The great breeders: Weipke van der Lageweg

For such a little country, Holland has a wealth of regional differences, of architecture, religion, language and architecture, and nowhere are the differences more pronounced than in the Calvinist north, where there are some villages still so strict that they are forbidden to use their television sets on the Sabbath.
The dialect of Friesland is spoken by about 450,000 people and is unintelligible to their fellow Dutchmen.
Weipke van der Lageweg creates more chaos out of this confusion by mixing his Fries with Dutch, German and a tiny scattering of English. Still it is not so hard to understand what he is saying, his passion as a breeder makes his message clear enough. Weipke started breeding as a hobby back in 1972 with just one brood mare, now VDL is one of the largest horse breeding operations in the world with a staggering 46 stallions in residence.
Weipke’s home is a wonderful mixture of the old and new - the most traditional buildings give way to a state of the art high tech lab for producing chilled and frozen semen from the roster of stallion stars at VDL - headed by the famous Nimmerdor. Weipke purchased Nimmerdor at the age of two and a half, ‘even then he was something special’ recalls Weipke. Ridden by Albert Voorn, Nimmerdor represented Holland in several Nations Cups teams, performing with distinction in Paris, Göteborg,
Dortmund and London.
But Weipke van der Lageweg is not one of those ‘stallion raisers’ who let others do the breeding and arrive within hours of any colt foal’s birth looking to buy greatness, he breeds his own on the basis of his fine mare band. He is convinced that it all comes back to the quality of the mare, to that all important ‘good family’.
"When you go out into a field, a real breeding mare has presence, she is looking for you, she is interested in you - that is a real mare, not the dumb mare who runs away from you. We must have the best mares in Europe - here. The best stallion always comes from the best mare, you can’t risk anything else."

A star of the future? A full brother to Emillion...

Weipke started out using Dutch mares but soon found himself looking to the mares of the Holstein breed and he proudly showed us a few of them.Ramirha is the most upstanding daughter of Farnese,
still at the age of eighteen a grand lady. She is a grand-daughter of the immortal Thoroughbred, Ladykiller. Here is a mare of at least 17 hands in height, with not the slightest trace of coarseness, here is a mare that is all class and quality and refinement, while still having such a huge frame and scope. Ramirha is a daughter of Fiance, who is a full-sister to one of the greatest Holsteiner stallions ever, Lord. Ramirha is the mother of the approved stallion, Emilion.
Next Soraya, another Ladykiller daughter and the dam of the international jumping horse Aldato, and two National Championship mares, all by Nimmerdor.
Then there is Hyazinthe, an own daughter of Ladykiller. She is the sort of mare that breeders dream about - the sort of mare that a wise breeder can use to establish a dynasty. And that is just about what Weipke has done with her. Hyazinthe is the dam of three approved stallions - Ahorn, Denver (Belgium) and Farmer (Great Britain), as well as two national level showjumpers, and three international competitors. Ahorn not only competed internationally himself, but then became a top sire, with his son AK High Valley Z winning the TNT Sires of the Century competition for the past two years running!

Ahorn, an international jumper - sire of international jumpers

Weipke regularly visits France in search of new blood, and he showed us two daughters of the great Jalisco grazing with three daughters of Almé. He feels you have to be careful with French blood:
"The French horses are not generally liked in Holland. They tend to have big heads and not good movement, but I picked the best mares in the best stables. I want the French blood for the better jumping technique, and Jalisco is the sire of the best mares."

Cut down in his prime - Jus de Pomme

Unlike many breeders who are lucky enough to find one great stallion and bask in his glory, Wiepke keeps striving, finding new blood and new stars. One real tragedy was the loss at an early age of the Atlanta Olympic double gold medallist, Jus de Pomme, who died shortly after returning to Europe from his Games triumph. In 2001, Weipke produced a new star in VDL Atlantic who won the six year old class at the Bundeschampionate and went on the next year to win the first qualification at the Zwolle Stallion show, before taking out the Grand Prix of Zwolle.
And the search goes on all over the world - the legendary jumping stallion, Chin Chin has recently made the move, at the age of 24 years, from Mexico to Holland, bought by the VDL Stud. Chin Chin is by Constand, a son of Cor de la Bryère, out of a mare who carries the blood of Farnese and the Thoroughbred, Sorgenbrecher xx. An international competitor in his own right, with Jaime Azcarraga, Chin Chin is already the sire of Roelof Bril’s international competitor, Phin Phin as well as Gerardo Tasser, 1st in the 5 year old class at the Monterrey Young Horse Championships while Chapala won the 6 year old class at the same competition.
And the next generation is still coming. In March, 2002, four VDL stallions commenced their 70 day performance test at Ermelo in Holland. The breeding is more or less a history of jumping breeding in The Netherlands: 1. Nimmerdor x Amor 2. Champion de Lys x Carthago 3. Indoctro x Calypso II
4. Goodtimes x Alasca

Corland (Cor de la Bryère - Landgraf - Ronald - Molkte - Ramzes x)

On the basis of his mares, Wiepke has produced numerous approved stallions including Ahorn (dec), Emilion, Good Times, Highline (sold to a Dutch breeder), Glendale (sold to USA), Telstar (dec) and Glenridge (dec). He owns, or part owns, an amazing total of 50 licensed stallions.
For all his great success as a stallion owner and breeder, Weipke has never lost his farming roots. I remember him breaking off in the middle of a Warmblood classification in Australia to take a phone call. It was his son Wiebe Yde (now there’s a Fries name for you) calling from the big livestock market in Amsterdam. A potential customer was being difficult over the price of a pig. Weipke sorted him out and was back to the horses, and the Antipodes.
On our first visit to the VDL stud, as we were leaving, Weipke drew my attention to an old rather battered sign written in Fries on the wall of his brand new house. It had been on the wall of his first, more modest, residence, and had moved with him each time his operation became larger and more prosperous. Through a blur of language the message became clear - ‘Keep your hand on the plough - and your eye on the horizon.’ He looks at us earnestly, and delivers his final message - ‘It’s true with horses too yes? You must aim for the horizons.’
Check out the home of Weipke van der Lageweg on his website