Gestüt Gut Neuenhof

With an eye for horses

Stallions such as Cordess, Caressini, Cristallo, Estobar NRW and above all his son Escolar have made Gestüt Gut Neuenhof famous beyond Germany’s borders. As lateral entrants to the horse breeding scene, the Schürner couple have saved an entire line of stallions from extinction in just a few years and earned themselves a reputation as talent discoverers. This is no coincidence, as a visit to Gut Neuenhof stud farm in the Eifel region shows.

It’s not far from the motorway to Gut Neuenhof stud farm. Nevertheless, it almost feels as if you are entering another world when you roll through the valley floor on the northern flank of the Eifel below the medieval town of Nideggen, cross the Rur over a narrow bridge and finally pass the entrance to the stud farm. It is nestled between hills. The original centrepiece of the stud farm is a historic half-timbered ensemble with three residential units, one of which is occupied by Mr and Mrs Schürner. As tolerated guests, as a sign on the front door announces. Because the dogs that set the tone here have fur, four paws and make a racket with their barking that should make any burglar retreat quickly. Above the residential buildings, where dairy cattle were once kept, is the current stud centre. Here you will find stables, paddocks and a hall for the horses. The high ceilings, the size of the boxes and stables, the direct access to an exercise hall when it’s icy outside – you can see: Horse people have planned here. Where the farm ends, the valley widens and the paddocks begin: 22 hectares of sloping pastures with the odd steep section on mineral-rich volcanic soil. Still lush and green in November, they stretch up the slope to the tree line on one side. Towards the bottom, they are bordered by the Rur, which flows around the stud farm in a wide arc on its way from Belgium via Germany towards the Netherlands. When you reach the end of the pastures, you can look down the course of the river from a bridge. It’s hard to believe that it’s less than an hour’s drive to Cologne. The autumn-coloured deciduous trees, the clear water – all that’s missing is a bear on the prowl. You can hear – nothing. No aeroplanes, no cars. Nothing disturbs the autumnal silence that has settled over the land. The murmur of the water emphasises the tranquillity. Occasionally a train whistles in the distance and every now and then a snort can be heard from the willows. The walkers crossing the valley on the path between the paddocks probably don’t realise it, but the horses that are basking in the increasingly rare rays of sunshine behind the wooden fences to the left and right are either top athletes in the making or their mothers.

Heads fly up when the horses notice the golf cart rumbling towards them. They recognise the vehicle, it’s their source of concentrated feed. They get hay all year round anyway. You can see that the yearlings are well looked after. They are big for their age. Their coats are shiny, their eyes are clear and full of life. It doesn’t take much imagination to recognise future stallion candidates and/or athletes in them. Sandra Schürner introduces them. She knows the pedigree of every single one of her 50 to 60 horses that are at home at Gestüt Gut Neuenhof, regardless of whether they were born here or joined the family later. And so it goes on in the stable. ‘This is Edina, the full sister to Escolar and dam of Maxima (the Westphalian Champion and Bundeschampionat third). And: ‘This is Our Cera from Harm Thormählen’s line.’ Or: ‘This is the dam of Escamillo.’ Mothers of success. That is the principle of Gut Neuenhof Stud.

Thinking in generations

‘A good horse is rarely badly bred,’ Sandra Schürner is convinced. And not just in the first generations. It’s the strains that interest her. When she is looking for horses or foals, however convincing the phenotype may be, if the genotype is not right, it is unlikely that the candidate will become part of the Gut Neuenhof crew. The reverse is more likely. This is the case with one of the youngest of the stud stallions, Bentheim by Belvedere. His dam Rock ‘n Rose by Rock Forever comes from the famous line of Herbert de Baey in East Westphalia, which has produced the Olympic dressage horses Ahlerich (Dr Reiner Klimke, three-time Olympic champion), his full brother Amon (Annemarie Sanders-Keijzer/NED), Rembrandt (Nicole Uphoff/four-time Olympic champion) and line founder Rubinstein I, among others. When the Schürners first met Bentheim, he did not look as if he had a chance of receiving a positive licence a few months later. But Sandra Schürner proved, not for the first time, that she can recognise diamonds in the rough. A good six months after his licensing, Bentheim was first Westphalian and then Bundeschampion with Danica Duen in the saddle.

Good horses are the breeding goal of Gut Neuenhof Stud. Or rather, very good horses. ‘There may be others who think they have to breed normal horses for the average rider,’ muses Dr Axel Schürner. ‘I am convinced that striving for the top will produce enough normal horses.’ The Schürners attach just as much importance to the health of their horses as to their basic quality, from selection for breeding and rearing through to training and use in sport. 25 broodmares have an average of ten to 15 foals a year. When the young horses have reached training age, they are given to stables that enjoy the trust of the Schürners. The most talented horses get the best trainers, formerly Hubertus Schmidt, now Dorothee Schneider, who now has the Escolar children Esperado, Etienne and Estelle under her wing, as well as the Toto Jr. son Maxim.

