Partnered with Eric Lamaze, the legendary Hickstead ‒ who died suddenly in November 2011 in Verona, Italy, of a ruptured aorta ‒ was one of the greatest show jumping horses of all time. The KWPN stallion (Hamlet x Jomara), whose name at birth in 1996 was Opel, won team silver and individual bronze medals at the 2007 Pan American Games, individual gold and team silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and individual bronze and the title of ‘Best Horse’ at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Hickstead earned over $3.7 million in prize money along with major grand prix wins including the $1 million CN International at the Spruce Meadows “Masters” Tournament in Calgary, AB (twice, in 2007 and 2011), Geneva (2008), Aachen (2010), La Baule (2011), and Rome (2011). The great athlete, who was owned by John Fleischhacker. was inducted into the Jump Canada Hall of Fame in 2012.
During his competitive career, Hickstead’s semen had been available to North American breeders on a limited basis, about 20 to 40 doses per season. Needless to say his semen was in high demand following his death, except there was little to none available, according to Francis Berger of South Shore Farm in Montreal in a 2011 Globe and Mail interview. Berger, who was in charge of Hickstead’s reproductive career at the time, remarked that the stallion was just a month away from wrapping up his European tour, after which he would have been shipped to Florida for the winter where more semen could have been collected, and possibly be retired within a year or two to concentrate on a breeding career.
It is estimated that Hickstead sired less than 100 horses worldwide. Hippomundo.com, a leading source of pedigree information and other up-to-date horse-related data, lists just 36 Hickstead offspring, although some may never have been registered. Here are what a few have been doing: