By Christopher Hector
Photography: FEI/Helene Gjerde Aamdal, FEI/Massimo Argenziano
Equestrian journalist Charlotte Smet set out on the Hippomundo website to find the successful, but under-rated stallions, looking at the most successful sires with a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 100 competitors in sport, based on the average amount of prize money won by their offspring.
She looked at three years: 2015, 2016, 2017, and while the top stallion in 2015 was Cumano with 33 progeny averaging €18,000 each, the second most successful that year was Thunder van de Zuuthoeve with 83 competitors averaging €13,000.
For the next two years, Thunder was number one. In 2016 he had 93 averaging €17,000, and in 2017, 94 progeny for an average of €17,400. In 2015, four of his offspring won €100,000: HH Azur, Domingo, Domino, and Gunder. In 2016, HH Azur and McLain Ward were once again the stars, as they were in 2017.
Thunder van de Zuuthoeve was born in 1996 in the fields of the late René Vets from the Zuut in Liege, giving him the ‘van de Zuuthoeve’ extension to his name. His dam was Jura van St. Maarten (Nimmerdor x Lord) and his sire was the Hanoverian legend Argentinus (Argentan x Duden II).
Jura was a serious competitor and took part in the World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken with Joris Vergauwen. She was also an excellent broodmare, producing Wunder Boy van de Zuuthoeve, the full brother of Thunder, who is approved by the SBS studbook... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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