The slightly different story of a legendary stallion
The
story of Fidermark - my story of Fidermark - is highly contradictory to the
common opinion and the widely accepted understanding of Fidermark, the
Westfalian stallion of the 90s. Unfortunately, my story doesn't translate to the
German version of it on this website. The German version consists exclusively of
letters to the editors of various breeding magazines (monthly verband journals)
and officials that I have written during the course of Fidermark's rise and
history. Some of the letters were published - most of them weren't. Some of them
appeared in German breeding forums and became the subject of the most involved
discussions. However, given the cynical nature of my native German writing, I
feel incapable of translating these letters into English in an appropriate
manner. Most of the native understanding gets lost in translation, so I finally
gave up on it even though I regret being incapable of providing you with my most
instinctive feelings while composing these letters. Instead, I will try to
summarize my Fidermark story for you as a whole in retrospect.
I used to live in Frankfurt (federal state of Hessen) and thus was pretty cut
off from everything that took place in "horse-land" Germany, until the day a
somewhat unknown Westfalian State Stud rider caused a furor on a stallion of a
kind that had rarely been seen before in Warendorf - Fidermark became
Bundeschampion under Michael Farwick. To be able to watch these two perform
together was eye candy at its best - balm to the soul of the horseman. I had
tears in my eyes every time I saw the two of them harmonize in the dressage
arena together. That was exactly their common secret. They were in harmony with
one another. Westfalia hadn't been able to wish for any better advertising than
these two, engaging everybody’s passion for them. With respect to the
advertising aspect of it, I became immediately addicted. A daughter of this very
Fidermark was what I aimed for, possibly resembling the type and expression of
her sire.
That's
how I came to buy my Fabrice shortly after and
that's how it all began.
While
I was still living in Hessen, Michael and Fidermark proceeded with their career.
The new Westfalian State Stud CEO, Susanne Rimkus, developed a relationship with
Johann Hinnemann, known to be one of the world's most prestigious dressage
trainers. Susan’s concept of introducing state stud owned stallions to the
public sport scene was highly noticeable back then since it was quiet unusual
for state stud owned stallions to compete at all. Michael and Fidermark were
soon stationed for good at Hinnemann's barn in the Rhineland, a kind of
revolutionary move that was unheard of in the history of the Westfalian State
Stud. In order to promote the Westfalian State Stud, some of their most
promising dressage stallions were also moved to Hinnemann to be trained and
competed in public horse shows. Michael would successfully compete Fidermark up
to Prix St.George and also had become World Champion of young dressage horses
with Laurentianer by Lauries Crusador xx x Grande (Arnheim 2000). Westfalian
breeders were ecstatic over Fidermark and proud to finally have a superior
stallion to promote their breed again. Breeders loved it even though it meant
they had to deal with lesser quality semen given the double-burden of sports and
breeding that came along with Fidermark's career. Ever since the images of
former world champions Fire (by Frühlingstraum II /Norbert Koof, show jumping)
and Ahlerich (by Angelo xx/Dr.Reiner Klimke, dressage) had faded, the Westfalian
breed had been waiting for a potential super-star – now he was here.
The obvious quality of his first crops overcame initial prejudices given
his small size. Fidermark stamped his offspring, both gait-wise and type-wise,
in the true meaning of the word. Westfalian licensings were immediately crowded
by sons of Fidermark, so too were mare and foal inspections. Other verbands
shortly came with their own Fidermark sons: Hannoverian branded Falsterbo and
Oldenburg branded Farwell I and his full siblings II, III & IV in the following
years. At that point in time I had never been faced with a stallion celebrity to
such an extent. In retrospect I would say today [the text was
written in 2005] that only Florencio, his appearance and charm and of
course marketing, comes close to what Fidermark did for Westfalia.
However, what flies high falls deep. The stud management decided to switch
riders and suddenly Fidermark was ridden by Marlies van Baalen, a Dutch girl
whose mother also happened to be a constant trainee of Jo Hinnemann. I am not
commenting on any of the background that led up to the making of this decision.
I can only tell you about what it did to me: I was horrified, disappointed and
hurt. And my feelings were shared by the majority of local breeders and horse
people in the country. Whenever you attended a horse or stallion show where
Fidermark was shown, you would hear people talk about the deplorable decision of
having a Dutch rider show a German state stud stallion for no obvious reason. If
there had been doubts of Michael's abilities to further appropriately compete
the stallion, the matter would have been widely understood. Still, you would
have expected him to be replaced by another German, meaning Westfalian rider.
But, no one doubted his abilities, especially given the fact that he had turned
Laurentianer into the second super-performing representative of the Westfalian
State Stud in national and international young horses championships.
I remember the Nürnberg-Burgpokal final taking place in Frankfurt where
Fidermark was ridden by Marlies van Baalen. The audience was somewhat
international given the international format of the show. It didn't take long
and you would hear people talk about the fact that a German state stud stallion
was carrying the NRW logo on his saddlecloth being ridden by a foreigner. People
wondered if Westfalia suffered from a lack of qualified riders. The word spread
that NRW (North Rhine Westfalia) stood for "Netherlanders Riding Westfalians".
