why De Niro?

                                                                                      
                                                                                                    
                                                                                       De Niro by Donnerhall x Akzent II x Wiesenbaum xx


Since the London Olympic Games in Summer 2012 De Niro has become a living legend.
Since then, breeding conventions seem to have changed and old fashioned German dressage horse breeding has experienced a well deserved renaissance.
London Olympic dressage competitions have turned the german breeders’ nation upside down.
Long forgotten values have been rediscovered and what has been considered old and proven but outdated suddenly is reckoned to be valuable again.
The German Olympic dressage team has given the letter “D” a hole new meaning:
what used to stand for “Deutsch” and “Dressur” has now become a worldwide synonym for Donnerhall, his sons and grandsons.
Amazing.

The young and as such “inexperienced” German Olympic dressage team made it to London on no less than four sons and grandchilds of Donnerhall, with the reserve pair completing an amazing bloodline-quintet:
Damon Hill, Diva Royal, Desperados, D’Agostino and Dablino – sired by Donnerhall, Don Frederico and three times De Niro.

The key sentence is:
three times De Niro.

To embrace a stallion like De Niro in a feature like this certainly is a big project. It is not my intention, either. Since last summer everything notable has been said and written about De Niro that needed to be put in words and the most useful and comprising
story featuring both, the stallion’s sport and breeding career, comes from the Klosterhof Medingen themselves, the lifetime home and owners of De Niro. I have nothing to add to these facts.

Yet again, there is reason enough to feature and maybe even question the breeding values, heritage and most certainly the currently understandable but in many cases incomprehensible demand for De Niro.
With his twenty years of age, De Niro currently enjoys a demand unheard of for a stallion of such age. Given his very good semen quality and management it is a fair assumption that De Niro bred a solid three digit figure of mares again in 2012 and 2013, comparable only to the number of breedings the latest most expensive young licensing champions can claim before they get buried in oblivion.
And quite like the incomprehensible run on young and unproven stallions the recent foal auctions suggest, that breeding to De Niro has turned into yet the same trend, breeding any equine female ideally passing on a black coat …
Not to begrudge the Klosterhof.

We should most certainly appreciate the renaissance of the D-blood since it supports the intention to breed functional horses. There is no better way to cure the wide spread demand for long legged and spectacular moving horses than this:
rock solid and well proven blood lines having been engineered to function from back to front rather than following nowadays focus from front to back.
Functionality.
Mentally and physically.

If, of all things, De Niro is the one sire to meet demands of mental and physical functionality featuring the idealistic “D”, should indeed be subject of critical discussions amongst breeders all over the place.
I can remember times when De Niro was highly disputed and people questioned his status as a breeding stallion. His lesser known full sibling Dimension was stationed in Westfalia those days and said to be the better of the two siblings. Dimension, however, was neither black, nor spectacular, and by no means considered a “foal maker”. He did sire some useful offspring under saddle, though, but it didn’t help him. By the time his offspring were considered “useful” he had already been passed on and was forgotten.


Completely the opposite was his full sibling, De Niro. The pretentious black stallion was much sought-after immediately. He was introduced to sports, competing succesfully under Dolf Dietram Keller right from the start, at the same time he proved to be a foal maker with his first progeny. Yet, he was the subject of controversy amongst breeders – ample discussions!

It is not so long ago when the term „foal maker“ was a stigma rather than a label.
Breeders demanded to breed riding horses rather than produce fast selling foals. And while De Niro established his reputation to be a foal maker year by year, critics claimed him for a lack of ridability. The stallion was „made“ and  “Reitmeister“ (riding master) Dolf Dietram Keller was said to be the „maker“, the one who produced the stallion beyond naturally given inherited limits. A common word was that it did take a „Reitmeister“ in the first place to be able to deal with the stallion at all.  

FN yearbook figures indeed back such interpretation. A setback in breeding figures after the first one or two years is a natural thing. Today, every new crop crowds out last year’s hottest stallion and up until the first get of any given stallion matures under saddle, these stallions usually aren’t highly frequented anymore. With the arrival of first crop under saddle many stallions experience a second upswing (or become totally buried), provided their kids proof well under saddle (or don't). Reason, why it takes four to five years for any stallion to gain new recovery in breedings. For a breeder who claims to breed riding horses, this is a very reasonable and necessary timespan to await. However, many stallions don’t even survive this critical phase in their breeding career in the first place. They are already sold away by the time they receive real proof or disproof through their get.

