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Last December, at the Salon du Cheval in Paris, 51-year old Detlef Saul was honoured by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses as the breeder of Hugo SimonÕs ET FRH, the most successful showjumper of the 1995/96 season. LetÕs meet this newcomer on the international breeding scene whose self-definiton is; ÒI am an instinctive breederÓ
... Q Why did you originally sell ET?
ET was a two-and-a-half-year-old when I sold him among six other horses of the same age. He was just 1m56 at that time and is not much bigger now. He was sold again and discovered by his new owner at the Verden auction. One day I was called by the auction office who told me that they had a young horse among their entries who had been bred by me. This was the January 1991 auction. His then owner, (Dr. Jochen Mehrdorf) gave ET his name, then FRH (Association for the Promotion of Hannoverian sport horses) was added. I thought about buying him back, but he attracted the top price of the auction and was sold for DM 33,000 to the rider (Martina Bescher), who had prepared him and presented him at the auction.
Q Is there a stallion outside Germany that you would like to use yourself and what are the preferences of German breeders in general?
The actual breeder has a preference for fashionable stallions, as the offspring of these sires are most easily sold; but I do not think it is an advantage for the breeding industry just to use fashionable stallion. As for myself, I cannot tell you which stallion or stallions I fancy because I make my choice by feeling and instinct.