The entire appearance of the horse and rider pair (regardless of the specific
performance quality) was looked at with amusement, completely the opposite of
what the initial idea of the Westfalian sport concept was supposed to be
reaching for. That was the last time I ever went to see Fidermark at a public
horse show.
Thus,
the Fidermark story became a bittersweet story. No one doubted the quality of
the sire, but local national pride (mine included) and traditional horse
breeding culture were hurt and torn apart. There are no-no's that need to be
obeyed when dealing with state stud affairs. Placing a foreign rider on a
domestic stallion was one of them, especially when this stallion turns out to be
an idol of the public. The entire affair was highly discussed and questioned by
many people. The argument of tax moneys (the State Stud is subsidized) being
used to support foreign riders was often heard. Also, breeders would criticize
the poor semen quality of the stallion. The logic behind it was simple: if lost
to a foreign rider he would now mostly be shown outside the country, in the
Netherlands. So what was the benefit to Westfalian breeders, anyway? They would
rather see the stallion not being competed at all but safely being stationed at
home at the Warendorf State Stud in order to serve what he was there for:
produce prime offspring for the wealth and glory of Westfalian breeders.
Finally in August 2003, Fidermark died at the young age of 11 years - and all
those discussions were brought up again. Prior to his death, many public
appearances of the stallion had to be cancelled on short notice given the fact
he was not in the best physical shape. Whenever these official statements were
given at various events (I remember a few stallion shows and some national horse
shows), people of course picked up on them and questioned why such an exquisite
stallion who had proven to be a super heritage transferor needed to be competed
at all, especially under foreign flags. And, I also remember a very special
announcement made by Susanne Rimkus at one of the first stallion shows when
Fidermark was shown under Marlies: "We (the Westfalian breeders) need to be
grateful having found such a talented rider to present this stallion to us!"
To me this explained the ultimate cause of his exit completely: he must have
laughed himself to death.
Thank you, Steve Ellowit, for your precious time and effort
translating my slightly different story!
The
story of Fidermark - my story of Fidermark - is highly contradictory to the
common opinion and the widely accepted understanding of Fidermark, the
Westfalian stallion of the 90s. Unfortunately, my story doesn't translate to the
German version of it on this website. The German version consists exclusively of
letters to the editors of various breeding magazines (monthly verband journals)
and officials that I have written during the course of Fidermark's rise and
history. Some of the letters were published - most of them weren't. Some of them
appeared in German breeding forums and became the subject of the most involved
discussions. However, given the cynical nature of my native German writing, I
feel incapable of translating these letters into English in an appropriate
manner. Most of the native understanding gets lost in translation, so I finally
gave up on it even though I regret being incapable of providing you with my most
instinctive feelings while composing these letters. Instead, I will try to
summarize my Fidermark story for you as a whole in retrospect.
While
I was still living in Hessen, Michael and Fidermark proceeded with their career.
The new Westfalian State Stud CEO, Susanne Rimkus, developed a relationship with
Johann Hinnemann, known to be one of the world's most prestigious dressage
trainers. Susan’s concept of introducing state stud owned stallions to the
public sport scene was highly noticeable back then since it was quiet unusual
for state stud owned stallions to compete at all. Michael and Fidermark were
soon stationed for good at Hinnemann's barn in the Rhineland, a kind of
revolutionary move that was unheard of in the history of the Westfalian State
Stud. In order to promote the Westfalian State Stud, some of their most
promising dressage stallions were also moved to Hinnemann to be trained and
competed in public horse shows. Michael would successfully compete Fidermark up
to Prix St.George and also had become World Champion of young dressage horses
with Laurentianer by Lauries Crusador xx x Grande (Arnheim 2000). Westfalian
breeders were ecstatic over Fidermark and proud to finally have a superior
stallion to promote their breed again. Breeders loved it even though it meant
they had to deal with lesser quality semen given the double-burden of sports and
breeding that came along with Fidermark's career. Ever since the images of
former world champions Fire (by Frühlingstraum II /Norbert Koof, show jumping)
and Ahlerich (by Angelo xx/Dr.Reiner Klimke, dressage) had faded, the Westfalian
breed had been waiting for a potential super-star – now he was here. 
Thus,
the Fidermark story became a bittersweet story. No one doubted the quality of
the sire, but local national pride (mine included) and traditional horse
breeding culture were hurt and torn apart. There are no-no's that need to be
obeyed when dealing with state stud affairs. Placing a foreign rider on a
domestic stallion was one of them, especially when this stallion turns out to be
an idol of the public. The entire affair was highly discussed and questioned by
many people. The argument of tax moneys (the State Stud is subsidized) being
used to support foreign riders was often heard. Also, breeders would criticize
the poor semen quality of the stallion. The logic behind it was simple: if lost
to a foreign rider he would now mostly be shown outside the country, in the
Netherlands. So what was the benefit to Westfalian breeders, anyway? They would
rather see the stallion not being competed at all but safely being stationed at
home at the Warendorf State Stud in order to serve what he was there for:
produce prime offspring for the wealth and glory of Westfalian breeders.