BY SALLY REID
PHOTOGRAPHY: CORNEGE PHOTOGRAPHY; CREDIT YOUR VIEW PHOTOGRAPHY
Each year, the New Zealand Warmblood Association awards its top performers in dressage, showjumping, and eventing, and in 2025 two of tjem were sired by the same horse – Euro Sport Centavos (Escudo I).
Before profiling the individual winners, ES Centavos deserves his own spotlight, and maybe now full international attention.
ES Centavos is a German Hanoverian, bred by Heinz Schütte, born in 2004 and imported to New Zealand as a three-year-old by Claudia, Vicki and Peter Hay of Euro Sport Horses. Since his arrival here his status has risen from “exciting new prospect”, to “sire of choice” for many breeders. His long list of champion progeny includes numerous national title-holders as well as international stars in both jumping and eventing.
The stallion was a top performer himself, competing internationally at 1m60. He is from the Hanoverian family Schridde 261, out of a Staatsprämie Argentinus daughter, Annabel, and has the influential Absatz on both sides of his pedigree. ES Centavos has four-star (the highest possible) stallion ranking with the NZWA.
His 2015 son, Double J Typhoon, who is out of a mare by Voltaire II (Voltaire x Nimmerdor), is also making his mark as a sire and a performer. He was a champion seven-year-old and is now jumping at Grand Prix level.
Horses of Distrinction 2025
Dressage: RM Freedom (Fugato - Macarthur Santa Ana x San Rubin II), an eight-year-old mare bred by Debbie and Peter Barke, Rotorua.
This elegant mare, who is just eight, is showing all the promise of her international bloodlines. She was bred by husband and wife Peter and Debbie Barke of RM Stud in Rotorua, and is ridden by Debbie.
Debbie herself was born in Kenya but was educated and worked in the UK, while Peter is a fifth-generation Kiwi. The couple have been involved with New Zealand dressage and breeding for more than two decades.
RM Freedom was the reserve national champion at Medium 5A in March, missing out on the win by a small margin. She is now having wins at Advanced level. “She is a very special mare from a mareline that has produced some lovely horses,” says Debbie Barke. “We are currently training and competing three others, including a six-year-old full brother, RM Floki.
“Her dam is a mare we imported from Australia, McArthur Santa Ana – known as ‘Ruby’ – and her sire is the late Fugato SW, who produced seven foals for us.
“We were keen to use an ‘F’-line stallion over Ruby as she has Sandro Hit and Rubinstein, and we had done the ‘D’-line cross previously. Foundation was a stallion we liked but understood his frozen semen could be a bit ‘average’, and we really liked Fürst Heinrich. So, when Sterling Warmbloods brought in Fugato it was perfect for us. He was also a modern, elegant and smaller type and this mare line throws a little bit on the large side.”
Fugato (Foundation - Wildrose x Furst Heinrich) passed his Oldenburg under-saddle licensing in 2016, prior to his auction, was imported to New Zealand by Dermot and Sheena Ross...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE ONLINE EDITION OF BREEDING NEWS
