Donnerhall

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.

A good horse has no color?!

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 farm east of Hamburg that the Berlin entrepreneur had built in the 1970s. The stallion grew up and was licensed. There were no prospective buyers, 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 the thoroughbred 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 big rib cage. Miles away from the modern sport horse. Nevertheless, through her sire Carnot she carried the blood of the Anglo-Norman Condor, the first non-Oldenburg sire to be used in Oldenburg breeding (alongside the thoroughbred Lupus xx) after World War II.

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 when shown in hand by Ingo Pape. The famous stallion owner then in the mid 1980s was an apprentice at Grönwohldhof at that time.

The first to combine sport and breeding

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

Donnerhall’s legacy

Many of his sons have also followed this path. De Niro (1993-2017), for example, longtime number one dressage sire in the world rankings of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH). Furthermore, the team world champion and World Cup Final winner Damon Hill (2000-2024), who won the silver medal in the team 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), he made a lasting impression on 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) could be traced back to Donnerhall.

But the blood of 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.

Oldenburg stallion 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 in the German team that won the gold medal.

5 facts about Donnerhall

• Wrong color – 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 medal and Olympic father – Don Schufro won the bronze medal with the Danish team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, his daughter Weihegold won team gold and individual silver eight years later at the Games in Rio de Janeiro under Isabell Werth.
• WFFS – it was discovered posthumously that Donnerhall carried the genetic defect Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome and passed it on to some licensed sons. If you mate two parents who both carry WFFS, there is a 25 percent chance that the expected foal will show symptoms.

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. The Oldenburg stallion’s genes also influence other popular stallions, some of whom are considered to be line founders themselves. A few examples:

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.

D for Donnerhall – D for Dressage

Donnerhall is still indispensable in sports, too. Zonik Plus (Justin Verboomen/BEL) leads Donnerhall twice. Freestyle (Cathrine Dufour/DEN) was foaled by a Donnerhall daughter. Wendy (Isabell Werth) 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 a great-grandfather.

When Donnerhall died of intestinal poisoning in January 2012, he already enjoyed cult status. Two life-size bronze statues were to honor 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 appointed to the premium lot of his year. That too is part of the story of this legend.

Media star

Donnerhall is so famous that books have been written about him and movies have been made with him. The book can be ordered via Amazon: Book about Donnerhall

And if you want to get an impression of how the star sire went under saddle and what he was like “in private”, we recommend the movie about him.