AUSTRALIA (by Adriana van Tilburg) Being a breeder far away from the breeding hub of Europe can be challenging no matter which breed of horses you chose… Holsteiner, KWPN, BWP or SF horses. Sourcing mares with proven bloodlines to breed with, as well as good stallions or frozen semen, and relocating them to another hemisphere is another hurdle altogether.
Kerri Parker is based at her own Riverside Farm, 100 productive acres on the banks of the Karuah River – home of Cera Performance Horses – in Booral, New South Wales, some 200 kilometres north of Sydney. She is doggedly working towards her dream of breeding horses that will compete in top-ranked shows like Aachen, Germany, or Spruce Meadows in Canada. Chris Chugg’s World Cup stallion Cera Cassiago (Cassini I -Lambada x Carthago, stamm 5175) was discovered by Kerri at a foal auction in Behrendorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He competed with Chris Chugg in March at the 2016 World Cup finals in Gothenburg.
Q - How did your interest in Holsteiner horses start?
A - I saw Dobel’s Cento jump at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. He made it look so easy and jumped so effortlessly, that was what converted me to Holsteiners. All I could think about was how rideable he was, how Id love to ride a horse like that. I became very interested in studying the pedigrees of the horses that caught my eye and realized just how strong and dominant Holsteiners were in the showjumping world. I also noticed many other breeds, such as KWPN, Oldenburg etc., had high proportions of Holsteiner blood. I became serious about breeding Holsteiners in 2005 and starting working on a plan to acquire mares and good semen. I first purchased frozen semen for Holsteiner stallions in 2005 and then I started to upgrade my mares. I had mostly Australian Warmblood mares or Thoroughbred mares at the time. I sold the mares to buy better ones to improve on what I had. This took me some years to do and now I have a very strong mare herd, all of Holsteiner origin.
Q - How many broodmares do you have, and what are their pedigrees?
I have nine broodmares from six Holsteiner stamms: 242, 318d2, 2004, 4965, 7126 and 8798. My foundation mare from stamm 242 is Valenzia (Carinjo - Cayenne III x Calypso I). She had a young foal by Colman (Carthago) when I discovered her. This young foal turned out to be the Holsteiner approved stallion Crumble and they have high hopes for him in Germany. He is only six but his future looks bright. Crumble’s full sister is also in my broodmare herd. Zamira is by Quidam de Revel out of the full sister to Corofino I and II (Corrado I - Valeska IV x Fernando, stamm 318D2). I also have daughters from her by Catoki and Diarado...
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