Awaited with excitement and celebrated in the Niedersachsenhalle: Benetton Dream FRH is the Hannoveraner Stallion of the Year. Breeder Axel Windeler from Verden-Walle accepted the award, which consisted an oil painting by the artist Manfred Busemann and a well-endowed cheque. Together with R+V/Vereinigte Tierversicherung, the Hannoveraner Verband has been honouring an important Hannoveraner stallion for over 30 years.
In Benetton Dream FRH’s first breeding season in 2007, only 3.41 per cent of all coverings belonged to the bloodline of Bolero. Belissimo M, the 2018 Hannoveraner Stallion of the Year, had already given a small boost to this paternal bloodline. Both privately owned stallions have helped revive the Bolero bloodline’s prestige.
The impressive dark bay stallion by Brentano II was born on May 21, 2004 as the first foal of the Rotspon daughter Rotkäppchen in the stable of his breeder Axel Windeler in Verden-Walle. His sire Brentano II was already 20 years old at the time. Benetton Dream FRH combines two of the most important Hannoveraner dam lines: the dam line of Alferate through his father Brentano II and the dam line of Sefaza through his mother Rotkäppchen. Focusing on strong dam lines has always been part of Axel Windeler’s breeding concept and is a cornerstone of his success.
At the age of three, Anna-Sophie Fiebelkorn began riding Benetton Dream FRH and rode him to his first successes in riding horse tests. He competed five times up to and including the Bundeschampionat final in Warendorf, winning all five events and leaving the dressage arena with the golden winner’s ribbon. His success in Warendorf was a triumph. He finished the final as Bundeschampion with the outstanding final score of 9.5. This was followed by the licensing in Adelheidsdorf in October and the three-day performance test in Schlieckau in December of the same year. He passed the test with a weighted final score of 9.3 in dressage, also at the highest level. With an abundance of early acclaim, Benetton Dream moved into his stallion box at the Poll family’s Hörem stud farm in Gilten. He was sure to be in high demand.
In the sport, Holga Finken, who rode him to the Bundeschampionat final for five-year-old dressage horses, and Yvonne Reiser, who trained him to Prix St. Georges level, were initially responsible for the next steps before Juliane Brunkhorst presented him at Grand Prix level for the first time. In terms of breeding, he was at Eckhard Wahlers’ WM Stud at the time. At the age of ten, Benetton Dream FRH left Germany and headed north. Lövsta Stutteri in Sweden became his new home and Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfvén took the reins of the stallion. Just one year later, he achieved his first successes in international Grand Prix tests.
Benetton Dream FRH has a breeding value of 159 for the highest achieved class. This certifies that his offspring, like himself, have reached Grand Prix level. Internationally, he is represented in this class by, among others, Beryll (Hubertus Schmidt) for Germany, Bluebarry Dream (Young Shik Hwang) for Korea, Belfast (Ruben Mengual Reig) for Spain, Atterupsgaard’s Botticelli (Charlotte Jorst) for the USA and Belantis I (William Matthew) for Australia. The grey was highly successful with the Danish rider Alexander Yde Helgstrand in the Young Riders class in the past two years before he came into Swedish ownership. Benetton Dream FRH has also already proven himself on the dam’s side. For example, Gut Wettlkamp’s Mondrian by Millennium is already victorious in Grand Prix at the age of nine with Lisa Müller. His dam Baluna belongs to the first crop of Benetton Dream FRH and is already regarded as one of the particularly valuable three-star mares in the Hannoveraner dressage horse breeding programme. Diaton by Dimaggio represented the Hannoveraner colours in the final of the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Ermelo last year and this year he became German Vice Champion of the Juniors with Maria Teresa Pohl. Don Martillo by Don Juan de Hus was once even World Champion of young dressage horses with Ann-Christin Wienkamp.
But Benetton Dream FRH achieved the “Bolero-Booster” through his sons and grandsons, especially through Bon Coeur, who was awarded the Grande Prize last year and is now also stationed at Lövsta Stutteri in Sweden.
