Don Schufro

Don Schufro won recognition from nearly every breeding association in Europe. His breeding career began with Paul Schockemöhle, where he covered for one season as a 3-year-old before being acquired by Blue Hors. He was an internationally sought-after breeding stallion throughout his career and left a very positive influence on breeding in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, where he was granted the status of Elite Stallion and ranking very high in dressage.

In sport, Don Schufro met all expectations. He won the World Cup qualification as well as over 30 victories and many placings in the biggest Grand Prix competitions, including Aachen, Bremen, Wiesbaden, Lingen, Neumünster and Nörthen Hardenberg. The high point of his career was in 2008 when he was named the Danish dressage champion and played a crucial role in the Danish Olympic team‘s taking the bronze medal in Hong Kong. Individually he placed as number 11.

Don Schufro is a direct son of the great Oldenburg stallion Donnerhall, who is regarded to have had the greatest influence in modern dressage horse breeding. Donnerhall, who was successful in international dressage with Karin Rehbein, topped WBFSH’s ranking as the world’s most successful sire in dressage horse breeding for a number of years. He sired a record number of stallions and, through his many outstanding daughters, is represented as grandsire to a number of successful dressage horses. De Niro and Don Schufro, both born in 1993, were two of Donnerhall’s most renowned sons.

Don Schufro’s grandsire is the Hanoverian stallion Pik Bube I, who triumphed under Herbert Rehbein. Pik Bube I himself had a great breeding career as a producer of powerful riding horses. He sired many prize-winnng stallions as well as top-quality mares that proved to be excellent matches for Donnerhall, thus achieving enormous success as a grandsire.

Don Schufro’s dam line is the renowned Holsteiner line “Der Finländerin“. His dam and granddam were very fertile mares who passed on their own high quality to a large number of equally successful daughters. His dam’s full sister, Fantasia, produced the elite stallion Don Primero by Donnerhall. Fiesta was dam to a number of successful offspring by Donnerhall which, in addition to Don Schufro, include Fabina, the Oldenburg Verband’s Champion Mare of 2003, as well as other influential brood mares such as Fantastica, Donna Primera, Ferna, Farina, Filia and Fiesta’s Girl. Almost all of them have produced stallions and licensed sons including Sunny-Boy, Classico, Don Rubin, Sidney, Vito Corleone S, Moosbachhof’s Peron, Tailormade Red Rebel, Blue Hors Veneziano, Blue Hors Zatchmo, Rudisha and Blue Hors Zirrus.

Don Schufro has passed on great potential for movement with three spacious gaits with extremely good suppleness and great elasticity, as well as his offspring are very willing to work and very rideable.

He proved to best match long-legged, noble mares with good mechanics.

Don Schufro has left a clear mark on the hippological world map. Don Schufro ranked number 1 in dressage 10 times in Germany and has been in the top 10 of WBFSH’s ranking of dressage sire with offspring in the international Grand Prix for almost as long. In 2019 he ranked number 10.

He sired 30 licensed stallions, including elite stallions Diamond Hit and Blue Hors Don Romantic, as well as two Oldenburg Champion mares and three Danish Warmblood Champion mares. He sired a total of over 20 Danish Warmblood medal-winning mares, four of them gold medalists.

It is Don Schufro’s daughters in particular who have distinguished themselves in great style, and these daughters have represented their sire at numerous World Championships and major competitions such as the European Championships, the World Cup and the Olympics. These high-achieving daughters include the World Young Horse Championship winner UNO Donna Unique and World Young Horse Champion finalist Rebelle, both of whom competed internationally, Donna Asana, who competed at the international Grand Prix level, as did Dorina who also went to the Olympics, and several daughters in international Grand Prix.

Don Schufro daughter Weihegold, in particular, has been at the top of the world rankings for several years. Weihegold’s top results include team gold and individual silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, triple gold at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg, and winning the Dressage World Cup finals in Omaha 2017, Paris 2018 and Gothenburg in 2019. Weihegold is among the few horses in the world to score over 90% in the Grand Prix Freestyle several times.

Don Schufro plays a similarly large role as the grandsire and great-grandsire of many top horses. He is the grandsire of such champions as Deja, Skovens Rafael and Sezuan; his great-grandchildren include Glock’s Zonik and For Romance I and II.