Epleaser Van 't Heike Z is the best sire of 1.60m horses in 2023

With the month of February in prospect, we at Zangersheide are especially looking forward to the second edition of The Zangersheide International at Sentower Park, but it is also the period when some breeders already see their first foals being born and where many breeders are busy making a stallion choice for their mare(s). Questions such as "Which stallion suits my mare best?" or "Do we choose a young upcoming talent or a renowned name?" have undoubtedly already occurred to many breeders.

A useful tool for determining this choice might be taking a look back at which stallions stood out in 2023 based on their offspring in international show jumping. Hippomundo therefore announced a ranking of stallions based on the percentage of 1.60m horses of their offspring that were active in the international sport in 2023 in the past few days. An important condition in this ranking is that the offspring must be at least 8 years old.

This ranking is headed with much conviction by our chestnut stallion Epleaser Van 't Heike Z, the son of legend For Pleasure out of the mare Valentina Van 't Heike (Nabab de Rêve), who herself jumped at 1.60m level with Jos Lansink. Already 20-year-old Epleaser Van 't Heike Z formed a strong tandem with Christian Ahlmann from 2015 until the end of his sporting career in 2019 and has some 330 offspring in total. If we then take a closer look at the number of offspring aged 8 years or older who were active in the international showjumping sport in 2023, we arrive at a number of 25. Of these 25 offspring who jumped internationally in 2023, no fewer than 11 did so at 1.60m level, bringing Epleaser Van 't Heike Z to a convincing score of no less than 44%.

Click here for all info on Epleaser Van 't Heike Z.

One of his most successful offspring at the moment is the 12-year-old mare Equitron Melody Vd Smidshoeve, a daughter of Epleaser Van 't Heike Z and Thunder van de Zuuthoeve from the breeding farm of Hugo Stevens. Equitron Melody Vd Smidshoeve forms a successful duo with Austrian rider Gerfried Puck and managed to win a 1.50m class at Jumping Mechelen at the end of December. In recent weeks, Puck and Equitron Melody Vd Smidshoeve competed in the Doha Tour in Qatar, where they also won a class and on Saturday they jumped to 7th place.

Another name that will certainly ring a bell with you is that of the 14-year-old chestnut mare Kalinka van de Nachtegaele, a breeding product of Marcel Jacobs who combined the blood of Epleaser Van 't Heike Z with that of Cicero Z. Under the saddle of the Swedish rider Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli, Kalinka van de Nachtegaele has been seen at the highest level for several years now and in 2022 they managed to ensure a unique performance by writing both the CSI5* GP and the World Cup on their palmares in Helsinki. Last weekend, Augustsson Zanotelli and Kalinka van de Nachtegaele still came on strong with 9th place at the Amsterdam World Cup. unfortunately A time fault in the first round kept them out of the jump-off .

A 3rd name in the list of famous offspring of Epleaser Van 't Heike Z is that of the also 14-year-old chestnut mare Kassandra Van 't Heike, bred by Karel Boonen, as its name suggests. Kassandra Van 't Heike combines the blood of Epleaser Van 't Heike with that of Grandeur and has been a top combination with Brazilian rider Thiago Ribas Da Costa for years. They have already won 20 international classes in their career, including many CSI2* Grand Prix.

Translated by deeple.com