De Niro’s FN yearbook figures seem to suggest disprove by his get. While the number of registered sporthorses by age (the only official number available) increases continuingly during his first breeding years, obviously confirming the image of a desirable foal maker with every new crop, there is a substantial setback in registered progeny upon De Niro’s fifth season.
While the stallion shows a peak of nearly 200 registered sport horses in his fifth year, numbers drain substantially thereafter to below 60 (from 8th breeding year) to around 20 (10th breeding year). Ever since, there have been less than 20 kids added per breeding year registered by De Niro and the question remains, why?

De Niro’s desirability had disappeared despite another statistic data of meaning, that would have been available to anybody out there. In practice, however, it remained unheard:
Next to Don Schufro, De Niro is the only dressage sire with a double-digit quota of progeny competing sucessfully in S-class (St.George and higher). Based on the number of sporthorses registered with the German FN, both, Don Schufro and De Niro, show a progeny quota of more than 12 % in S-class. This quota is pretty much unheard of in dressage breeding. Usually only jumper sires reach double-digit quotas (for the simple reason that there are about three times the number of show horses employed in high class jumping than there are in dressage).

Noteworthy, too, that both dressage sires of highest S-class quota in German breeding happen to be half siblings by Donnerhall… which finally concludes the intro to this feature and takes us right back to the post-Olympic intoxication of 2012, when a fairy tale came true and the young and inexperienced German Olympic dressage team won the Olympic silver medal which tasted golden and all it took was progeny of Donnerhall…


Three times De Niro

Following the London fairytale, De Niro’s recent sport horse registration figures below 20 will most certainly pop up again substantially in 2016 and 2017 (with the first 3 and 4 year old kids from the Olympic recovery in breedings in 2012 and 2013 being registered for competition) and might well reach peaks of his first breeding years.

So the legitimate question arising from these figures and statistics is:
Is the post-Olympic run of breeding to De Niro a justified one?
Or do we have to question our breeders instead?
Have we been too busy chasing the latest “hot” spectacular stallions from the Netherlands in those recent years, rather than focusing on the one and only many-times proven dressage bloodline within our own breed?

It is a lot like Wall Street:
At 20 Dollars no one cares for the stock.
Once it raises to 60 everybody runs after it and it becomes real expensive.
And the funny thing about it:
fundamental’s haven’t even changed a bit…

Man tends to forget about negative experiences and rather postulate the positive.
Only very few breeders are active in the saddle to prove what they breed themselves. This is a fact, not an offense.
Most breeders produce foals to sell at weanling age and De Niro still recommends himself as a desirable foal maker, confirmed yet again by foal auctions all over the country this summer with record prices for De Niro foals.
Maybe they are right?
Maybe they are wrong and disputable ridability or specific features of his get under saddle kept experienced breeders away from De Niro?

Meanwhile, however, some breeders and experts did endeavor to use statistics to research and explain the unheard of density of De Niro's progeny in S-class.
It does take ten to twelve years for any given stallion to produce Grand Prix proven kids under saddle. De Niro started breeding in 1996 and had been in business for far more than ten to twelve years in order to produce GP horses. Yet, it is not overly surprising that the Desperadoses (*2001), Dablinos (*2000) and D'Agostinos (*2000) of this world only recently popped up in public perception.
Noteworthy, however, that his Olympic kids all emerge from his peak breedings in 2000/2001 when he produced close to 200 kids registered in the FN yearbook.
So, apart from analyzing and discussing quality matters this does prove one thing for sure:
Quality always arises from mass and density only.
In genetics, quality is never subject to plan and prediction.
Yet, pedigree breeding has become the most popular thing in sport horse breeding.
Food for thought, I'ld say.

