The Great European Coloured Bloodlines
By Nathalie Kilpatrick, copyright 1998

Whilst Britain has many hundreds of licensed and unlicensed coloured stallions, at this point in time few of these can be seen to be responsible for producing a number of first generation sporthorse winners§. However, none of their offspring has yet reached international level, hopefully this will happen in the next decade. Outside Great Britain, due to very strict and long established licensing procedures, the only two coloured stallions ever licensed have between them produced international winners in all 3 disciplines, and several graded sons/grandsons.

In order to understand and appreciate why the UK is lagging behind in the production of coloured sporthorses we must compare breeding policies. Our tradition has been for breeding 'one-offs' such as international eventers Bits & Pieces and Friday Fox. We boast the best Thoroughbreds in the World with carefully consolidated pedigrees from generations of recorded breeding, producing World class race winners; and yet we attempt to breed coloured sporthorses using animals with little or unknown breeding.

Whilst the continental breeding system emphasises the importance of the dam in the production of quality offspring, by always quoting the sire, the dam sire and dam's dam sire when asked "how is it bred?". It is a fact that sires are always given all the credit in the UK, and the question is always "who is it by?" with little or no mention of the dam's breeding. The British mostly breed horses as a hobby and for fun, and often get poor returns on their investment, meanwhile the German, Dutch and Polish 'farm' horses for a living and regularly make good prices for well bred animals at auction. The Hunters Improvement Society (or Sporthorse GB as it is now known) is responsible for the majority of quality coloured breeding in the UK, however our animals are aimed mainly at the showing. We place more importance on looks than inherent performance ability and we are capable of regularly producing average performance coloureds, able to compete at riding club level competition.

Our European counterparts have taken a long-term view and each breeding is only part of a carefully orchestrated plan aimed at consolidating each generation. UK bloodlines appear numerous, many diffuse, lacking in depth, documentation and consolidation with a 'scattergun' approach. European ones are few, consolidated, scientifically developed and documented, using jumping and dressage indexes focused on producing the next generation in an on-going breeding policy.

As always, those bloodlines start with a coloured mare as historically European coloured colt foals were gelded (there was no future for them) whilst fillies were bred from. The German, Dutch, Polish and some British breeders of coloured horses have made significant headway by crossing solid stallions into each generation of coloured mare. In this manner, the best solid colour sires can be credited with helping to produce foundations of coloured breeding. Centuries of selection meant that solid stallions would always act as improvers when used on these coloured foundation females.

The coloured Grade A showjumper stallion, Top Tigerª by the grey Thoroughbred, Hill Farmer, a prolific producer of event horses, out of a coloured hunter mare of unknown breeding, could become a significant contributor to future generations of showjumpers. As yet his oldest offspring are only 5 years old and showing promise. Time will tell if his talents are transferred through subsequent generations.

Ico - the jumping sire
Born 10th May 1967, measuring 1m63 (16 hands) with 20.5cm bone (8¼") bred in Holland by SJ Hulstoff and P Oversett. From 1970 to 1973 he covered mares in Holland and was then exported to Hessen in Germany. Due to insufficient points he passed but was unplaced in his performance test due to his difficult and 'buzzy' character. Jumping index 108 (well above average).

Ico's Sire Marco Polo
The Trakehner bred in Germany in mid 1960's, not typically Trakehner in type as a little plain in the head and long in the back, by the Thoroughbred Poet, from whom he inherited most of his type. An outstanding sire of showjumping horses and probably best remembered through Marius. Many claims have been made about the connection with Milton, but an equal number put forward a theory that Milton's sire was in fact a Connemara pony acting as a teaser to Marius at the time, therefore no concrete documented or scientifically proven evidence exists. Talent: Jumping.

Ico's dam Sonja by Sinaeda
Sinaeda was a Groeningen stallion who sired 14 graded sons. However, because the Dutch breeders decided his type was far too old-fashioned, his bloodline only exists through his daughters, many of which produced outstanding offspring, especially when covered by Marco Polo. Talent: Jumping.

Ico's influence across the generations:
In 1996 the FN (equivalent to BHD in UK) records 54 Ico offspring, coloured and plain, winning affiliated showjumping, and Ideal de Luze winning affiliated dressage. Best known for: NEKOMA (Ico x Harmonie by Edelmann XX). The Puissance specialist ridden by Jürgen Kenn internationally. Stood in Germany, now exported to Austria. Also IRMA LA DOUCE (Ico x Lutzow x Der Löwe XX) represented Germany in the early '90's with rider Thilo Krapf.

Other notable graded sons in UK:
First generation: STANHOPES DIDDICOY 1990 (Ico x Gottward x Eland).

Graded stallion in the UK with Ico blood: PLATO (4 generations back, sire side through Mars). WIXSTONE OBAN (4 generations back, sire side through Orlando). IRCO LHEE 1995 (Ico Sun x Samber x Nabuur).

Ungraded stallions in the UK with Ico blood, old enough to have progeny in BHD listings: OBERON (2 generations back, sire side through Oleander by Ico has 5 progeny competing in affiliated competition). MARS (3 generations back, sire side through Oberon has no recorded progeny competing in affiliated competition, as is unregistered with BHD).

Graded stallions Germany and Holland, first generation with Ico blood: ICO SUN 1987 formerly known as DAZ (Ico x Sarastro XX x unknown). FERRERO 1993 (Ico x Dukat x Romeo). INTSHUSCHUNA 1988 (Ico x Traumulus x Raphael). IRCO PINO H 1992 (Ico x Behrung x Ajax). ILLASSO 1988 (Ico x Lasso x Fermor).

Graded stallions Germany and Holland, second, third and fourth generation. NUGGET 1994 (Nekoma x Behrung x Ajax). SAMICO 1994 (Samber x Ico x Aufstieg). ICKX 1995 (Illasso x Graf x Gard). SIR SIEGFRIED 1995 (Sambesi x Ico x Gottward). CHROMICO 1987 (Chromatic XX x Ico x unknown). NITRON 1992 (Nekoma x Koenigstreuer XX x Primus). SHETAN 1990 (Shakespeare x Voltaire x Ico). CHARMING ICO 1992 (Chromico x Picasso x Ducker). SLOGAN 1993 (Stanhopes Diddicoy x Concorde x Zevester).