Hickstead Offered for 2010 Breeding Season

Saint-Hilaire, Quebec – Hickstead, winner of Individual Gold and Team Silver Medals at the 2008 Olympic Games under Canada’s Eric Lamaze, is now available for breeding in North America.

Hickstead is a 1996 brown Dutch Warmblood stallion standing 16hh. Sired by Hamlet, his dam is Jomara by the well-known and recently deceased stallion, Ekstein. Hickstead’s bloodlines also feature such prominent show jumping names as Nimmerdor, Notaris, Ulft, Le Mexico and Joost. Based on his performance record, Hickstead was ranked the number one show jumping horse in the world for both 2008 and 2009 by the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses (WBFSH).

In North America, Hickstead has been approved for breeding based on performance by the Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders Association, the American Holsteiner Horse Association (AHHA), and the KWPN of North America breed associations. The Canadian Sport Horse Association recently created a new category specifically to recognize Hickstead, granting him Platinum status while its other approved stallions are rated as Gold, Silver or Bronze.

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“Anyone who has ever watched Hickstead compete recognizes what a special horse he is,” said Lamaze. “With his success at the Olympics, there was great demand for Hickstead as a breeding stallion. We wanted to ensure that he was made available to North American breeders, and have selected Francis Berger as our North American agent based on his knowledge and breeding expertise.”

An experienced horseman and breeder, Berger is the exclusive North American agent representing Hickstead. Due to Hickstead’s competitive schedule, limited doses of frozen semen are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at a cost of $5,500 US per dose.

“It is an honour to be asked by the Olympic Champion to represent Hickstead in North America,” said Berger who operates South Shore Farm outside of Montreal, QC. “A horse of Hickstead’s quality is usually only accessible to European breeders. Having him available to the North American market is a rare and special opportunity for breeders.”

Together, Lamaze and Hickstead have amassed an impressive list of accomplishments. In addition to winning Individual Gold and Team Silver Medals in dramatic fashion at the Olympic Games, the pair also won Team Silver and Individual Bronze medals at the 2007 Pan American Games. They claimed the richest annual event in show jumping, the $1 million CN International, at the 2007 CSIO5* Spruce Meadows “Masters” Tournament, making Lamaze only the second Canadian rider in the event’s history to capture the title. Most recently, in November of 2009, the pair won the €120,000 GPA Equita Masters at CSI5*-W Lyon, France, followed two weeks later with a victory in the €200,000 Global Champions Tour Final Round 1 at CSI5* Doha, Qatar.

For more information on breeding to Hickstead, please contact Francis Berger at (514) 924-4035 or francisberger@hotmail.com.