GERMANY(by Adriana van Tilburg) Two years ago, the German Federation (FN) initiated a new performance test – an event taking place over three days for four- and five-year-old approved stallions. On the first day, when the stallions arrive, there is a free training session, followed by a mandatory training period under the watchful eye of an evaluation committee, as well as an assessment and a showjumping course under the stallion’s own rider.
The second test day examines rideability with a common vote by the test rider and the discipline expert (dressage, jumping and eventing). The final day is also very interesting for visitors and, during March, four test days were held at different venues throughout Germany.
Verden
This was quite an exciting test, with champions in both the dressage and jumping tests. With the four-year-old dressage stallions it was the KWPN bred Jovian (Apache - Zinith x Tango), bred by the Ten Bosch family, who took home the highest score of 9.01. The ver y pop- ular German Sporthorse- bred Secret (Sezuan - Seline x St. Moritz), bred by Hubert Vogler), finished second with 8.88, ahead of the 2017 Bundeschampion, the Oldenburg-bred Finest Selection (Follow me - Laetizia x Lauries Crusador xx), bred by Heinz-Hermann Leismann, with 8.74. The Oldenburg champion stallion of 2016, Fürst Fabrice (Fürstenball - Casa-blanca x Sandro Hit), bred by Arnold Wegbünder, re- ceived a total score of 8,3.
The five-year-old dressage stallion sport test was won by the Oldenburg-bred For Final (For Romance I - La Martina x Dimaggio), bred by Sarah Kohl, with the final score of 8.2, having already won his sport test in 2017 in Münster. The Trakehner bred Helium (Millennium - Hirse x Induc), bred by Alan Nissen) finished second with 8.15, marginally ahead of the Hanoverian Frascino (Fürst Wilhelm - Danzmusik x Don Frederico), bred by Manfred Zimmermann) with 8,12.
Ten stallions contested the sport test for four-year-old jumping stallions, including three highly decorated champions. However it was the underdog, the Holsteiner-bred Denver (Dinken - Ondia x Lennon, stamm 504), bred by Johann Peter Lass, who celebrated victory with a final note of 9.03. Denver was approved last April in Elmshorn. Second place went to the Hanoverian-bred champion of the Westfalian approvals, Karajan (Kannan - Vilja x Verdi), bred by Werner Schultze, with a final score of 9.02. An interesting detail is that this stallion was auctioned last year for €620,000...
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