By Adriana van Tilburg
Lars Nieberg became a household showjumping name during his Olympic years, especially in the saddle of well-known and popular breeding sire, For Pleasure, so his decades-long breeding perspective has developed during his time as a rider, a horse dealer, as well as a breeder.
In Part 1 of this interview published last month in our January 2023 issue, Lars Nieberg related his first experience as a breeder in his teens, with the mare Pistazie, that was originally acquired for him to compete.
Q What were the special qualities of your Hanoverian mare Pistazie (1975: Pikoer - Glosse x Gotthard, breeder: Cord Flathmann), and were were the best horses you bred from her?
It is difficult to say something about her qualities because I was 14 at the time. We purchased her as a foal and, back then, I was also riding ponies, but it was the plan that Pistazie was going to be my horse for competition. We started her as a three year old under saddle, small jumps, and her free jumping looked good, through the eyes of what I knew back then. She was then injured when she was turned out in the field so we could only breed from her. At first we were very sad, but in the end it worked out very well for me. I didn’t know at the time how good she was as a broodmare.
You also have to understand that there was no artificial insemination 40 years ago. We had to go to the local studfarm. From one of her first offspring was a horse sold to the USA and later won a World Cup qualificatier. Later I used stallions by her from other breeding regions, like the Oldenburg-bred stallion Freiherr and the Holsteiner-bred stallion Lacros. I bred three mares by Lacros out of her and rode one up to 1m40 (Lucie/aka Loreen 54, bred by Alfred Feissel). I kept her sisters for breeding which is how I started to build up my breeding program.
For the following generation I used Le Cou Cou (Landadel - Tamarona x Goldstern), For Pleasure (Furioso II - Gigantin x Grannus), and Contagio (Colman - Odyssee II x Lordanos), for example. I have Pistazie now in the fifth generation, and still breed with 10 mares out of this line. This line is for me a guarantee for producing good horses. The problem is that there comes a moment that I have to sell horses. You don’t see all these horses here in Germany in sport. There are horses competing in the USA, South-Africa, everywhere, and I’ve lost sight of them, but this is my foundation mareline in my breeding program. I have a lot of passion for this line. I can say that because of Pistazie I became passionate about breeding and not just about riding and competition. From breeding the mares, sleeping in the stable to wait for the foals, helping with giving birth, starting the horses under saddle etc.
Q Regarding For Pleasure, how would you characterize his qualities, and what is he capable of passing to his offspring?
He gave for sure his soundness to his offspring and I find that also very important. He didn’t pass on very dominant other traits. His heredity was very diverse. There have been some quite outstanding For Pleasure offspring. For Keeps (out of Graphik x Graphit, 1m60, bred by Gestüt Wäldershausen) was one of the better offspring but, unfortunately, he was injured when he was nine years old. Also Fit for Fun (out of Fetzi x Cabriano, 1my70, bred by Sigrid Crome-Sperling), and Flora de Mariposa (out of Adeline [BWP] x Powerlight, 1m60, bred by Herman de Brabander), are outstanding For Pleasure offspring... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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