Privately owned stallion Breitling W by Bismarck/Maat is the 2014 Hanoverian Stallion of the Year. The chestnut, born in 1991, was enthusiastically celebrated by the Verden audience.
Wolfram Wittig received the award, an oil painting by the artist Manfred Busemann and a well-endowed check, on behalf of his deceased father-in-law, breeder Hermann Niehus from Rahden. In co-operation with the insurance company R+V/Vereinigte Tierversicherung, the Hannoveraner Verband honours a particularly valuable Hanoverian stallion once a year.
Breitling W was born on April 4, 1991, with Wolfram and Brigitte Wittig who both love to breed, ride and train her own Grand Prix-horses. Sport is given top priority in Rahden. It is no coincidence that Breitling’s dam Maja was bred to the Celle state stud stallion Bismarck, a stallion that was trained to compete at the advanced level. Maja has a close bloodline connection to the popular Grande-blood with Gralsritter on the maternal side of her pedigree, and she already presented the dressage horses Dancing Queen and Durbridge by Diadem who are successful up to St. Georg-level. Biagotti W was her first Bismarck-foal, successful in international dressage tests with Markus Gribbe. Breitling W was born four years later. Maja’s last foal, Watussi W by Woodstock, also successfully competed up to St. Georg-level, turning the foundation line of Schneeflocke into one of the most exemplary Hanoverian dam lines.
Breitling W completed a classical dressage training with Wolfram Wittig. A stallion career was not a prime concern in the beginning. The eagerly moving chestnut horse was only licensed in Verden in 1998. At this time, he had already participated at the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf, at the Final of the Nuernberger Burgpokal in Frankfurt, and in the succeeding years, he had achieved placements up to St. Georg-level with Wolfram and Brigitte Wittig. He had been earning 170 top results until 2007. Breitling W won World Cup points, and with his victory in the Grand Prix in Hickstead in 2001, he contributed to the victory of the German team in the Nations Cup. “Potential of movement, rideability and character are always up-to-date!” praises Wolfram Wittig.
Breitling W passes on his potential to his progeny. Although only rarely asked for breeding, 79 of his progeny are registered with the tournament list of the German Equestrian Federation, the incredible amount of 28 of them are successful in dressage up to advance d level and even higher. His daughter Blind Date, brilliantly representing Austria in the dressage ring with Victoria Max-Theurer, ranks among the best at the international level. One of his most spectacular sons is the stallion Burlington FRH who is numbered among the best young German Grand Prix-horses after having won the Nuremberg Cup with Charlott-Maria Schürmann. Three more sons are entered into the Stallion Book I, of the Hannoveraner Verband, five daughters are state premium mares. With these successes, Breitling W occupies a top position at the breed value estimation of the German Equestrian Federation, his breed value is rated with 165 index points. Breitling W has only started to produce more foals as of 2006. We are looking forward to more top results of his offspring which will certainly not be long in coming any more.