D.O.B. 18/11/2015 – Rivendell Chancellor (Imp Old) x Argentinus (Old) x Calypso

Cherokee is a special boy, with a special story.  The MS behind his name stands for Midgard Stud, as this is a partnership.

Cherokee is a son of our stallion Rivendell Chancelor, who in 2020 moved back to Europe to continue his competitive showjumping career with Matthew Mosisson.  In South Africa, this stallion competed successfully in the open clases up to 1.50m.  

Chancellor is by the Holstein Clintord, by Clinton I. Clintord is a showjumper descended from the finest Holsteiner lineage. Clinton was a highly successful international show jumper with more than 200,000 Euros in lifetime earnings. Two full siblings of Clinton have won at Grand Prix level and at S *** level.

Six offspring of the exceptional mare Waage, dam line 4965, have been successful at the German Young Horse Championships. The actual estimation of Clinton’s breeding value is 157 points.

Clintord’s dam Miss Monica carries the top blood of Caletto I and Lord. Great grand dam Hilgunde and Caletto I provided the Holstein stallion Cambridge, line 1947. For years, Cambridge sustains a top position in the FN estimation of breeding values.

Clintord confirms his excellent jumping pedigree with sensational capability and good technique. He completed his 30 day performance test with the overall score of 8, 58 and in the discipline show jumping with the score of 9, 36. Afterwards he was champion of the 70-day performance test with a show jumping score of 146 points.

Damsire Calido was the standout sire in the jumping at the 2004 Bundeschampionate, siring the winner of the 5 year old jumping championship, Coster, and the Reserve Champion, Clintwood, and Celine making it through the final. Calido carries the influential Holstein C line of Cor de la Bryere and Capitol. Calido has been a success at stud and has been awarded the highest FN breeding ranking. His oldest progeny are already internationally successful. Stallion sons of Calido include Calanthano, Caleri, Calido Ass, Calmo, Candyman, Cantino, Cerutti, Cervantes, Chalet, Chapot Charakter, Charisma, Conquest of Paradies, Cormint, Coster, Counter, Count Basie and Crelido.

In the Hanoverian Stallion book for 2007 Calido is recorded with progeny earnings of 721,361 euro, with 496 progeny competing in jumping and with 98 at advanced levels. He has an FN jumping index of 144 and a dressage ranking of 117. On the basic of the Hanoverian mare and auction tests, he has a dressage score of 119 and a jumping rank of 159.

Calido passes on his lovely type and jumping ability. His pedigree contains 3 times Cor de la Bryere, 3 times Cottage Son XX, 3 times Ramzes AA and 2 times Anblick XX.

Chancellor’s dam, St Pr St Celine Dion is also the dam of the Hannoverian stallion Salito, now standing in Spruce Meadows.

For the jumper breeder, this impressive stallion has tremendous potential, placing 1st in the jumping portion of the Hannoverian 300 Day Test in 2004 and finishing 8th overall.

Until 2008, this magnificent son of Stakkato stood at the Langestutt State Stud in Celle, Germany. He was approved in 2004. At Salito’s performance test at Adelheidsdorf in 2004 he was awarded first place in the jumping category out of 42 stallions in his year. Points given were 8 for character, 8 for willingness, 8 for conformation, 7 and 7.67 for rideability, 6 for trot, 7 and 6 for canter, 6 for walk, 9.17 for free jumping, 9.33 for jumping manner, 9 for jumping technique and 9 for cross country. Salito was the 2006 Hannoverian Jumping Champion in Dobrock and continued to impress with admirable results in both the 2006 and 2007 Bundeschampionat. This Hannoverian Jumping Champion of 2006 and winner of countless show jumping competitions in Germany stood at the Landgestut State Stud in Celle. German breeders were impressed by his offspring as winners of free jumping championships and mare performance tests.

Cherokee-s dam Arizona was imported by Midgard Stud in Namibia.  Her sire was the legendary stallion Argentinus. His son, Arko ESI, brought 130,000 Euro, making him the most expensive warmblood foal ever sold at an auction in Germany. A full brother of this price record breaker, Arko III, was the most successful show jumper in the world twice under Nick Skelton. But Argentinus’ many other internationally successful off-spring document why he remains such a popular sire: Anka, under Marcus Ehning, won the competition in Spangenberg and took home a ribbon from Geneva the end of this year. Nations Cup winner Asti Spumanti under Thomal Mühlbauer had another great season. As the sire, so the off-spring: honest, willing to perform and born with a genius talent for jumping. The list of Argentinus’ achievements during the course of his long career is long – Champion Stallion in Oldenburg, Stallion of the Year in Hanover – but the statistics on his internationally successful off-spring show the true dimensions of his greatness. Special Ed, for example, participated in the World Equestrian Games in Aachen under Jill Henslewood. In spite of their enormous talent for jumping, Argentinus’ children are always good movers as well and thanks to their 1a characters, they are the perfect partners for all equestrian sports.

