997 the pair competed in the European Championships for senior riders in Mannheim (56th individually, team 12th).
A major role for stallions
Stallions play a major role in the career of Thomas Velin as a rider. He says: “I like stallions. I only ride stallions. At home this is very easy. There is no screaming and it is very quiet. The things that are hard will become easy with them when you make things black and white. What they are allowed to do today they are allowed to do tomorrow. Our stallions are also active in breeding; we don’t have so many at the moment. I still have my old Godsend du Reverdy (Quidam de Revel - Venue de la Lande x Grandeur, bred by Elevage du Reverdy). Grim St Clair (Laudanum xx - Herbe d’Auzay x Invincible, bred by Claude Charnay) died. I also have Bolero de Beaufour (Nabab de Reve - Posy de Beaufour x Diamant de Semilly, bred by Eric Levallois).
“With the stallions we made a business as a studfarm. With Quidam de Revel this was very easy as this stallion was very popular with the breeders. I have blood from Quidam de Revel in almost all my horses. I am always interested in his offspring. Now I’ve bought two horses from Simon Delestre. A Quidam de Revel x Cento and a Quidam de Revel x Calato, both bred by Philippe Berthol. The one I am starting here in Herning has the blood of Quidam de Revel through his father Nabab de Reve. I also have a Cornet Obolensky x Quidam de Revel, a fantastic stallion. In the individual competition of Herning there was a rider from China with a direct descendant of Quidam de Revel. It is unbelievable seeing the influence of of the sire line of Quidam de Revel, his sire Jalisco B, and his sire Almé during this world equestrian games.
“Quidam de Revel was a fantastic jumper and maybe an even better sire. The offspring of Quidam de Revel are still modern and he still breeds fantastic show jumpers. Why would you use a son of a stallion if the father is still available? It is the same with Thoroughbreds. Now you can use Frankel xx, but when his sire Galileo xx was still alive you had better use him. Frankel xx now still has to prove that he is a better breeding stallion than Galileo xx; maybe, maybe not... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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