Pedigree profile of Rivendell Banshee
D.o.B. 26/11/2022

Banshee is a sassy chestnut filly out of the mare MT Bolero. Bolero, also known as Betty, is by the stallion Bacio, who was by Sandreo. Sandreo has gained a long list of accomplishments in his dressage career and as a breeding stallion. Son of the sought after, Sandro Hit, this superb dark bay stallion is remarkable for his refinement, his lightness, and the perfect conformation of his gaits.
His accomplishments include:
– Vice-champion in the NRPS approvals in 2003
– Winner of the Pave Cup in 2004 for 4 year-old dressage horses
– KWPN approved
– Labeled, Dressage, in Saumur in 2004
– 3rd at CDI in Vidauban 2015 on the Children’s circuit.
> 2nd at CDI in Saumur 2015 on the Children’s circuit.
> 8me au Championnat d’Europe 2015 dans l’épreuve préliminaire Children
> Bronze medal in the European Children’s Championship
> Vice-Champion of France Minimes 2015
> Class 8 at the FEI Children’s competition om 2015
His father Sandro Hit won the Championship of Germany and the World Championship as a six year old in 1999. In 2000 he received the honors of “Best Young Stallion”. In 2003 one of his sons placed second at the Championship of Germany of foals and Poetin won the World Championship at 6 years old in Verden, Germany.
In 2006, Sandreo had numerous sons approved in various studbook: Showstar, FS Sandro Classic, San Rubin and Sir Donnerhall also won “Bundeschampionat” and Sir Willson, Stedinger, Sunny Boy, Sandrit, Sommerhit, Stoiber, Samba Hit II. And in 2008 Salieri was ranked 33rd in the world list with WBFSH for dressage horses.
His dam, Pretiffy is distinguished “keur” for the quality of her production in dressage. She rises from her sire Flemmingh who is also a distinguished “keur” by the KWPN studbook.
In 2021, in the WBFSH list of dressage sires, Sandro Hit is ranked in the top four. He has clearly made his mark as a sire of sires as well as sport horses.
Rivendell Banshee’s sire is Rivendell Beregond who is by Belissimo M, one of the top stallions in Europe. After a long break from competing, he returned in 2011 at the advanced (S) level, and straightaway he achieved victories and placings in Grand-Prix under Hayley Beresford. Beregond has really proven himself as a stamping sire. He himself ended his competitive career as a champion Elementary dressage horse before retiring to soundness issues caused by high intra-articular ringbone.

In recognition of his breeding significance, Belissimo M has been honoured in a way that only a few top stallions have. He now is allowed to perform as representative of his homeland, as Belissimo NRW. The Holsteiner Verband has also honoured his extraordinary breeding qualities in 2010 by granting him a rare approval to breed Holsteiner mares as a sire of a foreign blood-line.
The offpring of Belissimo M set records: Nine stallion performance test winners and three vice performance test winners from the first few crops is probably a world record! In addition, there are five Bundeschampions and, with Blickpunkt, there is a double bronze medal winner of the World Championships for young dressage horses in Verden. Currently, Callaho’s Benicio – the eponymous hero of the 2011 Hanoverian licensing in Verden – became, with fantastic scores, Bundeschampion of the six-year-old dressage horses in Warendorf. Benicio also won his stallion performance test with 9.88 in dressage (a 10.0 for trot, walk and canter each) and an 8.43 for jumping!

Belissimo M has produced more championship winners, and many highly priced auction horses such as his daughter, Belandra, who sold for 572,000 Euro to Denmark at the PSI Auction in Ankum. All are the result of Belissimo M’s resounding inheritance of riding quality. In 2011, his oldest offspring competed in the advanced class for the first time – already five of them were successful at this stage, several times even as winners.

According to FN’s estimated breeding values, he has been positioned for years nationwide among the top dressage sires with a score of 169 index points in 2012, and he also has a positive breeding value for jumping (107 points). The Hanoverian estimated breeding value statistics place him with the very best stallions with 147 points for the dressage quality of his performance tested daughters, and with impressive evaluations for the heredity transmission of riding horses (142 points) as well as the fundament (159 points!).

