Sire Freiherr

Sire Freiherr

.

FABERGE

A beautiful type of dressage horse by the Oldenburg trademark stallion, Freiherr, the sire of Feiner Stern and Feinbrand. The dam's sire, Cardinal xx, is one of the most influential Thoroughbred stallions ever used in German warmblood breeding and his contribution to the German riding horse breed has been invaluable. Faberge has three very good gaits which, coupled with noteworthy rideability, have helped him win series of riding horse tests and six medium level dressage tests. His progeny show all of the attributes you expect from generations of trademark ancestors – a pronounced type, highly modern and with the same spirited mechanics that his sire has.

The Sire, Freiherr was awarded the title of Main Premium Winner in 1980 due to the assessment of his first crop. He also produced Feiner Stern who is the sire of Feinbrand. Freiherr is probably the most prominent son of the famous foundation Furioso II. Freiherr's dam sire Agram and Ferdinand are the basis of world-wide reputation of Hanoverians being the best show jumpers in the world. Freiherr produces sports horses that are capable of competing internationally in either disciplines.

Freiherr is regarded as one of the most influential sons of Furioso II, the Selle Français stallion imported to Oldenburg in 1968 by Georg Vorwerk. Freiherr’s dam Almentanne, produced two other approved stallions, the full brothers Fürst Agram and Furi Agram. Her sire, Agram produced the international showjumpers Anakonda, Abadir and Agent (who competed at the 1976 Olympics with Paul Schockemöhle, and went on to win DM130,000).

Freiherr won the Oldenburg Stallion licensing in 1978, the next year he won the performance test, and in 1980, he was crowned Main Premium Winner on the basis of his first crop of foals. He has a number of outstanding offspring, including: Weltwunder (champion mare of her age group at Aachen in 1986 and the dam of Donnerschwee), the mare, Love Story, a DLG winner, his champion stallion son, Feiner Stern, and the dressage star, Flashdancer, ridden into 6th place at the WEG in 1994 by the Irish competitor, Anna Merveldt-Steffens.

The Grandsire, Furioso II was Approved for Oldenburg in 1967, and then went on to win his 100 day Test. He was later Approved for Hannover, Rhineland, Hessen and Westfalia. For many years, Furioso II was ranked in the top three sires of leading money winners in Germany. Furioso II had winners in all disciplines. His showjumping stars included: FBI (with Thomas Frühmann), Heissman (ridden by Eric Van Der Vleuten, then Michael Matz) and For Pleasure.

Heissman under his original name, Friesengeist was sold to the stables of Henk Nooren, who later sold him to the United States, when ridden by Michael Matz he was Horse of the Year, and 4th at the Barcelona Olympics.
For Pleasure was originally ridden by Lars Nieberg, and under his guidance won team gold at Atlanta, before the ride was transferred to Marcus Ehning. For Pleasure is already the sire of eight Licensed Hanoverian stallions, and was a member of the Gold Medal Winning German team at the Sydney Olympics.
Furioso II’s most influential son is Voltaire, out of a mare by another sire of jumping horses, Gotthard. Voltaire is the sire of 33 Approved sons and top jumpers like Finesse and Altaire.
In dressage, his son, Purioso is the sire of numerous stars including Anky van Grunsven’s Grand Prix horse Cocktail (who is the sire of Jazz); Le Mexico is the sire of Ulft, who is the sire of Ferro.

The Damsire, Cardinal stood at the private breeding station Schmidt-Ankum from 1970 to 1976. His offspring were usually dark with fine face markings and several white feet. they represented nobility to a high degree. Because of their good temperaments and their excellent rideability, they were very popular.
Monica Theodorescu’s Colorado was Cardinal’s first dressage star, and Monica’s entry to international competition.

 
Others to compete included Cortino and Petra Epping, Chagall and Madeleine Winter-Schulze and Gottberg and Heike Kemmer.

Cardinal also bred some useful jumpers, including the international competitor, Crispy (with Thomas Bartels). Cadinal’s most important son was Cavalier, born in 1971 from the States Premium Mare, Fackel (Ferdinand / Axel). Fackel continued her breeding career at Leon Melchior’s Zangersheide, where she was the dam of the Licensed Stallion, Graf Fackel Z (by Graf Gotthard Z). Cavalier's son, Cordoba is breeding some interesting dressage types in Hanover. Cavalier is also the sire of Blue Hors Cavan, an extremely successful dressage competitor, and a good sire at his Danish home stud before two separate accidents put an end to his breeding career. He continues to compete as a gelding and made the World Cup final in Las Vegas in 2005.
In his first year of breeding Cardinal also produced the Westfalien stallion, Carrera who in turn produced three stallion sons, Calypso, Carlo and Chagall. As a young stallion Calypso was not used for breeding in Westfalia but he later became famous under the name Starman, when ridden by American showjumping star, Ann Kursinkski he won the Grand Prix of Aachen and was a member of the US silver medal team at Seoul in 1988.