The Crowd Favorites
It didn’t take long for the crowd to pick its favorite. When that gray stallion, Contigo,quietly stood by Rudy Leone as he raised the jump to five feet, the crowd knew that Rudy had a lot of confidence in this stallion’s temperament and his free jumping ability. The combination of character and outstanding jumping ability led many in the crowd to believe they were looking at the horse to beat.
However, this group of stallions had a lot of jumping potential. The pedigrees contained some of the best jumping sires in the world, Cor de la Breyère, Nimmerdor,Jus de Pomme(1996 Olympic Gold medal winner), Silvio I, Romiro, and Almé Z. “Cor” could be found in six of the pedigrees. Making things more interesting for the spectators was the competition between two prominent breeding farms, Glenwood Farms and Hilltop Farm. Glenwood Farms entered two stallions, Dumont and Freestyle. Dumont is by their great stallion, Diamont. Freestyle was recently imported. Hilltop Farm entered two stallions, Reno and Royal Appearance, by their great jumping stallion, Riverman. Carrying the flag for dressage was left to the two stallions, Ragtime and Ransom PCH, by the Hanoverian stallion, Reggazoni. Reggazoni and his sire, Rubinstein I, won their performance tests in Germany and are being competed at dressage in Germany. They are from the same line that produced the dressage Olympic gold medal winners, Rembrandt with Nicole Uphoff and Ahlerich with Dr. Reiner Klimke.
How to watch a stallion test and have some fun!
To make watching the test more enjoyable and informative I watched the test as if I was one of the judges. It is important to remember that 50% of the score has already been determined by the training director, Rudy Leone, and his staff. This includes the important personality traits, character, temperament, willingness to work, and ability to work. During the final three days the final 50% is scored by a panel of judges and elite guest riders. The panel of judges evaluate the horse at freejumping, walk, trot, canter, and cross country. The dressage guest riders score the stallion on rideability and the jumping guest riders score the stallion on jumping under saddle. It is this final 50% that I focused on. I have looked at the scores from previous tests and found that the training director and the judges agree on the top horses. They differ in the order they place the top horses. So my objective was to try and pick the top five horses. Rideability is probably the most important characteristic of the test. So I looked at the horses from the perspective of which horse would I enjoy riding. As the horses were presented in groups of two and three, I just picked the top one in the group and wrote it on a pad. By the time of the stallion owner’s party on Friday evening and with only the cross country to go, I had my top five.
The Results…please!
After the cross country on Saturday the hard work of calculating the results began. The stallion tests in North America and Germany use a complicated scoring system approved by the University of Göttingen in Germany. The system has been used for decades in Germany. Without going into too much detail, each stallion starts out with 100 points and the stallion’s score goes up or down depending on how it did compared to the average. Finally the results were announced. The top horse at the 100-Day Test was seven year old stallion, Contigo. The top horse in the Short Test was the five year old stallion, Lamborghini Z. Both of these horses were at the top of my list for obvious reasons. They both were excellent jumpers, good riding horses, and scored well in all phases. On Friday the guest riders, John French and Todd Minikus, treated us to some showboating with these boys! The top seven horses were all on my list. The second place horse was Reno. I had Ragtime, 5th place, and Reno tied the best four year old. According to my calculations Reno was the number one horse coming out of training but he was not as consistent as Contigo over the final three days. Likewise I favored Scimitar, 6th place, as the best three year old over Ransom PCH, 3rd place finisher. Scimitar improved his position the most over the final three days. Ransom PCH (aka Applause Junkie) seemed a little nervous but settled down quickly when he heard the crowd cheer for him. Both are very fine stallions. Royal Appearance was the fourth place horse. The fourth place was Royal Appearance who bears a striking resemblance to his sire, Riverman, and shared many good qualities with his brother, Reno. However, Reno is the better jumper. A special congratulations to Opus who was second in the short test. He scored a very impressive 140.59 in the dressage index. In the three times the stallion test has conducted the short test, this group was the most impressive.
Return of the 2nd Chance Stallion and other things that make you hmm..
Second chance stallions are stallions who have been rejected by one society or do not score enough points at their inspection to be certified and then go on to do very well at the 100-day test. Both Amor Reto in 1996 and Contigo in 2000 did not score enough points at their inspection to be provisionally certified and yet both won their 100-day tests impressively. Ragtime was rejected at his first inspection and he went on to a very respectable 5th place. Hmmm….
When you look at the results the two previous tests had a lot more in common than 2000 test. The top horses, Amor Reto and “Blue”(aka Puerto d’ Azur) were the top dressage horse and second place jumping horse. Generally speaking the top dressage horses are the top overall horses. In the 2000 test the top jumpers dominated the overall index.
Time to start planning to attend the 2002 test at Paxton Farm
Congratulations to the management and staff of 2000 test. Once again they continue to improve test for the horses and the spectators. John and Janet Paxton were there taking notes so I am sure they are planning on having the best test ever at their farm. For more information contact the American Hanoverian Society, ISR, or Paxton Farm.