Almé – the almighty in show jumping

The bay Almé is not only the father of French show jumping horse breeding. He was almost traded for several thousand hectares of pampas in Venezuela. His sale was contractually sealed on a tablecloth. He is not only responsible for lines such as Baloubet du Rouet and Quidam de Revel, but also for … Quaterback!

Almè – a product of Normandy

Almé was born in 1966 at Alphonse Chauvin in the La Manche region of Normandy. Alfred Lefèvre, the man who also discovered Furioso II, bought the foal and sold the young stallion to Fred Graham, an American who lived in Normandy and, according to sources, was a true amateur show jumper. He brought the son of the renowned show jumper sire Ibrahim to the Haras de la Cour Bonnet stud farm in Calvados. There, Anaud Evain looked after the young Almé.

Father Ibrahim, France’s first show jumping legend

Alme’s sire Ibrahim was born in 1952. He descended from the half-breed The last Orange by Orange Peel xx. Ibrahim’s qualities were not discovered straight away because he was also bred to heavy workhorses at the beginning of his career. However, when Ibrahim’s offspring almost exclusively won the young horse championships in France, he became one of the most used stallions in the République française in the 1960s and 1970s. Ibrahim died in 1973. In addition to Almé, he also sired the stallion Double Espoir, and was thus able to continue to influence breeding in the 2020s via Flipper d’Elle.

Almè’s dam Girondine was sired by the Irish thoroughbred Ultimate xx. This mating produced three further licensed sons as well as the mare Tahitienne, who foaled the stallion Kayack.

All beginnings are difficult, even for Almé

Almé worked in Normandy from 1971-1974. At the same time as breeding, he was one of the first stallions to demonstrate his ability in sport. Initially, he only covered comparatively few mares at various stations in the north of France. The stallion was already competing at 1.50 m when his name was frequently mentioned in sporting circles. The Belgian Leon Melchior, already an important driving force in show jumping breeding and sport in the 1970s, acquired Almé at the end of 1974. The entrepreneur and breeding visionary, who founded 53 companies, is said to have paid a good 550,000 euros for the bay Ibrahim son at the time. Almé and Melchior’s Zangersheide stud was to become a great success story. It began with a signature on a tablecloth in Paris.

Signature on Parisian tablecloth

Melchior and Fred Graham, who trained with Alwin Schockemöhle, Paul Schockemöhle’s older brother and 1976 Olympic champion, met in a restaurant and sealed the deal. Graham later claimed that it was just a lease with the signatures on the tablecloth and took legal action. Melchior was proved right. The Zangersheide stud farm in Lanaken, Belgium, became Alme’s home from 1975-1985. In 1976, he bred the Holstein mare Heureka by Ganeff, who had won the Grand Prix of Aachen in 1970 under Hermann Schridde. Her first-born daughter Argentina Z, full sister to the sire Ahorn Z (born 1979), was to write world history with a Ramiro daughter: in 1982 she foaled Ratina Z, who won individual silver and team gold at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona with Piet Raymakers (NED) and went on to win gold at the 1994 World Championships in The Hague and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta under Ludger Beerbaum in the German gold medal team. Her son Comme il faut by Cornet Obolensky (Marcus Ehning) became one of the most prominent show jumping sires in the 2020s.

The most important branches of the Almé stallion line

There are many reasons why Almé and his offspring have influenced the international show jumping scene more than almost any other stallion. Ultimately, it is the fundamental quality of his offspring, which has been passed down through generations, plus the fact that important sons have been able to put themselves in the spotlight in terms of breeding from the very beginning. The first was Jalisco, born in 1975, who is responsible for stallions such as Quidam de Revel, Nabab de Reve and thus also world champion Vigo d’Arsouilles. The “Dollar brothers” Dollar de la Pierre alias Tlaolc la Silla, 2002 World Team Champion under Reynald Angot (FRA), and Dollar du Murier, Vice World Champion in Jerez 2002, should also be mentioned.

Galoubet was to make history in more ways than one. With his legendary rounds in major sport, as the sire of the Olympic champion Baloubet du Rouet, who in turn founded his own branch, and as the great-great-great-great-grandfather of the dressage stallion Quaterback! (We dedicate separate articles to the individual branches of the Almé line).

Testicular rupture – Almé becomes an insured event

Almé competed under François Mathy (FRA) and Johan Heins (NED) and reached the final of the European Championships. However, his life did not run smoothly. Melchior wanted to sell some of his horses to the Dutch state. So Almé found himself back in Holland. He had to undergo an operation there in 1983 after breaking his testicles and from then on only had one testicle. This weakness also occurred in several of his sons. The Selle Française stallion was no longer considered suitable for breeding and was therefore returned to Zangersheide. There he proved that he was still capable of producing offspring.

A crazy idea brings Almé back to France

During this time, French journalist Bernard le Courtois heard that Americans had offered a horrendous sum of money for Almé. In addition, an interested party from Venezuela was said to have offered thousands (!) of hectares of pampas in exchange for the then 18-year-old. Actually, le Courtois recalls on the website of his stud farm Haras de Brullemail in the Département de l’Orne, he was “a small French breeder, totally broke, so no bank would lend me money”, in other words: no chance. The journalist, editor of l’Eperon, the leading trade magazine in France at the time, formed a syndicate. He had already done this before with the thoroughbred Laudaum xx (sire of international show jumpers and dam’s sire of Jaguar Mail) and thus brought this show jumping sire out of obscurity.

Back home instead of North or South America

But the money from the USA, where Alme’s son Galoubet had just been sold for around 5 million euros, was no match for the breeding-mad journalist, then 31. The dream was over. But then Fortune was on France’s side. A blood test before importation into the USA revealed that Almé suffered from the tick-borne disease piroplasmosis. A no-go for the USA, entry was impossible. However, frozen semen could have been imported into the USA. Fortuna was French again: Almé’s sperm could not be frozen in such a way that sufficient fertile sperm would have been available after thawing. After nine months of wrangling, it was finally clear: Almé would return “home”.

A perennial favorite until the age of 25

In 1985, Almé was welcomed by the breeders at the showground in Dinard to the dramatic sounds of Handel’s “Sarabande”. He immediately covered more than 100 mares, later le Courtois reduced the number to 80 and then to 60 mares per season due to the stallion’s advancing age. With a stud fee of up to 4,500 euros, Almé was one of the most expensive warmbloods of his time. But the demand and the prices of his foals certainly justified the investment.

At the age of 25, the stallion lost more and more weight despite his good appetite and closed his eyes forever at nine o’clock on March 21, 1991, “on a sunny spring morning”. The “special gleam in his eye that had contributed so much to the charisma of the Almé phenomenon” was history, recalls Bernard le Courtois.