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Westphalian Stallion
Pilot |
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Pilot was born in 1974 at the clinic
of former FEI chief vet, Dr Cronau, as his breeder, Christa Geldbach
wanted her foal to have the best right from the start.
At his first foal show, little Pilot
caused a sensation and was recommended for stallion status. His
breeder asked Kunibert Munch, ( the owner of Pilatus ) , to prepare
him for the stallion licensing, and it was here that his difficult
temperament became apparent. Even today his progeny have strong
difficult characters.
Pilot was purchased by the Westfalien State Stud in 1977, and sent
to the breeding station at Sande where the local breeders were not
too keen to use him since his reputation for erratic behaviour had
proceeded him. There was no denying that he was an elegant horse
with great conformation, and he behaved well enough at the
performance test at Warendorf to finish in 5th - and his foals were
wonderful but the breeders in the area still didn’t want him - but
Warendorf director, Dr Gerd Lehmann refused to budge, and the
stallion stood at Sande until 1988, and by then the breeders were
queuing for his services.
Pilot was the first show jumping stallion with progeny to earn one
million deutschmarks. By the end of 1999, Pilot progeny had earned a
staggering DM6,250,000.
Unfortunately, his career was coming to the end at the height of his
powers. When his son Pedro was starring with Wolfgang Brinkmann in
the gold medal winning German show jumping team at the Seoul
Olympics in 1988, the fourteen year old Pilot was already suffering
from serious - and mysterious - problems with his back and hips.
Instead of being sent out with the other stallions in the breeding
season, he remained ‘home’ at Warendorf where he was available
through AI only. However his fame continued to spread thanks to the
exploits of Pirol (Lesley McNaught), PS Priamos, Prinzregent 7
(Norbert Koof) and many others. Pilot died in 1991 at the age of 17.
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