Perry De Winter with AES-approved stallion Parfait van het Schaeck
(Comme Il Faut - Like a Diamond van het Schaeck x Diamant de Semilly)
By Jo de Roo
Photography: Jo de Roo
Many breeders dream about breeding a once-in-a-lifetime horse who competes in prestigious arenas like Aachen. Others dream about breeding an approved stallion. We interviewed a breeder who has realized both. In Aachen 2018, there were two jumpers bred by Perry De Winter, who has produced a string of outstanding horses performing at the highest international level, including Gancia de Muze, J’Adore van het Schaeck, Cacacha van het Schaeck, Like A Diamond van het Schaeck, and Caipiranja.
During a recent visit to his studfarm, I saw a great number of promising youngsters, so in the future we will be seeing more ‘van het Schaeck’ showjumpers collecting victories and honourable placings worldwide. The breeder behind this famous studfarm is Perry De Winter. Born in 1959, De Winter is married to Tanja T’joens and is the father of Geoffrey and Bo.
As De Winter is pleased to explain, his stable name comes from the name of the ‘van het Schaeck’ pub that used to stand on land close to the ‘Hof ter Saksen’ castle, where he is now living. After the pub ceased to exist, the name remained, so when De Winter bought the house, he used the same name as a suffix for the registered names of his horses. “When I bought this house, I owned almost 5,000 square metres. Nowadays, I own almost 10 hectares. I have all the things I need to take care of the horses, with all the facilities. Wooden fences surround all the pastures and we used wood to construct the stables as it contributes to the great, warm atmosphere.”
Early on in his breeding programme he produced 10 foals, then and now using famous stallions such as For Pleasure, Darco, Diamant de Semilly, Plot Blue, Untouchable and Comme Il Faut. “I am very happy that I still own two daughters of Darco. I will never sell them,” De Winter said. Valentijn De Bock, Tim van den Broeck, Katrijn Van Hoecke, Klaas Koentges, and Stephanie De Vriendt are all riding some of his horses, and each year the latter also rides two of De Winter’s own-bred five-year-olds.
De Winter explains how it all started: “For 22 years I had my own company, a wholesale trade of vegetables and fruit. After selling this, I started in the world of real estate, managing my own portfolio. Breeding horses is my hobby. In 1999 I bought my first foals, called Walloon and Walnut de Muze. Right from the beginning, I wanted to start with a top dam line and to have the best of the best. I especially bought two fillies in order to use them later on as breeding dams.”
Q Why did you buy Walloon and Walnut?
Their dam, Qerly Chin (Chin Chin - Kerly x Pachat II), jumped very well at that time. Nabab (Quidam de Revel) was also performing very well. Walnut and Walloon were full sisters, two daughters of Nabab out of Qerly Chin. Their dam line was one of the best. It was not by coincidence that I bought two products out of this dam line as I had been following this line for a long time. At a certain moment I have got the chance to buy both fillies. Werly Chin was another full sister to Walloon and Walnut, so I could make a choice. In my opinion Werly Chin was more valuable for breeding. However, Walloon produced, for instance, Daytona, a Cento daughter, who also became the dam of several outstanding showjumpers. So, afterwards I couldn’t complain about the fact that I bought Walloon and Walnut.’..CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
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