# Winterprinz opinions



## Labrador (Jul 31, 2013)

Just wondering if anyone knows anything or has any opinions about this pretty boy, both as a competitor and horse, and as a sire. I'm riding a mare out off Winterprinz right now and am curious to find out more about him.

What do you think of him?


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## Regula (Jan 23, 2012)

He is probably one of the best German Warmblood stallions available in North America, and a high performer in dressage (competed up to Intermediaire).

He is very heavily bred on the W Hannoveraner lines, on the top and bottom. His dad, Warkant, is an exceptional horse and has thrown a lot of good offspring.
His maternal grandfather, Weltmeyer, was extremely heavily marketed by the national stud in Celle and there are a ton of Weltmeyer offspring around. Of course, depending on the quality of the mare, some are better than others, but Weltmeyer is said to throw a nice disposition, trainability and very good dressage gaits. The one criticism about Weltmeyer (and W lines in general) is that they are not the best jumpers.

It is interesting that Winterprinz is so tightly bred. Many W stallions are said to throw better with a little bit more refined mares.
So it seems like he could do well with mares that have a bit more TB influence.

Who is your mare's mother?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Labrador (Jul 31, 2013)

Hi Regula! Thanks for your response. So it sounds like Winterprinz is kind of a big deal then....

What does being tightly bred mean? (Sorry, new to looking at pedigrees). By W stallions do you mean that different Hanoverian lines all have a letter that the names in that line have to start with? How many lines are there?

Also, her dam in MS Teerose by Tazenlicht.


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## Regula (Jan 23, 2012)

Yeah, he's a pretty good horse.

Tightly bred means that the same horses appear both on the mother and father's side of the pedigree. If you look at Winterprinz, both parents go back to World Cup I, and the maternal grandmother goes back yet again to Sender (World Cup's grandfather). The closer up, the tighter the breeding, cause you are "doubling up" on the same genetics.

Yes W lines means the stallions' names all start with W. In warmbloods, everything is traced back through the stallion lines and the offspring gets a name that starts with the same letter as the father's name. Sometimes there are horses from repeat breedings that all have the same name (e.g. World Cup I has three full siblings called World Cup II - IV). 
That is used to define groups of horses, but the different lines are not totally rigid. E.g. somewhere further back a lot of W horses go back to F stallions. 
There are quite a few such lines, not sure how many, but often you see them going back to one heavily promoted stallion. Like Weltmeyer in your case, or Rubinstein, or Donnerhall.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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