By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: © Peter Llewellyn; FEI/Dokoupil; FEI/Juilliart
There are a few mares that leave a lasting legacy in breeding, and one such horse is Georgia, born in 1995. This mare holds a special place in Paul Schockemöhle’s life as she represents one of the 10 foundation lines in his world-renowned breeding program.
It is said that Paul Schockemöhle breeds more than 1,000 foals per year, and Georgia’s motherline has already been in his care for 50 years, which really says a lot about the quality of this line.
Filitzia
This story begins, however, with the first mare, Filitiz, which came into Paul Schockemöhle’s breeding program from this line. In the Westphalian Studbook this line carries the number 329, and Filitzia (Damhirsch - Filmkunde x Film), Westphalian-bred herself, was the first mare Paul Schockemöhle used to establish a branch of the Oldenburg Studbook. He recalls: “I bought Filitzia from my brother Alwin Schockemöhle, who got her from Francois Mathy Sr. She excelled in free jumping and became one of my first broodmares when I began breeding with her 50 years ago.”
For Filitzia, Schockemöhle selected the stallions Granit (Goldfalk - Magda x Flugel van la Roche), Gepard (Gotthard - Feretria x Florentiner II), and Sandro (Sacramento Song xx - Duerte x Wahnfried). Paul competed with Granit himself at 1m40, so knew the stallion very well and explains his choice; “I chose Granit because Filitzia was not very tall, and he was quite large and a good jumper. This pairing produced the mare Geranie. From the combination of Geranie and Gepard came Georgette. I chose Gepard because he was an excellent jumper, although he did not pass on his qualities very effectively. His geldings were not very careful, but his daughters were good, with four of them successfully competing at 1m40 and higher. I still have a bit of Gepard blood in my mare lines, including some dressage lines, but not too much.”
The Hanoverian stallion Goldammer II was well-represented through Gepard and Granit, while the descendants of Gotthard and Graf, represented by Gepard and Granit, have been particularly successful in show jumping.
Georgette’s full sister, Greta, is the foundation of the line that produced the 12-year-old OS-approved stallion Conthargos (Conthargos - Gerlinda x Quidam’s Rubin, breeder: Nicola Owen). Conthargos competes at 1m55 with American showjumper Nicholas Dello Joio. They can all jump... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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