Henny got his own TB family tree post, so I figured I’d throw in the other two equine kids as well: Sadie, and her still-in-utero Nugget (she’s currently 240 days pregnant, but who’s counting?). I’ve talked plenty about their parents before, but I’ve never really delved further back into their pedigrees because I felt like most people eyes would start to cross and they’d fall asleep. But since we’ve already opened this can of worms all over blogland, and because I think it’s really interesting to see what all is hidden in those warmblood lines: get your pillow ready, because here we go.

Sadie is kind of fun because she’s half Hanoverian and half TB… the warmbloods are so easy to trace back, because there’s so much info and even videos (I’ve linked to lots throughout this post). Her sire, as everyone has heard a million times by now because I love him, is Westporte.

Westporte has mostly produced hunters, obviously, since that’s what he was shown and marketed as, but he’s also had a few babies show up in the jumper ring, and one is even a 2* eventer. His offspring are generally known for being good movers and amateur-friendly.

Westporte himself was bred in Germany for dressage. His sire is the well-known Wolkentanz I, who won his stallion licensing and was also known for his good movement and good rideability.

Wolkentanz was by the legendary Weltmeyer, also winner of his stallion licensing. At the Bundeschampionate he earned a 10 for trot, 9.5 for canter, 8 for walk, and 9.5 for conformation and general impression. So… I guess he was alright. While Weltmeyer ended up becoming a phenomenally successful dressage sire, it’s interesting to note that at his stallion testing he managed a jumping score of 141.44 – almost as high as his dressage score of 143.94. There were some hops hidden in there, even though he never went down that road.

Wolkentanz’s dam was named Lovely (ok that’s cute) who was by Ludendorff

known for producing – you guessed it – excellent rideability, although he sired horses that were successful both in showjumping AND dressage. Ah, finally, some variety.

You can keep going back into these lines for a long way with plenty of pictures, thanks to the excellent record keeping of the Hanoverian Verband, but I’ll stop there on the sire line before anyone becomes comatose. On to the damline!

Westporte’s dam was Farrah, a bay (yay) Hanoverian mare by Fabriano.

Fabriano was another excellent dual-purpose stallion, although he is probably best known for his dressage offspring. He also won his stallion testing (this is a trend here) with high marks for rideability (also a trend here). Farrah’s damsire was Egerländer 

who actually sired mostly eventing and showjumping offspring. Believe it or not, Egerlander’s sire Ecuador was full TB. Other well-known stallions in Westporte’s pedigree include Absatz , who at the time was used to bring more “type” and help lighten the Hanoverian breed (although these days we would look at him and call him a heavier horse),

and the prolific Hanoverian showjumping sire Gotthard.

So although you glance at Westporte’s pedigree and immediately think “dressage”, there were definitely some jumping influences in there. That mixture obviously served him well as a hunter.

Sadie’s dam is a full thoroughbred – Hope’s Secret Port. She raced a little and then pretty much just lived the broodmare life. She was presented to RPSI while pregnant with Sadie and missed Premium by one measly point. They liked her type, walk, and trot, but Hope decided that that particular moment was the best possible time to canter around like Pepe LePew, so she got dinged a bit for that.

Hope’s sire was Porto Varas, who won a little bit of money at the racetrack and then sired a bunch of horses who also won a little bit of money at the racetrack. At one time I swear I had a picture of him but I can’t find it now so just use your imagination here.

Chestnut Stallion

with

Big Butt

Porto Varas was by the much more successful Miswaki, a stakes winner who raced in Europe as a 2yo and then the USA after that.

Miswaki was by Mr. Prospector, who I’m not particularly a fan of, but both Miswaki and Mr P have managed to show up in the pedigrees of many successful sporthorses so I’m learning to live with it. Miswaki’s damsire was Buckpasser, both a great racehorse sire and a great sporthorse sire.

Porto Varas was out of a mare by Arctic Tern, a french stakes winner (who was apparently blind in one eye) that went on to be a leading sire in France.

On Hope’s damside there are a few random little sporthorse lines further back, but the most well known name that would immediately jump off the page to anyone is this guy:

Hope’s pedigree actually has one mare, Hopespringseternal, in there twice, through two different offspring of hers. It’s pretty uncommon to see the same mare show up twice.

As for Baby Nugget, obviously his dam is Sadie, so see all of the above for damline info. His sire is Mighty Magic, who I’ve already talked about a lot here. Summary: won the world eventing championships as a 7yo and is now an international level dressage horse with a child rider. He’s also homozygous bay, because omg that’s enough with the red (even though Sadie is brown, she still has a chestnut gene. Yes I had her tested. Yes I am crazy.).

Although Mighty Magic is registered Holsteiner, he’s actually 88% thoroughbred, with both a full TB sire and a full TB damsire. His sire Mytens

was bred in the USA and then sold to Britain as a yearling. He ended up being a good sire for all 3 Olympic disciplines, as well as producing offspring that made their way to the US and were successful in the hunter ring.

Mytens was by Spectacular Bid

out of a mare by Hoist the Flag.

Pretty classic American breeding, and no surprise he was a successful sporthorse sire.

Mighty Magic’s dam Neika was by Heraldik, who has been ranked somewhere in the top 3 eventing sires in the world every year since at least 2008.

Heraldik started his life as a racehorse (flat and steeplechase) in Europe before retiring due to a tendon injury. After that he became a very successful showjumper, competing up through 1.50m. He has sired A LOT of upper level eventers and is also the damsire of Michael Jung’s famous ride, La Biosthetique Sam. Heraldik has had offspring at the Olympics for both eventing AND dressage… pretty impressive, especially for a full TB stallion.

The actual Holsteiner blood in Mighty Magic comes via Neika’s dam Fiona, who was by Lavall.

Lavall’s sire was the famous Landgraf, and he was out of a mare by Sacramento Song – another Thoroughbred who became a well-known showjumping sire in his own right.

Fiona’s dam was by Ladalco

which gives her two crosses to Ladykiller, perhaps the most influential thoroughbred in warmblood history.

It’s not hard to find a lot of information about Ladykiller, such as:

“He was an averaged sized, clearly masculine type with a beautiful head, really heavy neck, good shoulder, rather flat loin, and a nicely coupled, heavily muscled croup. He had first-rate legs and feet for a Thoroughbred and was an elastic mover. Today he must be viewed as one of the most important jumper sires of modern time. Ladykiller offspring correspond more to performance, jumper types. As a rule, they are strong horses, they are not, at first, very tight with their front ends. This however, quickly improves with increasing maturity.”

“Passed on a good temperament, although sometimes a little hot. In spite of his early injuries he did not pass on any defects in the limbs.  Ladykiller xx passed on specific characteristics, such as a fine head, an often light brown colour with white on the legs, sometimes less coupled loins, good, powerful and correct bones, very good jumping qualities (lots of guts, power, fine technique and rounded back over the fence), excellent basic gaits and on average, good sized products.”

“At the 2014 WEG, Ladykiller’s line is responsible for 11 of the entrants in the showjumping championship.”

So, while Sadie’s sire line might have been a bit lacking in blood, her full TB dam combined with the 88% TB blood from Mighty Magic means that Baby Nugget will be 73% thoroughbred, representing many of the great thoroughbred sporthorse lines. Just goes to show how vital the thoroughbred has been in shaping the modern warmblood, especially the jumpers and eventers.