By Sally Reid
Photography: Courtesy NZHS
In what everyone hopes will be the last video classification ‘tour’, 15 New Zealand Hanoverian and Rheinland foals were awarded Premium status by Verdun assessors Maren Schlender and Bo Eitenmüller. Six of them achieved the further distinction of winning a gold medal for a score of 8.5 or more.
The foals were judged in two performance categories: jumping and dressage. Bloodlines were a mixed lot with no stand-out sire, although Fürstenball, Fürst Romancier, and Blue Hors Zack appeared more than once, as did the blood of Zack’s son Sezuan and grandson Sezuan’s Donnerhall. Rheinland foals were a particularly strong lot this year, and their top scorer was sired by a stallion who is making history here: He’s New Zealand’s first-ever qualifier for the FEI – WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Ermelo. His name is Fürst Hit EDH. It seems that the ‘Fürst’ prefix, which has been dominant here in past tours, is continuing to make an impact via one sire or another.
Best dressage-bred Hanoverian colts
Two colts shared this title: Stoneylea Zelenskyy (Zucchero Gold - EM Stoneylea Welt Princess x Weltmeyer) and SF Sezuans World (Sezuans Donnerhall - Worldly Wise x Worldly). Both are superbly bred for the job, and they have two things in common; dams bred in Germany, and the blood of the wonderful Blue Hors Zack on their sire’s side – he is Zelenskyy’s grandsire and the great-grandsire of Sezuans World.
Stoneylea Zelenskyy was bred by John and Angela Smith of Stoneylea Farm near Auckland, who have produced many champions over the years. His sire, Zucchero, was the World Young Horse Champion in 2019 but died just one year later.
Zelenskyy’s imported granddam Lusenka StPrA (Laurie’s Crusader xx - Lefalda x Lemon Park), comes from the famous old mare line of Schulppera, and is a star in her own right. She was bred by Ilsemarie Wrede of Gut Neuensteden in Freiburg, and was acquired for the Smiths by Dr Ludwig Christmann. She has Elite status with the NZ Hanoverian Society, passing her mare performance test here in 2017. That same year, she won the NZ Young Dressage Horse Championship. A Lusenka daughter, Stoneylea Fürstin Fantasie (Fürstenball) was the best foal of the 2019 classification tour. Zelenskyy has some big shoes to fill on his mother’s and father’s sides, but seems set to do so.
SF Sezuans World, who shared the best dressage colt title, is another with dazzling international credentials. He was bred by Mack Harrison and veterinarian Nikita O’Donnell of Seaforth Farm in Northland. His dam Worldly Wise (Worldly - StPrSt Candy x Carbid) is also one of the rare imported German mares in this country – she was bred by Fritz Grimmelmann and purchased by Seaforth Farm through the Witte family of Verden. Coincidentally, Wolfgang Witte rode her sire Worldly (Weltmeyer x Bretano) as a young horse, winning bronze at the 2001 Bundeschampionate in Warendorf, finishing seventh in the 2003 Verden WBCYH, and with another bronze at the Bundeschampionate that year. His daughter Worldly Wise was born in 2009; two years later, Worldly himself moved to New Zealand. He spent the last half of his life here at Renai Hart’s River Park Farm in Kumeu. Worldly Wise came to New Zealand as a yearling.
Although it is less than a decade old, Seaforth Farm is producing very high quality youngsters, including the overall top foal of the 2019 tour, the gorgeous dressage-bred filly SF Fürstin Star (Fürsten Look - Sugar Babe x Samarant). She is just beginning her career under saddle and is most definitely one to watch.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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