In any case, I am no exception to the rule of late awareness, either. I also became aware of De Niro's high quota of successful offspring at the highest levels only two years ago. His kids have earned far more than one Million Euros in Germany only. The real beauty of this is not the sheer amount of money but the fact that these monies have been won by a high number of offspring altogether:
188 registered kids successful in S-class by 2012 (including two even in jumping!) support a healthy and wide spread average of progeny performance, telling us more about any stallion's progeny performance record than bigger millions won by only one or two top-class horses.
So what do we conclude from these numbers?
Obviously, De Niro does provide many of his kids with the necessary ingredients for dressage at higher levels. The question remains, however, are we able to cope with it?

Evenly meaningful to his sport horse statistics are De Niro's breeding statistics. While the FN yearbook states around 70 licensed sons, the number of daughters registered with German breeding verbands most certainly says it all:
De Niro employs more than 1.000 daughters in current breeding (2012) with the German verbands only. Assume this number might nearly double including worldwide registration. And while quality truly arises from mass and mass only, I tend to consider De Niro's value as a damsire even higher than his value as a producer of breeding stallions or sport horses.
Why?

We can question and discuss breeding values of many sires and their licensed sons with reasonable arguments, while some stallions simply polarize (i.e. his son Dancier). However, we cannot dispute the value of a proven damsire. Succeeding as a damsire defines the path of timeless glory while any given male line can easily be extinguished within a single generation. Even if it is a prepotent and "hot" producing male line.
How come?
Any "hot" stallion producing desireable foals will ultimately stand sons at studs, and lot's of them. A natural thing since every stallion owner wants to participate in the success of a "hot" sire's production. But the number of sons in breeding doesn't say anything about the quality of the sire. As we have learned before that it does take years to prove any stallion's real breeding value. We have also learned that disaproval of any given stallion by his get under saddle can happen very fast (to be seen in De Niro's progeny statistics following year five). At the same time and speed all of his licensed sons can be sold, gelded, taken out of business or simply not be used by breeders anymore.
End of sireline.

Proven damsire however is the most valuable label for any sire to gain. Because it is durable. Positive effects of multiplication are conserved via damlines over generations (think of Weltmeyer). Of course the same is true for negative implications, just that you would expect any reasonable breeder to cull a broodmare of negative implications, wouldn't you?
A good broodmare is a treasure to preserve and usually breeders employ good broodmares for a lifetime (of the mare, that is), at the same time preserving the very damline for their breeder's lifetime, too. The single lifetime of any given broodmare can easily span and outdate a couple of generations of a meritless sireline. Even though a mare can only breed a single foal per year, during her lifetime a single broodmare can still produce a meaningful amount of quality offspring sired by different stallions of different generations.
Example:
My mare Fabrice by Fidermark is having her filly by Duisenberg (son of Desperados, who is by De Niro) this year and is now expecting a foal by De Niro, Duisenberg's grandsire.
One mare, one damsire, three generations of paternal line.
If neither of these two foals will mature into a performance horse none of them will be introduced to breeding.
End of sireline.
It would be a loss of two years in my broodmare's life which could have been better spent breeding her to a different stallion, but the mare is still there to produce quality as she did in the past. Yet, there is her filly by Belissimo (totally different sireline) that has proven quality and will most certainly serve future breeding.
Thus, who will survive?
Damsire Fidermark.
Fidermark will exist in other valuable progeny out of Fabrice and he will do so within the next decades with every future generation of Fabrice's daughters and grand daughters that are bred.
Damsire heritage always succeeds, no matter what paternal lineage the individual fillies arise from.
Proven damsire is the most valuable label for any sire to gain.

And it was indeed De Niro's attribute as a damsire that had already impressed me years ago. His grandson Hotline by Hofrat out of a dam by De Niro x Wendepunkt x Busoni xx (damline of Alabaster) blew me away when I met him first, and he still does. Strong and powerful horse with the right engine in place and lot's of "resonance" in his body to move, quiet like his grandsire. This is the rhythm and heritage to be expected by De Niro. And even though Hotline, the more he matures, reminds me a lot of his paternal grandsire Gribaldi, too, the very mixture of frame and swinging element ("body of resonance") is what I associate with De Niro.

Thus, it weren't present Olympics but former reminders and experiences from year's ago that I started to discuss with my breeder friends, professional riders and trainers when I seriously considered De Niro a sire for one of my mares. The current hype surrounding the stallion surely helped getting to see a lot of present offspring at recent licensings, preselections, foal auctions, etc. Lots of opportunities to gain further or new knowledge of De Niro as a sire. Much was confirmed, some needed to be revised, some was completely new knowledge to me.

