By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: Sportfotos Lafrentz ,Tessa Pfeil and Peter Llewellyn

Standing as proudly as a Shagya Arab, the Holsteiner stallion Calido I is the second in our series profiling stallions who celebrate their 30th birthday in 2021. Calido I (Cantus - Baroness VII x Coriander, Stamm 5064) had a modest career as a young horse in showjumping, but Maas J. Hell saw his qualities as a stallion and kept him exclusively for breeding. It was an inspired decision!

Bred by Matthias Kahler, the well-known Calido I is currently ranked 74th in the WBFSH top-100 list for showjumping sires, but what is the story behind this grey phenom?

Childhood holidays in Schleswig-Holstein

Matthias Kahler grew up in the German state of Hessen, and every two years travelled with his parents to Schleswig-Holstein for a two-week vacation in St. Peter-Ording. He shared his father’s interest in horses, and as he grew older they started attending the foal brandings organized by the Holsteiner Verband in the area. It was a social gathering of local and foreign breeders who were interested in buying Holsteiner horses. It was also an ideal time to learn about bloodlines and to get to know breeders. So the story of Calido I began with a father and son who became passionate about the Holsteiner horse.
Heinrich and Matthias Kahler are named as being co-breeders, and although Matthias was registered as the official owner of Calido’s dam, Baroness VII, breeding was very much a joint passion. Matthias Kahler recalls: “Baroness VII was bred by Christian Petersen. He had built up the mareline for several generations and almost every horse from this line during that time was bred by Christian Petersen. It was quite a small mareline. Today I live near Cloppenburg, but I come from Hessen.
“A year before we purchased Baroness VII as a foal, we purchased a colt by Capriccio out of the same mother (Kollet, by Roman). This colt was not at the breeder’s farm, so my father became curious and wanted to know more about the mareline and wanted to get to know the foal’s mother. We contacted Christian Petersen and also went to visit with him, which was when we noticed that Kollet had a foal by foot, a filly by Coriander. My father immediately decided to buy her.
“At the time I was quite young, but when I was finished school I started an apprenticeship as a rider with the Kahlke family in Neuendeich (Schleswig-Holstein). I took, Careful (the Capriccio foal), with me and jumped with him in lower classes. He was later approved for ZfDP and became champion in Lentföhrden. Baroness VII also came with me and we presented her in Elmshorn to be registered, where she received good notes. Dr. Nissen congratulated me saying that I had such a super mare. She was very blood-typed and looked like an Arab horse. She was almost black at the time (but turned grey). During my time at Kahlke I grew into the breeding of the Holsteiner horses and did a lot of thinking about finding the right stallion for Baroness VII.
“When I was riding Careful at shows I noticed that the riders of Maas J. Hell were riding the first generation by Cantus. They were appealing to me because they all had an active hindleg, and I liked the type. So I went to study the pedigrees and I thought it was very interesting with the in-breeding to Ramzes x and Cottage Son xx. However, during that time Cantus was not very popular because he was tall and heavy and had no successful offspring as they were still too young. Despite everything I decided to use Cantus for Baroness VII and the resulting foal was Calido I.
“He was born at my parents’ farm in Hessen. He was very light, modern and elegant in type, like his mother. I had him branded at the Holsteiner Verband in Elmshorn through Gerard Muffels. Nobody there believed that he was by Cantus, they thought of many other stallions but not Cantus!.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY LOGGING IN AND RETURNING TO THIS PAGE