Pedigree profile of Rivendell Figaro

D.O.B. 09/11/2020 – Florimon (Imp Hann) x Don Crusador x Rotspon

Figaro has been my dream for many years, as his dam, StPrSt Delovely was the first horse I produced from prenovice to advanced dressage.  She was my best friend for many years before having to be retired due to injury.  She is also not able to maintain her own pregnancies and several attempts at Embryo transfer have been unsuccessful.  Till this one!!!!  Figaro is the result of a successful embryo transfer.  Better still, he is by Florimon, who is the second horse I have produced from prenovice to Advanced level dressage and he is still competing up the grades.  He is a heart horse.  Therefore, Rivendell Figaro has extremely large shoes to fill, and I am so so happy about him.  In his pedigree, going four generations back, you will find only two mares that do not have the title of State premium mare.  More consolidated breeding than that is difficult to find.

Delovely was bought as a three year old and inseminated with ‘Scolari’ before leaving Germany for RSA. Unfortunately she aborted a colt at nine months gestation in quarantine. She was then put into work and was so rideable and willing to work, that it was decided to put her back into foal, this time to the stallion Hotline. At nine months gestation she once again threatened to lose the pregnancy, but we managed to pull her through and she produced a lovely colt, Rivendell Hennessey. She was then put into foal to Sir Donnerhall, and aborted another colt at ten months gestation. Therefore, she became a sporthorse, and excelled in the arena, winning many local and national prizes, as well as the FEI advanced competition internationally for the group SA falls under

Delovely’s sire, Don Crusador, at the 2000 Stallion Licensing in the Niedersachsen Halle in Verden, Germany, was laureled as Champion of his licensing year. As a pitch black Don Bosco x Lauries Crusador xx stallion, he was the crowd pleaser and absolute favourite of the judges, and impressed each day throughout the approval procedures. Descending out of Larissa, a Lauries Crusador xx x Pik Bube I, Don Crusador was purchased by Bernhard Bade, head of the Landesgestut in Celle.

Don Crusador placed 3rd in the dressage portion of his 300 day test at Adelheidsdorf in 2001 with a dressage index of 133.06 and 6th overall.

The powerful Donnerhall/Pik Bube mix is at work in the pedigree of Don Crusador, with the same Pik Bube mare, Pik Bubes Girl, on both sides of the pedigree. 

He produced fourteen licensed sons (including Dark Knight, the undisputed 2009 Champion of three year old stallions at the Bundeschampionat in Warendorf); and 55 state premium mares/candidates.

Don Bosco, by Donnerhall, is a dark bay Hanoverian stallion.  The mix of Donnerhall with Pik Bube-line mares has proven itself to be one of the most reliable in producing excellent dressage horses.  Davignon, Don Primero, Don Schufro, Donatelli, Donnerbube, Dream of Glory, Duntroon all hail from the magic Donnerhall/Pik Bube cross. 

Pik Bube, a brown Hanoverian stallion of 16.3 hands, was licensed in Verden in 1975, and was Vice-Champion at his 100-Day Test at Adelheidsdorf in 1976. He has sired 16 licensed sons and 28 state premium mares. He excelled not only as a breeding stallion but in also competition, winning 11 of the 12 advanced dressage tests he contested.  He died in 1991. Pik Bube’s sire, Pik König is considered the most important son of the famous Thoroughbred sire of showjumpers, Pik AS xx. Pik König sired 19 Approved sons and 22 State Premium mares.

With a dressage index of 126, and a jumping index of 131, Pik König had an overall rating of 129. His sire, Pik AS xx stood at the State Stud Celle from 1953-69, where he sired four approved sons.

Delovely’s damsire is the stallion Rotspon, who after years of producing quality offspring, in 2017 Rotspon was awarded ‘Hanoverian Stallion of the Year’ by the Hanoverian Verband in Verden, Germany.

Rotspon is a top quality son of the dressage stallion Rubinstein I. He was the sovereign winner of the Hanoverian stallion performance test in 1998, scoring an excellent 148.82 points in the dressage category. Like his father, Rotspon is a very impressive horse with a great rideability, outstanding movements and a high ability for dressage. He also has a good jumping technique which is above average. He is an elegantly made sire in a noble black coat with a lot of expression and appearance.

Rotspon’s son, Rosevelt, competed for Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics.  With his rider Allison Brock,  Team USA won Bronze.  Rosevelt also won the 2015 Grand Prix in Wellington, FL and did it again one month later at the Grand Prix CD13*.

The first crop of offspring by Rotspon were born in the year 2000. The foals have beautiful heads and a good conformation (long sloping shoulder, long well set up neck). They are equipped with a very elastic trot and a ground covering walk, and have been very much in demand.  In the 2015, according to the Hanoverian Stallion Book, Rotspon is credited with 888 competition progeny with winnings of €680,105 – 767 dressage placegetters with 80 progeny competing at S level.