Pure foal makers rarely deliver what they promise at foal age. Simply because the mature horse in the end is defined by a multitude of features of parents and ancestors of many generations before. You might not see it at first sight.
You can't see ingredients in your favourite dish, either. Yet, you would never deny their existence once you taste it.
Foals of comparable descent often might look alike at foal age, but they will differ in many respects once matured. This is the reason the often postulated "nick breeding" today doesn't exist anymore. Too many different seeds in the ground to plant on. A nick breeding to De Niro most certainly doesn't exist even though his common use on Trakehner mares at the Klosterhof Medingen might suggest so. "Common use" is the keyword. Potential quality from this "nick" arose from mass.
Breeding Fidertanz to De Niro was a popular cross,  too. Many called it a nick breeding. It produced lot's of compact foals with proper necksets and topline. Very cute. Some of these foals also trotted well and made up for top prices in foal auctions.
Today, these foals come along in any seize including oversize, any length including long, any silouhette, some are loose, some are tense, some do and some don't work. Just the way you would expect the bell curve to work. Commonly distributed. Their only common stamp is pedigree, no more.
For a while I helped out at a professional dressage trainer's barn and rode a son of this popular breeding by Fidertanz x De Niro myself. His full sister is owned by an international dressage rider, supposed to be one of her future Grand Prix horses. The gelding I rode is oversized, comes with a power engine, huge gaites and necessary electricity, poor walk and has difficulties in collected work being strongly supported by the fact that this horse makes use of his physical strength simply pulling you out of saddle. I am an amateur rider and professionals might not care for difficulties I face. Anyway, the horse was turned down by many professionals who gave it a try despite or just because of his full sister. Obviously, the only common stamp of these two full siblings is premium foal label and pedigree, no more.

Powerful trot, however, is what we associate with De Niro and at the same time expect from his get. Many De Niro kids can trot, but not all of them are complete horses.
De Niro produces in any size and equipment, chestnuts and black the dominating colours and usually he delivers chrome along. The mid part tends to be stretched and differs from the usual compact foal type. De Niro usually doesn’t improve walk. For a good walk, the necessary mental preposition needs to be added by the mare. “Mental” might also be the keyword to explain rumoured lack of ridability or whatever it is, that withholds De Niro’s production from the “ammie friendly” image. Distinct minds require distinct management. Specially in saddle. Professionals obviously don’t care. Mouth and canter were further arguments on the critical side and while I accept the first I am still trying to explore the latter.

So far the critics and it makes sense that German breeders were divided or didn’t seem to care in the absence of Olympic shine. And I guess it wasn’t a coincidence that I had to take the detour via the US to take a first positive note of De Niro. Years ago in California I met his son Devon Heir at young age: Devon Heir descends from a rock solid damline by Rubinstein x Argentan x Duden and he left a fabulous impression on me when Willy Arts rode him for us. The young stallion was a friendly pleasure to deal with. He truly caught my sympathy and he seems to be doing well as a breeding stallion in the US.

Rock solid might indeed be a good idea when breeding to De Niro. Another good example is the licensed trio of full siblings, Danone I and II and Der Designer. The eldest sibling, Danone I, competes at Grand Prix dressage level and happens to be yet another example of De Niro’s quality season of 2000. All of the trio serve sport and breeding at the same time and there is even a gelded fourth sibling competing in S-class. Their common dam is by Weltmeyer x Bolero, a classic combination of powerful move meeting on refined behaviour.
All four of them owe their existence to an idealistic breeder lady hoping for a filly to maintain her damline. She tried year by year and all she received was yet another licensed stallion … I met her in Verden one year and her story made me laugh. I truly wish for her she finally received her desired filly.

De Niro’s most spectacular son these days of cause comes from the Netherlands. KWPN bred stallion Voice is considered the successor of Totilas. He sure is black enough and seems brave enough and he is ridden by Edward Gal – all necessities in place.
And almost unsuitably rock solid for KWPN sounds his breeding:
Voice’s dam is by Rohdiamant – who’d have thunk it?

