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On the roller coaster: Celle state stud stallion Stanley awarded Grande Prize

Hannoveraner Rhythmus 08/2021 Verden, March 30, 2021 BZ Verden. The Hannoveraner Verband honours Wilfried Berg as breeder of the Celle state stud stallion Stanley with the Grande-Preis. The colourful chestnut stallion out of the extremely successful dam line of Adda has had a unsteady career and is now receiving more attention due to the success of his offspring.

The chestnut stallion, born on 24 January 2006 at Wilfried Berg in Burgdorf, grew up at the Hunnesrück stallion breeding stud. In the 300-day test he convinced with very good jumping, was third in this discipline with a jumping index of 129.36 points and moved into his stallion box in the breeding station Verden. Stanley was brought into sport by Sven Rudolph, who celebrated victories in show jumping competitions with him when he was four years old. When Stanley’s first foals were born, Eva Bitter was already sitting in the saddle of the powerful jumping stallion, who was now stationed in Ankum. The duo Stanley/Eva Bitter won the Hannoveraner Show Jumping Championships in Verden and the Small Final of the Bundeschampionat in Warendorf. After that, Stanley was injured again an again, so that his sporting career ended as early as 2011.

With that, Stanley disappeared from the breeding focus and the numbers of breeding decreased significantly. Now the first results of his offspring are available and the high breeding value in young horse classes (154) confirms his own performance in this age group. In Germany, he ranks third behind two other Celle state stud stallions: Qualito and Diacontinus. But also the breeding value for the highest achieved class is positive with 123. His sporting figureheads include Han.Pr.A. Sally with Finja Bormann, Smire S with the Syrian Yasser Al Sharif, Stuart with Katrin Eckermann, Stakata with the Pole Adam Grzegorzewski or Sandra Auffarth’s Steve. These successes of Stanley’s offspring are no coincidence. His dam competed herself until she was eight years old and was successful up to medium (M) level. His half-sister Escada by Escudo placed at advanced level with Dieter Smitz. His dam’s full sister, Larissa, produced the internationally successful show jumper Pikeur Felice by For Pleasure with Tjark Nagel and the nationally advanced (S) level successful Catrice D by Cassini II. Leonie Böckmann’s current successful horse Label d’Amour by Landadel/Stakkato and the internationally successful private stallion Saint Amour by Stakkato/Sherlock Holmes with Swante Johansson can be traced back to Stanley’s granddam Ginger, who is also the granddam of St.Pr.St. Sarah. She was honoured as Hannoveraner Mare of the Year in 2017 due to the success of her offspring.


Stanley’s career initially went upwards and ended abruptly. It was like being on a roller coaster. The award of the Grande Prize, which will be presented to his breeder Wilfried Berg at a later date in a dignified setting, is an expression of the appreciation of this heredity by the Breeding Committee of the Hannoveraner Verband.

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