An own stud farm

Even if it was the stallions that first made them famous, the Schürners see themselves as horse breeders. There are now a whole series of home-bred horses that uphold the colours of Gut Neuenhof Stud in sport and breeding – the licensed and now successful show jumping stallions Caressini (by Carento out of U-Cassina by Cassini) and Cashmere (by Cristallo out of Novice by Contender), for example. Or this year’s third-placed horse in the riding horse arena, Maxima (by Maxim out of Edina by Estobar NRW). ‘My wife always studied the show catalogues from the back,’ smiles Dr Axel Schürner. Because in the days when she was still jumping successfully up to medium (M) level herself, you could find the list of participating horses there, including their pedigrees. ‘That always fascinated me,’ confirms Sandra Schürner. So it didn’t take long for two horses to become 40 when she and her husband decided at the start of the new millennium to devote more time to horses again after their intensive professional years with their own tax and auditing firm. Dr Axel Schürner had also been attached to them since childhood (because his father had promised his older brother a horse if he resisted peer pressure and did not join the Hitler Youth – the argument was convincing, and the whole family started riding after the war). But at some point his career and family took precedence and he hung up his (dressage) boots. From two riding horses to 40 mares and young horses, that took just three years. By then it was clear that keeping their horses in different stables and only being able to have a limited influence on their care and development was not an option in the long term. Something of their own was needed. This is how the Gut Neuenhof cattle farm became the Gut Neuenhof stud farm in 2002.

Stallions were never placed here and there are no plans to do so. ‘The mares and their offspring should have complete peace and quiet,’ says Dr Axel Schürner. Gestüt Gut Neuenhof stations the sires with renowned stallion owners.

From breeding to stallion keeping

It naturally takes generations to make a name for yourself with your own breeding programme. As a stallion owner, it’s quicker. After all, you can buy good horses. However, when the Schürners entered the stallion business, it quickly became clear that, although they are also willing to buy, they have an eye for talented horses that have not yet seen a licence. This may be due to the fact that both have ridden successfully. However, they discovered the first stallion they invested in during his licensing – a show jumper and an immediate hit: Cristallo I, a representative of Cornet Obolensky’s first crop. The Westphalian grey was himself internationally successful with the Olympic champions Henrik von Eckermann and Christian Kukuk, has more than a dozen licensed sons and almost 500 offspring in sport, who have not only been successful in show jumping but also in dressage at advanced level and have together earned more than 600,000 euros.

The next coup followed the following year: Estobar NRW, champion stallion of his licensing in 2006, later successful at Grand Prix level himself and, above all, through his son Escolar, maintainer of the E-line not only for Westphalian breeding, but for dressage horse breeding worldwide.

Escolar is probably the best-known Gut Neuenhof stallion at the moment. His story shows what makes the Schürner couple so successful: their eye for quality. ‘I only see foals, yearlings and two-year-olds. That trains the eye,’ Sandra Schürner piles deep. Is the horse standing correctly? How is it moving? How is the hind leg? These are the criteria she pays particular attention to. She is critical of certain developments in breeding. ‘We breed riding horses. They need a strong, healthy body.’ She cannot understand why compromises are made in the selection process. Speaking of selection – the Schürners prefer to buy horses as foals. At least when they are still completely unaffected by their training and show their natural gaits and possibly their first jumps. This way, they can be sure that the horses are unspoilt and there is a greater chance that they will pass on what they themselves promise.

A good example of this is the riding pony stallion Gold Garant, the first pony ever from Gestüt Gut Neuenhof and also a discovery by Sandra Schürner. ‘We’re buying a pony foal today,’ she announced when she attended the 2019 auction as part of the Westphalia Week in Münster-Handorf together with her husband and her friend Ömer Boyar van Baaren, with whom they founded Equus Invest AG in connection with the purchase of Estobar NRW. It turned out as Schürner had predicted. Admittedly, Gold Garant was not exactly an insider tip. He moved to Gestüt Gut Neuenhof for the record price of 37,000 euros. But it turned out that the beautiful Golden Grey son was worth every cent. Champion stallion at his licensing in 2021, silver at the 2023 Bundeschampionat, gold in 2024. And the offspring? Gold Garant already produced the champion filly and the best stallion at the mare and foal show in Lienen in 2023. That was his first crop. This year, the speaker announced the sixth-placed filly with the words ‘… and now the best foal not descended from Gold Garant’. This is because the five previous winners all had him as their sire. And Gold Garant offspring also took first and second place among the stallions, as well as fifth and eighth place. Sandra Schürner says: ‘Gold Garant is right up there with Escolar.’ It will be interesting to see who else joins the ranks in the coming years.

You can find out which stallions Gestüt Gut Neuenhof has selected for you as a breeder this year on the following pages. If you have any questions, the team at Gut Neuenhof Stud will of course be happy to help. In the meantime, we hope you have as much fun with your horses as we have with ours!