Until the end of 2014, Belissimo M already presented 42 licensed sons including numerous premium stallions in Hanover (310,000 Euro top-prized Bentley), Oldenburg, Westphalia, and Austria where Bellheim became the champion stallion. Furthermore, there are already 80 state premium mares, including the champion mares of Hanover and Bavaria, as well as the 2009 champion mare of Westphalia, Brillante, and the 2011 reserve champion mare, Bella Vista.
This resounding heredity transmission is the result of systematic performance breeding. The sire Beltain was himself successful in the dressage arena up to advanced (S) class and originates from one of the most successful mare lines of Hanover. His dam is full sister of the Celle State Stud sires, Garibaldi I and II, and granddam of Wolkenstein I and II as well as of the Grand Prix dressage horse Little Big Man, the Celle State Stud sires Brentano I and II, as well as Beauvalais who was the 2002 World Equestrian Games silver medalist, and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist.
Belissimo’s dam, Roxa, produced, when bred to Boss, three successful full siblings in dressage up to advanced (S) level: Bonnie Bianco, Baccarole and Boutique.

Wolkenfee, state premium Hannoverian mare is Beregond’s dam.
Her sire is Wolkentanz I, one of the successful sons of the legendary sire Weltmeyer. He became Champion Stallion at the Verden licensing in 1993.
One year later in 1994 he won the three-year-old stallions classification at the Federal Championships of German Riding Horses, and was runner-up in the stallion performance test, scoring a convincing 140.53 points in the dressage category.

In 1995 Wolkentanz was honored as the best stallion of his age-group. Like his father, Wolkentanz has excellent movements, very good rideability and great talent for dressage. This stalliond thrills audiences with his breathtaking trot as a member of the Celle Dressage Quadrille. His offspring turned head with their fantastic movements, wherever they competed or were inspected.
In 2001 he produced both the champion colt and filly of the German Foal Championships–with both scoring perfect 10’s on their gaits! Thus, Wolkentanz appears to be Weltmeyer’s best producing son so far.

In 2005, Wolkentanz received a Breeding Value Index of 157 points, with an assurance of 97% heritability, from the German Equestrian Federation.
Damsire Bergkristall, was bu the legendary stallion Bolero, who was one of the new dressage sires in the Hannoverian studbook, with his abundance of Thoroughbred blood contributing to the elegant quality of his descendents.

Bolero is by the elegant English Thoroughbred Black Sky, imported to Germany in 1972. Black Sky’s grand-sire Djebe was a son of Djebel, sire of the great stakes winning sire, My Babu, who when exported to the United States established a winning line of hunter/jumpers. In Australia the My Babu son, Better Boy has been an influential sire of jumping horses.

Bolero’s dam, Baroness is by another English Thoroughbred, Bleep who traces on her dam’s side, to Hyperion and then of course to Bay Ronald. Her dam’s sire Athos was regarded as a good sire of dressage broodmares. The damline, Athos-Fliegerstern also produced the popular sires, Grenadier (Celle State stallion} and Hitchcock (Celle and Radegast state studs} as well as the private stallion, Winner.

At his performance test, Bolero performed only moderately, placing 6th out of 30 stallions in his 100 day test at Adelheidsdorf with a score of 111.

In his lifetime Bolero was a useful sire in a career cut short far too quickly, but he is now proving a wonderful sire of broodmares. He was stationed Landesbrück where he clicked wonderfully with the daughters of Grande and Duellant.

In his nine seasons at stud, he sired 47 licensed stallions, including the champion of his year, Buenos Aires. Perhaps his most influential stallion sons have been the Brentanos I & II and Bismarck.His son Beltain was the sire of the Champion Six year old horse at the 2005 Bundeschampionate, Bellissimo.

Bolero is the sire of 317 registered broodmares, of whom 96 were awarded State Premium status. The mare Baccarole was the Champion mare at the Louis-Wiegels Show in 1989, and European Champion mare at Brussels in 1990. Baltengracie was again Champion of the Louis-Wiegels Show in 1991. Bolero sired three winners in the three year old Riding Horse class at the Bundeschampionate, Boruschkin (1984}, Bini Bo (1987} and Bocaccio (1988}. All three went on to advanced level dressage. The gelding son, Borsalino was a successful Grand Prix horse with Heike Kemmer, another son, Bossanova looked sensational at Grand Prix with Anna Merveldt-Steffan before his untimely death. As of the year 2000, Bolero was represented by 412 competition horses, with collective winnings of DM1,282,504. Bolero’s son, Beauvalais, ridden by the Spanish rider, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, won the indiidual silver medal and team bronze at the 2002 WEG, and the team silver and individual bronze at the Olympic Games in Athens, 2004.

In the calculation of breeding values on the basis of the Hanoverian mare performance test, Bolero daughters give him a dressage ranking of 139 – as against a not unexpected 57 for jumping.
Bolero’s sudden death at the age of only 12 reduced his chances to shine as a breeding sire, but nowadays, he is proving an exceptional sire of broodmares.