In December the Paardenkrant (newspaper) had a nice piece about Emilion published. It is in Dutch but click here to have a look:

Emilion, rockhard stallion with character.




Here is the translation:

In 1988, a son of Wellington from a Holsteiner mother was presented at the first round of the KWPN Stallion Show. Emilion was the name of that young stallion and 25 years later his name can still be heard on a daily basis at the VDL Stud from the Van de Lageweg family in the Friesian village of Bears. The grandson of Nimmerdor, the progenitor of the VDL Stud, has developed into a very valued sire.

Emilion is a son of Wellington (Nimmerdor x Lucky Boy xx), who died too early. His dam is the Holsteiner mare Ramirha (Farnese x Ladykiller xx). His grandmother Fiance is the full sister to the legendary sire Lord (Ladykiller xx x Cottage Son xx). Wiepke van de Lageweg imported Ramirha from Germany as a yearling. “We wanted the best, young broodmare from proven lines, so we went to the breeder of Lord. There we found Emilion’s mother. She had very good gaits and was an excellent jumper,” says Wiepke van de Lageweg. Son Wiebe-Yde adds: “When it comes to breeding we did have some bad luck with her. Several of her offspring died and other than Emilion we actually only have the Zevenster- daughter Ditlena from her.”, he explains. “Ah well, bad luck. We still have Emilion and that’s a cracker!”, says Wiepke.

Striking young horse

Wiepke and Wiebe-Yde van de Lageweg tell about how Emilion was already a striking horse as a colt. “He was something special from the start. He had an excellent canter and was very elastic. Everything was easy for him,” says Wiebe-Yde. In free jumping Emilion showed very special traits and Wiepke still remembers this like it was yesterday. “That was so special. When you were setting up the jumps, he would aways come close to you and watch what you were doing. Then when you were reay, he would just go and jump the sequence of jumps you had just set up. You very rarely had to use a whip.” Wiebe-Yde: “And his descendants do that too. They never fly stupidly into the hole, but look first. They are quite boisterous, but in in a good way.”

First breeding seasons

With a generous score of 76.5 points Emilion passed the performance test of the KWPN. For his character and jumping under saddle he received nines out of ten. He thus aroused the interest of many breeders. “The first two years he covered many mares, but then the interest decreased,” says Wiepke. “His descendants often had the head a bit high and a lot of the breeders became hesitant. “Wiebe-Yde: “But we personally really liked his offspring right from the beginning! They all had a lot of cantering ability and came off the ground with power. The also had a good character and nothing fazed them.”

As usual with the VDL Stud stallions, a career in sports was in the offing for Emilion. As the popularity of the breeders decreased, he was even taken out of breeding duties in favour of his jumping career. The German rider Ulrich Kirchhoff, who would in 1996 become Olympic champion with Jus de Pomme, rode several stallions for the VDL Stud. “Emilion got less mares by then and Ulrich did not like for stallions to combine breeding and sport. So for a few years it was just sports for Emilion. In fact we have always had all our stallions in the sport, that has always been very important,”says Wiepke.

Career as a sport horse

Emilion and Ulrich Kirchhoff had numerous successes at international level, but one success is very memorable for Wiepke van de Lageweg. In 1995, Emilion and Ulrich Kirchhoff won the World Cup qualifier in Millstreet in Ireland. “I never went to competitions, I rarely had time for that. But I wanted to go once and I heard that Millstreet was a nice event.”

The victory in Mill Street was not only a great reminder for Wiepke van de Lageweg, the car manufacturer Volvo still benefits from it to this day. “It was an instant hit, Emilion won the World Cup! That was fantastic. Volvo sponsored a car there, so I got a Volvo. Most people that win cars sell them immediately, but I traded my Mercedes for the Volvo. And to this day I still drive a Volvo! If more people would have done that, Volvo would probably still be a sponsor”, jokes Wiepke.

After his fantastic career as a show-jumper, he came for example second in the Grand Prix of Donaueschingen in 1995 and fourth in the Grand Prix of Valkenswaard in 1996, it was time for Emilion to focus on his career as a breeding stallion again.

Tomboy
Tomboy and Van der Vleuten. © Arnd Bronkhorst / www.arnd.nl

Influential sire

The same Emilion that was ignored by the breeders for years, now developed into a very valuable sire. His offspring made it to the top more often. In international show-jumping there were horses like Glasgow (ds. Tangelo xx ) under Normann Dello Joio ‘USA Horse of the Year’ and Tomboy (ds. Ahorn), who reached great heights with Eric van der Vleuten and won the World Cup in London. He was later sold on to Athina Onassis for a fortune. Also the phenomenal Seldana di Campalto (ds. Alme Star) was at first very successsful with Natale Chiaudani and won silver at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky 2010 with Abdullah Al Sharbatly in the saddle.

For the VDL Stud some other Emilion-offspring have been important. “Sarantos won under Gert -Jan Bruggink the Grand Prix of Amsterdam, Empire won the VION Cup and later jumped Nation Cups, Edminton won the Grand Prix of Leeuwarden and Emmerton was under Vrieling Dutch champion”, says Wiebe-Yde van de Lageweg. The mare Lely is also still of great value.” At first she also jumped internationally and is now one of our best broodmares.”