Floricello in the footsteps of Quaterback & Co.

The 18-year-old Oldenburg dark chestnut Floricello by Florencio-Dormello-Feingau from the Wadenspanner station is the new DSP elite stallion. Floricello began his career as reserve champion at the 2010 Oldenburg licensing. Initially still in Swedish ownership, he was runner-up at the Swedish Riding Horse Championships one year after his licensing.

Floricello became internationally known as a five-year-old when he won the silver medal at the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses, at that time with Andreas Helgstrand in the saddle, who had already secured shares in the talent in 2012.

Floricello then returned to Germany in 2014. Sara Marburg from Munich, who was successful as a provider of internet domains, bought Floricello and other horses from Helgstrand Dressage in Denmark. However, the stallion was denied a great sporting career. Due to an injury, he had to take a long break and spent the time of his rehabilitation at Zuchthof Wadenspanner, among others, where he was then also used for breeding.

Here he became fit again and was also successful in competitions up to advanced (S) level. His offspring were convincing. And so Marburg sold the stallion to the Wadenspanner family in 2020, where he has since concentrated entirely on his job as a stud stallion.

Which is a good thing, because Floricello has passed on his genes very well. His first crop in Sweden already produced licensed stallions and successful sport horses. His most famous son is probably Feliciano, also stationed at Wadenspanner, who is now seven years old, while his oldest offspring are just three years old. But even his first crops produced numerous prize-winning foals and expensive auction candidates.

This year’s licensing year has advertised both Floricello and his son Feliciano. Two sons of each were licensed. Feliciano produced one of the winning stallions.

Two DSP premium stallions from Marbach

Not only licensing candidates can earn a DSP premium, but also stallions that have long since been licensed and excel in sport. These can be appearances at DSP and national championships, young horse world championships, stallion performance tests and sport tests or, from the age of seven, placings in the advanced class.

Two DSP premiums were awarded in 2026, both to stallions from the Marbach Principal and State Stud. One was secured by the now five-year-old Askaryan by Asia Z-Little Rock, bred by Heinz Walz in Bad Wildbad. The gray stallion passed an outstanding 50-day test, in which he impressed with his interior and rideability as well as his canter and jumping ability. With Eva-Maria Lühr in the saddle, he also became state champion of four-year-old show jumpers in Baden-Württemberg.

DSP premium stallion number two was Comme Cavelle by Comme Prévu-Pasco (breeder: Wolfgang Reich). The dark bay is now a six-year-old. In 2023, he received his positive approval at the DSP saddle licensing in Marbach. One year later, he won the PSA Tour for four-year-old show jumpers in Baden-Württemberg. In 2025, he placed in the final of the Bundeschampionat for five-year-old show jumpers with Pia-Luise Baur.

Diamond Stallion 2026: King George

The Diamond Prize is awarded to the show jumping stallion who has collected the most ranking points from the FN at the age of seven and who has received a positive licensing result either at the DSP Stallion Days in Munich, the Showcase of the Best or the Marbach Saddle Licensing.

This year, the Diamond Prize went to the Brandenburger Land stallion King Georg by Kasanova de la Pomme-Captain Olympic-Cellestial, who is not only based in Neustadt/Dosse, but was also born here. David Will rode the stallion to his greatest successes last year.

The donor of the prize is also the owner of the horse, the jeweler Shadi Banki. His stallion now joins the ranks of names such as FST Dipylon, Colestus and Stargold.

“DSP Weena”

The ten-year-old mare Weena by Topas-D’Amour-Weltmeyer, bred by Ulrich Vité and successful in junior sport, now bears the “first name” DSP.

As a three-year-old, Weena was state champion in Saxony-Thuringia with Kay Pawlowska. A year later, she joined her current rider Emilia Brandstätter, who was only twelve years old at the time. However, this did not stop the pair from developing together to such an extent that they were able to represent the Austrian colors at the European Junior Championships last year. The pair are trained by Astrid Neumayer from Gestüt Pramwaldhof.

FN gold medal for breeder Steffen Jahn

For many years, anyone involved in horse breeding has been unable to avoid one breeding facility: Steffen Jahn’s Elstertal stud farm in Wolfersdorf in Thuringia. Jahn and his wife Romy Pöhler founded the stud farm on October 1, 1990. Haflinger horses were bred here until 1998. They later switched to German sport horses. A great success story to date, with twelve licensed mares, 21 state premium mares and 87 registered show horses.

Steffen Jahn proved to have a good hand when switching from Haflinger to DSP breeding. He swapped a Haflinger mare for the mare Paloma from the famous Neustädter P family. This Paloma became the stud’s foundation mare. Two generations later, the filly was born that made Gestüt Elstertal famous worldwide: DSP Pathétique by Quaterback, who was highly successful with Dorothee Schneider in the saddle.

Other examples are DSP Vangelis, who is now successful at advanced (S) level and was DSP Champion of six-year-old dressage horses in 2024, or Primavera by Mylord Carthago, who placed in the Grand Prix of the Global Champions Tour leg in Rome with Zascha Nygaard Lill, among others, and is now riding with a young British rider.

Steffen Jahn has now been awarded the FN Gold Medal for his breeding successes to great applause.