By Thomas Bach Jensen
Photography: ridehesten.com
The dates are March 5-8, 2020, the location is MCH Messecenter Herning where the Danish Warmblood Stallion Show will take place. This immense and unique show attracted more than 67,000 visitors last year, and presents. a striking unification of horse breeding and horse sport.
The stallion licensing, young horse championship, competition classes, and gala shows take place in three different arenas, of which Jyske Bank Boxen is the largest and seats up 9,400 people.
A total of 900 horses, plus dressage and showjumping riders from more than 20 countries are expected to move into the MCH Messecenter Herning in early March, where a five-star dressage competition has been added to the show concept and may cause the number of visitors to rise even further from last year’s 67,211.
For more than a decade Danish Warmblood has been considered one of the more important studbooks when it comes to breeding dressage horse, and in recent years Danish Warmblood stallions have taken on a significant role on the international dressage breeding scene. Young DWB stallions Zonik, Sezuan and Hesselhøj Donkey Boy have collectively sired five of the nine medalists at the World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Ermelo last year, and they seem to act as a sign of the times: The growing influence of Danish Warmblod.
For those who want to discover the new stars of the future, the Danish Warmblood Stallion Show in Herning is an absolute must.
Photo 1: Once of the many highlights at the stallion show in Herning is the unveiling of the prize winner ‘Danish Warmblood Stallion of the Year’ – a prize that has been granted every year since 1998 to a DWB-graded stallion that has made a significant impact in the breeding of dressage or jumping horses of high quality. Stallion of the year in 2019 was the Danish Warmblood dressage stallion Skovens Rafael, by Glock’s/Blue Hors Romanov x Blue Hors Don Schufro, bred by Kirsten B. Hansen and Jens Lund Pedersen and owned by Lotte Lindgren, Lotte (rider) and Per Skaerbaek. Among Rafael’s well-known offspring is the six-year-old Swedish champion stallion Springbank who will be shown by Helgstrand stable rider Severo Jurado Lopez (ESP). Now the big question is: Who will be the next stallion of the year, and are we looking at a jumping or a dressage stallion?
Photo 2: When you breed for top sport, you need to breed with top performing horses. In former times, the main focus was on the sire’s performances but nowadays most studbooks emphasize the importance of very strong dam lines, and among the young jumping stallions in Herning you find very strong dam lines and also several of the young stallions with top performing dams. Among others, this counts for Quinto Ask who is Quarz Ask and out of the former Zangersheide finalist and international show jumper, Hiphop Ask by Ci Ci Senjor Ask x Charmeur ridden by Søren Møller Rohde... 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
