Donnerhall - world and European team champion in sport, a breeding stallion phenomenon of the century

Donnerhall – as a stallion paving the way for a new era in dressage

Famous stallions 15.09.2025

Donnerhall and Karin Rehbein in the pirouette in front of the castle in Wiesbaden. Photo: toffi-images.de

Donnerhall is the epitome of a stallion who has achieved everything that can be achieved in both sport and breeding. Team World and European Champion, individual bronze with Karin Rehbein, successful in the World Cup, DLG Champion Stallion and much more. Sire of several horses that have made it to the top of the world rankings.

Donnerhall – completely off color. When the Oldenburg mare Ninette foaled by the Hanoverian stallion Donnerwetter at breeder Otto Gärtner in Travenhorst in May 1981, Gärtner was initially disappointed. A dark chestnut was born from the mating of two black horses. At the time, nobody could have guessed that this color would become one of the stallion’s trademarks, in addition to his predisposition for piaffe and passage, canter and rideability. As befits legends, the start was bumpy. By chance – a first buyer had simply not picked up the foal – Donnerhall became the property of Otto Schulte-Frohlinde as a foal at Grönwohlhof, the home east of Hamburg that the Berlin entrepreneur had built in the 1970s. The stallion grew up and was licensed. There was no interest in buying him, so he returned home and was trained by Karin and Herbert Rehbein. A stroke of luck for sport and breeding.

Old values in Donnerhall’s ancestry

In terms of breeding, Donnerhall was not the most modern horse on the market at the time. His dam Ninette was sired by the half-breed Markus by Manolete xx, granddam Negola, born in 1966, was still an Oldenburg of the old type – black, two white hind pasterns, broad chest, easy to feed with a lot of depth of rump. A working horse, miles away from the modern sport horse. After all, through her sire Carnot she carried the blood of the Anglo-Norman Condor, the first sire to be used in Oldenburg breeding (alongside Lupus xx).

Donnerhall himself could not deny his ancestry, for example in his relatively straight and not too long croup. But he could trot. And how! Even as a young horse, he was a delight in the hand of Ingo Pape. He was an apprentice at Grönwohldhof at the time and is now one of Germany’s leading stallion owners.

Donnerhall in the still picture as a five-year-old winner of the 1986 DLG Show.

The first to combine sport and breeding

For a stallion today, sporting use is almost as natural as regular dab tests. In the 1980s, however, it was Donnerhall who was the first to prove in the dressage sector (in show jumping, the stallions in France, Benelux and also in Holstein (Ramiro, Caletto II…) were more than just one step ahead of the square artists in this respect) that a sport and breeding career can certainly go hand in hand.

Many of his sons have also followed this path. De Niro (1993-2017), for example, long the number one dressage horse sire in the world rankings of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH), team world champion and World Cup winner Damon Hill (2000-2024), who won the team silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, or Don Schufro, bronze medal winner for Denmark in the team competition at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong and sire of Weihegold, among others. One of only three foals of Donnerhall’s first crop was Don Primero (1995-2012), later Bundeschampion and especially as the sire of the young horse world champion Dimaggio (born in 1995), who is firmly anchored in international dressage horse breeding.

Donnerhall’s successful grandchildren in terms of breeding and sport include Desperados by De Niro (2001-2020), who was number one in the world rankings under Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and for many years a permanent member of the mostly victorious German dressage squad.

The supremacy of Donnerhall’s dressage pedigree was particularly evident in the 2010s. At the London 2012 Olympic Games, all the horses in the German team (Damon Hill/Helen Langehanenberg, Diva Royal/Dorothe Schneider, Desperados/Kristina Bröring-Sprehe, Dablino/Anabel Balkenhol) went back to Donnerhall.

But Donnerhall is not only firmly anchored in the German dressage team: the Danes had three direct Donnerhall sons in their championship sequences with Digby/Prinzessin Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Don Schufro/Andreas Helgstrand and Donnperignon/Anna Kasprzak. Through De Niro, the great genetic potential is secured for the future of dressage riding, above all through Danone (2000-2021) and his sons Destano (born 2007), a Hanoverian who took part in two Olympic Games, and Dante Weltino. The Oldenburg Dante Weltino, born in 2007, can look back on three Olympic nominations. His son Jagerbomb competed with his sire in the 2024 Olympic freestyle final in Paris under British rider Becky Moody and won bronze with Team GB. Destano in turn sired the Oldenburg Denoix, fourth in the Grand Prix Special at the 2025 European Championships under Katharina Hemmer and the second-highest scoring horse on the German team that won the gold medal.

Donnerhall – firmly anchored in many dam lines

Donnerhall has sired champion mares in many populations. His sons, grandsons and other descendants were in no way inferior to him in this respect. For example, the Oldenburg stallion’s genes can also be found in other popular stallions, some of whom are considered founders of the line themselves. The Dutch stallion Vitalis has a dam descended from D-Day (by Donnerschwee). Fürstenball is the fourth generation of Donnerhall on his father’s side and the second generation on his mother’s side. The Oldenburg For Romance leads him three times. The list could go on forever.

5 facts about Donnerhall

Wrong color His breeder Otto Gärtner was disappointed when the dark chestnut was born because he had hoped for a black horse.

Pioneer Under Karin Rehbein, Donnerhall won medals at World and European Championships. Donnerhall was a pioneer in the dressage arena when it came to sport success with parallel breeding.

Dad’s best His son De Niro was himself an international Grand Prix winner and for a long time number one in the world rankings of the best dressage horse sires. He is also probably the most important Donnerhall son in terms of breeding.

Olympic medalist and Olympic father Don Schufro won the bronze medal with the Danish team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, while his daughter Weihegold won team gold and individual silver eight years later at the Games in Rio de Janeiro under Isabell Werth.

Fact 5…still missing…

Donnerhall – the book

On the initiative of Ulrike Countess Walderdorf, the daughter of Donnerhall owner Otto Schulte-Frohlinde, a book was published in 2019, which can be ordered here.

Movie about Donnerhall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lucSbdL9h0

No dressage sport without Donnerhall

This also applies to the sport: The 2025 shooting star, European Champion Zonik Plus (Justin Verboomen (BEL)), leads Donnerhall twice, Freestyle (Cathrine Dufour (DEN)) was foaled by a Donnerhall daughter. Wendy (Isabell Werth (DE)) has Don Schufro on her sire’s side. Bordeaux, sire of the team medal horses Bluetooth and Fame (2024 Olympics, 2025 European Championships), can also point to Donnerhall as his great-grandfather.

The end of a legend

When Donnerhall died of intestinal poisoning in January 2012, he already enjoyed cult status. Two life-size bronze statues were made of him during his lifetime. One stands in the pedestrian zone in Oldenburg, just under a kilometer away from the Weser-Ems-Halle, the place where he was once licensed, but not awarded a prize. That too is part of the story of this legend.

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