Blue Hors Don Schufro has passed away

Blue Hors Don Schufro has passed away

Through more than two decades Blue Hors Don Schufro has been the flagship of Blue Hors. By international professionals he has been described as a living legend in sport and breeding, and he is a true legend that has contributed to the dressage horse breeding far beyond Danish borders. At Blue Hors his bronze statue adorns as an everlasting memory of Don Schufro’s greatness.

Don Schufro has had an an indescribable importance to this place; not only by virtue of his achievements in both sport and breeding, but most of all with his great personality and presence. We have done everything to give him a great retirement but old age caught up with him, Martin Klavsen says with sadness in his voice.

Olympic medal winner
Don Schufro by Donnerhall / Pik Bube I / Unkenruf was bred by Martin Meier, Germany. He is recognized in most European breeding associations and started his breeding career with Paul Schockemöhle, where he covered one season as a 3-year-old before being acquired by Blue Hors. He has been an internationally sought-after breeding stallion throughout his career and has had a very positive influence in breeding in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, where he has the status of elite stallion and ranks very high with dressage indexes.
In sport, Don Schufro has met all expectations. He has won World Cup qualification and has over 30 victories and many placings in Grand Prix at some of the largest shows such as Aachen, Bremen, Wiesbaden, Lingen, Neumünster and Nörthen Hardenberg. The highlight came in 2008, when he became Danish dressage champion with Andreas Helgstrand and played a crucial role for the Danish Olympic team in Hong Kong winning team bronze. Individually, he became No. 11.

Unique performance pedigree
Don Schufro is the direct son of the stallion of the century, the oldenburger sire Donnerhall, who is regarded as the stallion that has had the greatest influence in modern dressage horse breeding. Donnerhall, who was successful in international dressage with Karin Rehbein, has for a number of years topped WBFSH's ranking as the world's most successful sire in dressage horse breeding. He is the father of a record number of licensed stallions and stands through his many excellent daughters as the damsire of a number of successful dressage horses. Among his most influential sons are De Niro and Don Schufro, who are both born in1993.
Don Schufro's dam sire is the Hanoverian stallion Pik Bube I, who was successful with Herbert Rehbein in the saddle. Pik Bube I has had a great breeding career as a producer of powerful riding horses and became the father of many licensed stallions and highly graded mares that proved to be an excellent match for Donnerhall, and thus he also achieved enormous success as a dam sire.
Don Schufro's dam line, the Holstein mare family Der Finländerin, is a story on its own. His dam and grand dam were very fertile mares who have passed on their own high quality to their many equally successful daughters. His dam’s sister, Fantasia, is the dam of elite stallion Don Primero by Donnerhall. Don Schufro's dam Fiesta is herself the dam of a number of successful offspring by Donnerhall, which in addition to Don Schufro counts the 2003 Oldenburg Mare of the Year, Fabina, as well as other important breeders such as Fantastica, Donna Primera, Ferna, Farina, Filia and Fiesta's Girl, are stallion mothers and stand behind licensed sons such as Sunny-Boy, Classico, Don Rubin, Sidney, Vito Corleone S, Moosbachhof's Peron, Tailormade Red Rebel, Blue Hors Veneziano, Blue Hors Zatchmo, Rudisha and Blue Hors Zirrus.

Outstanding daughters in breeding and sport
Don Schufro has, if anyone, put his imprint on the world map of horse breeding. He has been ranked number 1 in dressage index in Germany 10 times. On WBFSH's ranking of dressage sires with offspring in international Grand Prix, he has been in the top 10 for almost as long. In 2019 he is ranked 10th.
He is the sire of 30 licened sons, including the elite stallions Diamond Hit and Blue Hors Don Romantic, as well as the more of the year in Oldenburg twice and the mare of the year in the Danish Warmblood three times. A total of over 20 DWB medal mares, including four with gold.
It is Don Schufro's daughters, in particular, that have made their mark in great style, and it is also to a large extent the daughters that have represented Don Schufro as the sire at the FEI/WBFSH world championships and other major championships such as the European Championship, the World Cup and the Olympics. This includes FEI/WBFSH world champion UNO Donna Unique and finalist Rebelle, who both competed in international small tour, Donna Asana, who competed in international Grand Prix, as did Dorina, who went to the Olympics and several daughters in international Grand Prix.
This counts not least for Weihegold, who has topped the world ranking for several years. Weihegold's top results include team gold and individual silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, triple gold at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg, victory in the World Cup final in Omaha 2017, Paris 2018 and Gothenburg in 2019. Weihegold is among the few horses in the world, which has scored over 90% in Grand Prix Kür several times.
Don Schufro plays a similarly large role as the dam sire and great dam sire of top horses. Thus, he is the dam sire of top horses such as Deja, Rafael's Forest and Sezuan and great dam sire of Glock's Zonik and For Romance I and II etc.


Source; BlueHors

Photo: Isabell Werth and Weihegold Old (Don Schufro)