Argentinus is the most influential son of the Hanoverian stallion, Argentan I. Argentinus’ dam is by Duden II who was highly esteemed as a producer of top quality performance horses and wonderful broodmares.

By 1996, Argentinus was the youngest millionaire among Germany’s top sires and he remained a top sire right up until his death in 2007. A successful advanced level jumper himself, Argentinus produced both jumping and dressage competitors and stallions.
His progeny include over 20 approved stallions, including the stallion performance test winner and Vechta price record breaking, August der Starke (sire of Victoria Max-Theuer’s Grand Prix dressage horse, Augustin) and numerous State Premium Mares, many of which have proved themselves on a national level.

Performers include the World Cup showjumping champion, Anka with Markus Ehning. Of his dressage horses, there is Amaretto, Isabell Werth’s dressage horse who died just as his career was getting underway, and Albano with Heike Kemmer – team gold medal winner in the 2001 German European Dressage Championships.

In the survey of the world’s top 75 jumping sires that appears in Monneron 2007-2008, Argentinus is ranked 16^th the world, with 15 CSI winners.

Argentinus was the Hanoverian Stallion of the Year 2005, and the 2015 Stallion Yearbook, takes an extra page to detail his career. So far he has produced 1482 competitors with winnings of €5,286,991 – 544 in dressage and 1134 jumpers. Albano was clearly the most successful dressage horse with winnings of €208,443, while the most successful jumper was Anka with €773,497, followed by the stallions, Air Jordan (€467,332), Asti Spumante (€454,240) and Adlantus As FRH with €407,662.

Argentinus has a 2014 FN ranking of 100 for dressage and 119 for jumping. His Hanoverian value for dressage is 90, and for jumping, 129.

He comes in 17^th place on the Monneron 2007/2008 top 75 stallions ranking, with 15 representatives.

On the WBFSH 2007 jumping stallion standings, Argentinus was in 7^th position, with 18 representatives, six of whom have 200+ points: Special Ed (Grannus), Arko III (Beach Boy), Asti Spumante (Landfrieden), Air Jordan (Matador), Anastasia (Zeus) and E & W Armani (Weltmeister). Markus Ehning’s star duo – Anka (Waidmann) and Armitage (Grannus) are just behind, tied on 130 points.

In 2008, he was ranked 3^rd, but then disappears from the standings, although he makes a brief appearance on the 2009 Dressage stallion rankings in 27^th place.

His son, Air Jordan (Matador) who was second in the World Cup Final of 2007 with Daniel Deusser, died at the age of 17 in August 2013 after complications arose during surgery for inguinal hernia. Air Jordan has been cloned, and his clone, Air Jordan Alpha Z was approved by the Studbook Zangersheide in 2013. He has just commenced four year old jumping competitions.

After a successful career with Nick Skelton, Arko III (out of a Beach Boy mare) is now emerging as a sire, his son, Argento (out of a mare by Gasper) won the big World Cup class at Amsterdam in January 2014, with John Whitaker.

Arizona’s dam sire was Calypso I, who was an incredibly important sire to the Holsteinerbreed and consistently passed on his best qualities to all of his offspring. He had a smooth, harmonious top-line with a well carried neck and lots of expression. Beautiful shoulder and wither. Strong bone, correct legs and feet with high set on hocks. He had well defined joints and was a marvellous mover.  He consistently passed on his best qualities to all of his offspring.  His offspring have elegant Calypso type and are endowed with fabulous basic gaits with fantastic trot and all show extraordinary jumping ability.  His offspring are correct and elastic with scope as dressage horses and jumpers.  Calypso I produced 10 approved sons and 147 approved daughters.

