By Christopher Hector
Photography: © FEI/Lukasz Kowalski

The Prix St Georges at Aachen this year, was a triumph for Dante Weltino – a stallion I have always loved, always wondered why he wasn’t just a little bit more successful, and always thought I would be happy to send a mare to him.

He was the only stallion with more than one entry in the small tour, and both of them were lovely. The Dutch rider, Denise Nekeman and Kansas STH (out of a Fürst Heinrich mare) was the first to go and paid the penalty for it, with the judges being rather mean, and scoring 64.5 for a very elegant combination.
Second place went to Charlott-Maria Schürmann and the exquisite black mare, Dante’s Pearl (San Amour), 72.088, just behind Frederic Wandres and Quizmaster FRH on 73.97. Quizmaster is by the Quaterback son, Quasar de Charry out of a Velten Third mare.
Dante Weltino was bred by Olaf Bahis, out of his foundation mare, Rihanna, who was by the most successful son of Weltmeyer, Welt Hit II, and out of a mare by the Thoroughbred Noble Roi xx. Dante Weltino is by Danone, very much the product of master breeder Burkhard Wahler. Danone is by the star of Wahler’s Klosterhof Medingen, De Niro, out of Well Done by Weltmeyer, out of a mare by the first of the Hanoverian dressage specialists, Bolero.
Weltmeyer, remember him? Well Dante Weltino, has two crosses of this now largely forgotten stallion. So far Dante Weltino is the sire of 28 approved sons and 11 Grand Prix horses, though none of the sons, or Grand Prix competitors have set the world aflame.
Dante Weltino started 2024 in style, with a Grand Prix win at Liege on a 74. The previous December he had his most lucrative outing, winning €21,000 for a fourth in the Freestyle at Stockholm. His rider throughout his career has been the Swede, Therese Nilshagen, who says: “Dante’s willingness to perform is really second to none. Riding him is pure pleasure. Nature has set him no limits, just like his offspring.”
The five star Grand Prix was a triumph for another Dutch stallion, this time the Jazz son, Johnson, out of a Flemmingh mare. At one stage on the draw there were three of his get in a row: Inoraline W (out of an Amiral mare), Boston STH (out of a Quattro mare) and Jolene (Continue), farther down the list was yet another, Meggle’s Boston (Partout).
Johnson is a controversial stallion. I have friends, who are experienced horse people and top trainers, who won’t have one in their barn, not even a horse out of a Johnson mare, ‘dangerous’ is their assessment. German horse breeder, Hannes Brünning says he tried, because he likes the idea of breeding to a Grand Prix stallion, but eventually gave up on the bay: “I tried him 12 years ago and... phew, really hot. I had two Johnsons out of the dam line of Rubinstein, very easy going, top interior dam line but the foals had too much power, that’s why I am not using him. Normally Johnson is a stallion I would use. As a Grand Prix horse, he has very good offspring, I used him but it was too wild.”
However Hannes is happy to breed to the current flavour of the month in Holland and Germany, the grey stallion, Proud James, who is by Jameson out of a Johnson mare... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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