THE BREEDERS: Dr Schulz Stellenfleth
One of the best things about my job, is the people I get to meet, and
there is no group that I'd rather visit than the great horse breeders.
They tend to be very singular individuals, and none are more
distinctive than Dr Schulz of Stellenfleth (to distinguish himself from
all the other Germans with the same surname, he is most often called
Schulz Stellenfleth, wedding his own name to the locality in which his
stud is found.)
And what a wonderful place it was. Right in the northern most part of
the Hanoverian breeding district, his horses shared the wind swept
marshes of the River Elbe with the huge flocks of wild geese, and Dr
Schulz looked as if he has been crafted from the land itself.
Yet the truth is he was a relative newcomer to Stellenfleth. His family
home was in part of Germany that was absorbed into Poland at the
end of the last war, and they moved to re-establish their sheep and
cattle farm. His extraordinary achievements came in three short
decades.
"I loved this country the first time I saw it," he told me. And the move
brought the Schulz family into contact with horses for the first time.
The former owners had horses, and Dr Schulz's first contact was with
the working horses, carrying out apples to them in his holidays.
On a property of 200 hectares, the horse population grew at one
stage to 45 and they all traced their ancestry to one mare,
Duellheldin by Duellant. On the basis of that mare line, Dr Schulz
bred SIX of the more famous licensed Hanoverian stallions of recent
times.
"We started in 1964 with Duellheldin. She had two daughters by the
Thoroughbred, Marcio, and out of one of those mares, Marbel, we
bred Garibaldi 1 in 1971 and Garibaldi11 in 1974."
"Garibaldi I looked more a stallion, taller and more impressive, but
Garibaldi II was the better stallion - he was so elastic that he proved a
very good dressage sire. Both of them were champions at the
Performance Test."
It seems Dr Schulz's famous stallions came in twos, and the next
famous duo was Brentano 1 and 11, and again, Marbel features
heavily, since it was her daughter, Ferbel, by the famous Ferdinand,
who when bred to Grande, produced Glocke, the dam of the
Brentanos. The Brentanos are by Bolero, a horse with three quarters
Thoroughbred blood, being by Black Sky, a Thoroughbred, out of
Baroness, another Thoroughbred, tracing to the Djebel line. Brentano
11 was champion of the stallion licensing in 1983.
In 1989, Dr Schulz bred another star, Wolkenstein 1, by Weltmeyer,
but this time another key ingredient in Dr Schulz's breeding program
- Grande - figures largely in the equation. The dam of Wolkenstein 1
is Wolke, out of Gänseliesel (Goosegirl), by Grande, and in turn, out of
the marvellous Marbel. Wolkenstein 1 became a breeding stallion in
the Hessen Studbook.
In 1990, Dr Schulz bred Wolkenstein 11, who was reserve champion
of his licensing, and who out of his first crop of colts, produced the
reserve champion of 1997, and the champion colt of 1998!
In all, Dr Schulz bred twenty colts that went on to be licensed,
performance tested stallions.
"I was fortunate, I had a good start with Duellant, then Marcio xx. I
was one breeder who used Grande, as much as possible. Many
breeders didn't like him, the foals were small, and although they had
a good eye, they didn't have the nicest head. I saw how good they
were as riding horses and I bred nine Grande mares."
"I have only used horses of my own genetic foundation, and horses I
liked. It's is not just a matter of thinking, it is very much a question of
feeling. Once I tried to use an outside mare, but she didn't go in foal."
"I'm always trying to breed a better horse, I think I'll try as long as I
live. The result doesn't have to be a champion but what I think is a
good horse."
"I prefer to use stallions in my neighbourhood. If we use stallions
further away we have to take the mare and foal, and that's too far.
You can use chilled semen, but you can't get any on Sunday or
Monday, then if you miss, you might have to wait two or three weeks
before you can breed the mare."
"In former times when you went to a mare show, all the mares were
from the local stallions - Grande, Bolero, Wendekreis. Now they are
from all over the Hanoverian region, and the breeders often don't
know the stallions - they look at the fine photos, then the 'numbers'
(the breeding rankings) and notes."
"In former times, there were no statistics. Breeders looked at the
horses in question. How good do they look? Now there is a flood of
numbers, part of that is good - but for the individual horse it is
dangerous. When breeders only look at numbers and believe they
have a real picture of the horse, it is very dangerous. The breeder
must look for himself, and the breeder starts looking at the birth of
the foal."
"It's written in Latin, in my pedigree book, 'horses are my life'."
A few days after we met Dr Schulz we saw him again, at the stallion
licensing, he presented me with a piece of paper, a summary of his
breeding credo:
My most important principle in breeding =
For building the generations, I only use daughters of stallions, the
children of which are successful in the sport.
For a while it looked as if Dr Schulz’s breeding program would die
with him as none of his family were interested in taking on the stud –
however his daughter, Friderike Schulz-Stellenfleth is now an active
breeder with several mares, and recently produced a class winner at
the renowned Louise-Wiegel-Schau in Sandbostel… so it looks as if
the breeding tradition of the family Schulz-Stellenfleth will be carried
on.
Wolkenstein II
Wolkenstein II’s dam, the state premium mare, Wolke, bred to
Bolero, produced the licensed stallion, Bao Bao and the advanced
dressage horse, Believe It, as well as Wolkenstein II’s older brother
who stood in Hanover for two years before moving to Hessen. When
his grand-dam, another States Premium mare, Gänseliesel was bred
to Bolero, she produced the states premium mare, Blauer Engel and
the stallion, Beltain – sire of current ‘hot’ stallion, Belissimo.
Belissimo is the sire of Belafonte, the 2007 performance test winner
of the Celle stallions. Interestingly, in keeping with the suggestion
that dressage sires (Belafonte won the dressage section with a score
of 143.89) need a little jumping blood, the young stallion is out of a
mare by the Ferdinand son, Wendekreis, who is in turn out of a
Gotthard daughter.
In the 2008 Hanoverian Stallion book, Wolkenstein is listed in =11th
place on the Dressage Stallion rankings, with a dressage index of 144.
Wolkenstein II also consistently features on the Riding Horse Type
Standings, 15th in 2008, with a score of 146.
He is recorded as having produced 724 competition horses
(including 30 at S level) for winnings of €264, 573. He is the sire of
46 licensed sons, none of whom have set the world on fire.
On the FN rankings he scores 147 for dressage and 101 for jumping.