The great Emilion has passed away

VDL has had to say ‘goodbye’ to their top stallion, Emilion (Wellington - Ramirha x Farnese). The KWPN ‘preferent' stallion had reached the grand age of 31. VDL announced that "Emilion has been of great value to us and our company, so we not only look back at his fantastic sport and breeding results, but also at his great personality and super character, he was a winner."
 
Under the saddle of Ulrich Kirchhoff, Emilion won the Irish World Cup in Millstreet, and placed in the following Grand Prix classes: 2nd Donaueschingen, 4th Valkenswaard, 5th London and 6th in the World Cup of Aarhus. With the German Nations’ Cup team, he was 4th in Dublin and Rotterdam, and 2nd in Bremen.
 
As a sire, Emilion has proven to belong to the world’s best jumping horse producers, with offspring performing worldwide in Grand Prix and World Cup classes. Seldana is one of the  most renowned – a top performance mare ridden by Abdullah Al Sharbatly, they won individual silver at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington, KY. Equally famous is Emilion’s son Glasgow, who competed for years at the highest International level, winning several World Cups and Grand Prix with Normal dello Joio, and was also awarded as the 2004 ‘Horse of the Year’ in the United States. Interestingly, Glasgow started life as Jamaica Jackpot, but was renamed Glasgow after the city in Scotland where dello Joio found him.
 
But Emilion did not just speak through his direct offspring, because he also had a very positive breeding influence through his mother’s side. He, in fact, continued as an active breeding stallion and this year sired the Dutch national foal champion, Mijnsinaa, bred by the Van der Meer family from Surhuisterveen.
 
Frozen semen of Emilion is still available through  VDL Stud