The story of the making of the modern Warmblood, is also a story of the breaking down of geographical barriers. It came first when visionaries – like the legendary Oldenburg breeder, Georg Vorwerk – were prepared to look outside their own district, their own stud book, and find the stallion that would change the shape of Warmblood breeding – a stallion like Furioso II. But apparently, breeding any type of animal was Herr Vorwerk’s passion, if he heard of an unusual breed of dog, or pig for that matter, he had to travel to see it. Certainly for a foreigner in France, he managed to come away with a brilliantly bred individual.

Furioso II, Arizona’s granddam sire, was out of the great mare, Dame de Renville, who produced a series of wonderful horses when mated with Furioso. The first of these was Mexico, who standing at the French National Stud of Le Pin, sired 20 approved sons, 20 dams of stallions, and famous international showjumping horses, including Laeken, Jexico de Parc and Heur de Bratand. His son, Le Mexico, has been a hugely influential sire of jumping horses in Holland.

Furioso II’s sire, the Thoroughbred, Furioso was born in England in 1939 and went on to be one of the most influential sires in modern performance horse breeding, even though he never won a single race in his 21 starts!

Furioso was described as ‘well balanced but with slightly knock kneed forelegs and tight hocks’. He was also rich in Thoroughbred jumping blood – being by Precipitation out of a mare by Son-In-Law by Dark Ronald.

The authoritative De L’etalon Sport Français of 1992, remarked: ‘he had good bone, and walked liked a lord, with a magnificent pace, very energetic and showing a great deal of amplitude, his tail swinging at each step. His trot and gallop were good but not exceptional. Though full of life he was docile and had a good temperament.’

Furioso xx, was the leading sire of jumping horses in France from 1954-1961. His son, Lutteur B, who went on to win the 1964 Olympic individual gold for showjumping, amazed the German breeders when he appeared at the Hamburg Derby. Maas Hell, in Die Grossen Hengste Holsteins records the reaction: ‘The Germans were again amazed at how nonchalantly Lutteur B performed on the jumping course, how he played with the distances, and how, with a long neck, he left the course as though nothing had happened.’

Furioso II was attractive to the Oldenburg breeders as they wanted a half-blood stallion to help make the transformation of their mares to more modern lines, without too much direct Thoroughbred blood.

Since the experience breeders gained with the French stallion, Condor was encouraging, Oldenburg stallion owners once again turned to French stallions towards the end of the 60’s – enter Furioso II. He was to stand at Georg Vorwerk’s stud in Cappeln from 1968 to 1985. He was leased to Zangersheide in 1986, and died in Belgium, that year.

Furioso II was approved for the Oldenburg studbook in 1967, and then went on to easily win his 100-day test. Later he was approved for Hanover, 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.

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 Olympic Games.

Perhaps Furioso II’s most influential son is Voltaire – out of a mare by another classic sire of jumping horses, Gotthard.

In dressage, Furioso II’s 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 in turn is the sire of Ferro. The Oldenburg stallion Welt As is out of a Furioso II daughter, and is the sire of Anky’s gold medallist Bonfire and Christine Stückelberger’s Grand Prix horse, STC Diamond.

Furioso 11 died in 1986 having sired progeny with earnings of nearly DM9,000,000. He sired 54 licensed stallions, including the Oldenburg licensing champions: Furidant (1971), Furore (1978) and Fatianus (1979). Mareile Oellrich-Overesch in her excellent profile of Florestan in the 2008/9 edition of Selected Sires of Germany makes the point: “It was a tradition in Oldenburg to prevent a stallion’s offspring from competing with their sire, so they were often sold to other breeding regions. That is why most of Furioso II’s sons were at stud in other regions of Germany or abroad. It also explains why the Furioso II bloodline didn’t originally survive in Oldenburg. Now, however it has made a comeback with Florestan’s sons Fürst Heinrich and Flavio (Sprehe Stud), Florencio (Ludwig Kathmann Stud), Faustinus (Vorwerk Stud) and Florianus (Grönwohldhof/Pape Stud). His grandsons Farewell I and Fidertanz (Böckmann/Wahler Stud), Farewell III (Klatte Stud) and Fürstentraum (Sprehe Stud) are also stationed in Oldenburg.

As late as 2007, Furioso II continued to shape the sport of showjumping. In the 2007/2008 Monneron ranking of the world’s top 75 stallions, Furioso II’s son Voltaire is ranked 11th in the world with 19 CSI winners, while For Pleasure, despite largely concentrating on a competition rather than a breeding career until recently, ranked 13th with 11 representatives.