Cicero Z van Paemel is no longer alive

As Cicero van Paemel’s long-time rider Dirk Demeersman reports, he received a call last week that his former star is not well. Cicero Z van Paemel spent the last few years of his life at the stud farm to which he owes his name. The stud announced yesterday that “the day that everyone feared the most had come”.

Cicero was a son of Carthago Z out of a Randel Z-Graphit-Gotthard dam with a Hanoverian mare line, who produced a whole series of licensed stallions and internationally successful show jumpers. Throughout his life, the gray horse was owned by the van Paemel stud farm, which entrusted him to Dirk Demeersman for his sporting career.

Career with Dirk Demeersman

He got the gray horse into the stable at the age of seven, but took his time with him. It was only at the end of his eighth year that the pair ventured into their first international starts. But the stallion’s career took off immediately. As a nine-year-old, he competed in his first five-star tournaments and Nations Cups and was placed straight away. One of the best moments of the year was certainly his seventh place in the World Cup show jumping competition in Mechelen. In addition to many other successes, they also won the Sires of the World show jumping competition here the following year. At the age of twelve, they won the Grand Prix of the CSI3* in Aalst in front of their home crowd. They placed in Aachen, Lanaken, Antwerp and on various other occasions.

It could have gone on like this, but the gray horse suffered an injury that put an end to his own sporting career. The good thing was that his end in the show jumping ring was the beginning of a great career as a sire.

Only eight foals were produced from the first crop of this gray stallion, who was not exactly modern in terms of his appearance but nevertheless had an outstanding jumping technique – five of which matured into top international horses. For his further career as a stud stallion, Cicero Z van Paemel was sent to Zangersheide Stud, where he had plenty to do, as the statistics show.

Impressive breeding record

Cicero Z van Paemel can currently point to 72 licensed sons and 50 offspring who are competing at 1.60 level in international sport. More than 100 “Ciceros” jump over 1.50 meters.

The best-known daughter in this country is probably Marcel Marschall’s Fenia van Klapscheut. But there is also Izzy by Picobello from Bertram Allen (IRL), Eristov from Jordan Coyle (IRL), the gelding Icos from the Philippaerts brothers and many more.

A beloved child has many names

Dirk Demeersman once said that the mighty gray horse was much more sensitive than one might have assumed at first glance – a positive quality that he passed on to his offspring. Just like his technique. As Demeersman puts it: “He could pull his front legs up to his ears.”

But that was not the reason why he remains unforgotten for his owners and his rider. Dirk Demeersman: “Cice, Droopy … not a single horse in our stable had more names than him.” Cicero by Paemel Z was “a great gentleman”, a very clever horse.

Or as his owners Luv Van Eeckhout and Karin Verheyen from Stud van Paemel describe it: “An exceptional stallion. The kind of horse you only meet once in a lifetime. (…) The void you now leave behind is immense.”