Rubinstein, Rohdiamant, Weltmeyer, Bolero – rock solid and a suitable neighbourhood for De Niro’s most popular German son Desperados, who is out of a dam by Wolkenstein II x Matcho x Pik König. It doesn’t take much to predict that Olympic Desperados is most likely going to be his father’s Lord Privy Seal in breeding, no matter what:
“Success makes sexy!”
And even though Desperados’ eldest kids only turn seven this year, licensing committees all over the country already labelled more than 20 of his sons with the permission to breed.
Obviously, success sells, too.
With respect to ridability I have only met a single person so far, a professional rider and trainer up to Grand Prix, who has experienced five matured kids by Desperados under saddle at the age of five and six. The man concluded his interesting report on training experience saying: "I sure prefer direct De Niro offspring over Desperados to work at higher levels!"   
Given Desperados’ prominence and colour he will enjoy further demand by breeders and only his limited availability during competition might prevent explosive breeding numbers in coming years.
The full story and feature of Desperados, from his first public appearance age 2 at the licensing, his neglection and disputable initial raise following expensive sale, can be found here.

Following the theme „rock solid“ I had already chosen a son of Desperados two years ago. Duisenberg stems from a rock solid (old fashioned) damline of proven performance under saddle. His dam is by Weltmeyer x Lungau and you can tell a lot of Weltmeyer in Duisenberg, who is the opposite of a spectacular, longlegged and anything but modern horse.
Duisenberg is a very functional horse of deep set hindend and a powerful engine at the right place. A horse designed form back to front rather than the other way round. Exactly the reason I chose him for my mare Fabrice since I have been looking for a visibly Weltmeyer related stallion to breed her to for all those years. The full story of pro’s and con’s featuring Desperados’ son Duisenberg can be found here.

                                 
                                                                                                                                            Darnell, filly by Duisenberg o/o Fabrice

This year, Fabrice has had her eagerly awaited daughter by Duisenberg, a super noble and typey filly. Little Darnell suggests that breeding Fabrice to rock solid D-line stallions might not be the worst idea at all. Thus, having had a promising foal by grandson Duisenberg, it is not a far-fetched conclusion to breed Fabrice to grandsire De Niro himself this year.
And it was indeed Fabrice, out of all my mares, who came to my mind immediately when the newly inspired discussions about De Niro arose in our breeders’ community one or two years ago. It does take a mare of a few rock solid features like mind, walk, mouth and maybe a compact topline to compensate for potential weaknesses of De Niro. Canter, however, might be both their common weakness.
A flaw I can live with, knowing Fabrice’s daughters La Jeanne and Bravo („Bunny“).
Canter is considered both their weakest gaite, yet, it hasn’t prevented them from winning dressage classes and mare inspections scoring eights in series.
More important than simple gaites however is ridability and proof of it in Fabrice’s kids.
I know Fabrice inside out, I mounted and started both her daughters under saddle. I have discovered common strengthes and weaknesses and features of individual characteristic.
There is no such thing like a perfect horse, but there is reason to believe that even the worst case scenario of a combination of Fabrice and De Niro might still be a desirable foal.
An acceptable risk.

Highest risk of breeding Fabrice to De Niro were economics. Fabrice didn’t show a heat cycle anymore in 2011 and it took 6 months of expensive efforts in 2012 to get her in foal to Duisenberg at all. It was indeed adventurous to risk a breeding fee like this for a stallion stationed so far away that I couldn’t even pick up fresh semen myself but had to depend on overnight delivery.
But no risk, no fun.
It was a very spontaneous decision as we hadn’t even expected Fabrice to be in heat those days and when the vet announced a super follicle on top of all of it, it hit us completely unexpected. I called the Klosterhof late in the afternoon with little hope but the odds seemed on our side. There was a single dose left from early that day and the delivery agent was late and yet to be expected – and yes, if we wanted it we could have it early next morning overnight…
What could I say?
That single dose was mine and it was all it took, Fabrice was in foal to De Niro immediately!

So today I sit and pray and hope Fabrice is going to keep her healthy pregnancy as she used to do all those years. Out of all my mares Fabrice sure is my best and most proven broodmare. But never before have I bred her to a stallion of such prominence and cost.
I am so excited for this foal to be born!



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