In the 2016 Hanoverian book, the progeny stands at 913, with winnings of €759,161. Although he has produced nine horses that have won more than €10,000 in the dressage ring, none are stars. His FN breeding value for dressage is 132, for jumping, 72. His Hanoverian values are 126 for dressage and 80 for jumping.  He is the sire of 17 licensed sons including Rascalino and Royal Blend.

At the prestigious Ratje Niebuhr-Show of 2002, Rotspon was the second most successful sire represented, with only his first crop. Both the two and three year old classes were won by his daughters, with the two year old becoming the youngest champion in the show’s history. Rotspon has begun creating his own branch of the Rubinstein I dynasty with many approved sons and daughters, as well as high-priced auction horses and stellar performance horses. In 2005, Rotspon received a Breeding Value Index of 155 points, with an assurance of 97% heritability, from the German Equestrian Federation.

Rivendell Figaro’s sire is the imported Hanoverian stallion Florimon, who is an eye-catching Hanoverian stallion with an extraordinary, noble and elegant conformation. He has a fantastic character and rideability, which he passes generously onto his offspring.  The aim is to have him lifetime licensed with the Hanoverian Verband on performance once he is successfully competing at Prix st George level.  His pedigree features an exceptional bloodline combination.

Florimon was the winner of his stallion performance test and completed his 30-day test with highest scores for all three basic gaits. He scored 8 for trot and 8.25 for canter, the highest scores assigned in the field of 17 competitors. But he also earned above-average scores for walk (7.75) and rideability (8.38).

His sire Falsterbo completed the 30- and 70-days performance test in 2001 in Prussendorf with above-average scores in all disciplines. He won various riding horse ability classes and show jumping ability competitions of novice and elementary level at the age of four and five.

In the meantime, he is a successful dressage competition horse with victories at Intermédiare I-level, and he just recently placed at Grand Prix-classes under Jonny Hilberath. Falsterbo supplied extraordinary foals, lots of them being top-priced auction foals and champions at shows.

Dam’s sire Defacto served as a stud stallion for a short time only, but with Donnerhall and Pik König, his pedigree features international top-class dressage horse genes. A convincing quantity of his few daughters was especially awarded. Walt Disney I in the third generation placed at the final of the German Riding Horse Championships in Mannheim, and he won the subsequent stallion performance test in Adelheidsdorf. As he was the best stallion completing the stallion performance test in that year, he was awarded with the Fritz-von-Stenglin-Prize. He was trained up to Grand Prix-level and was for years one of the famous “Celle chestnuts”, the famous, worldwide popular quadrille formation of the Celle National State Stud. In his first breeding years at the Unterweser Insemination Station, he supplied fantastic, exceptional mares with a captivating, perfect exterior, approved stallions and extremely successful competition horses up to highest dressage level. The pedigree is complemented by Lemon xx who produced tough and long-living dressage and event horses, and the valuable Seefischer.

The dam, state premium mare Die Lady, was first-class awarded at the Ratje-Niebuhr-Show, and various other ancestors were also awarded with special prizes. Granddam, state premium mare Walt Lady, was the champion mare at the Louis-Wiegels-Show in Sandbostel in 1999. In 1998, she earned a first-class prize at the Federal Mare Show in Warendorf and in 2008, she supplied an approved son, also by Falsterbo. Her full sister, state premium mare Wendla, is the dam of the approved Oldenburg stallion Fin de Siècle by Florencio I. Great-granddam, state premium mare Larina, is also an approved and highly awarded mare, earning for example a first-class prize at the Louis-Wiegels-Show in 1999 and at the same event, the victory in the family division. Her daughter, state premium mare Wariness (by Weltmeyer), supplied the popular Marbach state stud stallion Epikur by Espri.

Florimon goes back to the Hanoverian mare family 657/Kareda resp. Kroatin (by Kirkland – Denar – Königsleutnant etc.) that has its origin in the area of the long-established Oiste Service Station near Verden. Among the 20 licensed stallions out of this line, Alpdruck (privately owned stallion Westphalia, Bavaria), the important black stallion Amor (privately owned stallion Westphalia), Can Can (state stud stallion Neustadt/D.), Equitano (privately owned stallion Bavaria), the Celle state stud stallions Ernö, Grandseigneur, Lausbub (champion of the Stallion Licensing), Ludendorff and Weingraf, Reccio L (privately owned stallion Hanover) and the Dillenburg state stud stallions Adlerhorst, Weltpoet and Windfang as well as Freya, Fugosa and Faschingsfee, the successful show jumping horses in the 50ies and 60ies, are the most famous representatives out of this line.

Pedigree of Rivendell Figaro: