American Trakehner Association
American Trakehner Association
Cealy Tetley
Courtesy of the Ackmann Family
by a syndicate of American and German Trakehner friends put together by the late Lara Meyer of California. Lara partnered with Darren Chiacchia, Kumi Smedley and the Engelhardt family from Germany to buy Il Sixtino. Il Sixtino’s pedigree
reads like a “performance who’s who” in the Trakehner breed. His sire, E.H. Sixtus, was the Reserve Champion of the
Above: Jonathan Holling and Downtown Harrison in the dressage phase at the Bromont CCI3*. They won the dressage phase on a score of 46. Right: Downtown Harrison’s sire Il Sixtino by Sixtus as a foal in Germany with his dam Ilanit by Matador
Jon and his wife Jennifer, who is also an advanced level
eventer and a selector for the Canadian Eventing Team, own and operate Holling Eventing at Willow Run Farm in Ocala, Florida, a 60-acre, 30-stall facility with a cross-country course featuring jumps up to Preliminary specs. Tey have one son, Caiden. Jon’s mother also enjoys riding, but leaves the competition to her son and daughter-in-law. Jon has also been the proud coach of two gold-medal Area 4 Junior/Young Rider teams at the North American Junior Young Rider Championships. Downtown Harrison happens to be the result of a
quarantine breeding of a young German Trakehner stallion named Il Sixtino (E.H. Sixtus – Matador) who was imported to the U.S. in the summer of 2003. While in quarantine stallions must breed mares to prove they are free of a disease called CEM (Contagious Equine Metritis). Te quarantine facility was Darren’s farm in Ocala, where one of the two Toroughbred mares used for CEM testing was Señorita Sue. As a result she produced Downtown Harrison in 2004, but Il Sixtino was later not approved, then gelded and became a very successful A-circuit hunter under a different name.
Impressive Pedigree Now a gelding, Will is the product of what on the surface
appears to be fairly modest beginnings, although when you dig deeper and analyze his pedigree, it actually proves to be performance-packed. Il Sixtino had been purchased from his breeders in Germany, the Rudolph Ackmann family of Hesse,
1991 stallion inspection in Germany, then was a successful show jumper and is the sire of a number of approved sons. Sixtus’ sire Habicht (son of the Anglo-Arabian stallion Burnus, who was a German National Champion in eventing under Dr. Reiner Klimke) was a Premium stallion at the 1969 inspection and then champion of his stallion performance test. Habicht was also an international event horse for the German National Team as well as a successful sire of many top-level performance horses including the Olympic team bronze medalist in eventing Windfall *Pg*. Sixtus’ dam sire Ibikus was Champion Stallion at the Deutsche Landwirtschaſts-Gesellschaſt (DLG - the National German Agricultural Society) Fair and a winner of national riding horse championships in dressage, trained through Grand Prix. He was a very significant stallion in the Trakehner breed aſter World War II. Il Sixtino’s dam Ilanit was by Matador, who was also a
DLG Champion Stallion and the sire of many successful show horses, including the Pan American Games dressage silver medalist Kronjuwel II. Matador was a son of the Elite stallion Donauwind who also sired the Olympic show jumping medalist Abdullah*Pg*E* and Reiner Klimke’s Fabian among his many performance offspring. Ilanit’s grand dam Ilvica was significant in the Trakehner breed too. She received “Elite Mare” status as a show winner and was the dam of show winners and several Grand Prix show jumpers. Señorita Sue’s pedigree shows overall good racehorse
breeding (Mahmoud, War Admiral, Whirlaway), but is remark- able in that three of the top U.S. Toroughbred producers of successful upper-level event horses are found fairly close by: Buckpasser (Tom Fool), Turn To and Bold Ruler.
Challenges in the Sport Will is a farm favorite with Jon’s staff and students. “His
corner stall is in the center of everything. He is a real character—cute and affectionate. He thinks he is the best horse on the farm! He is very nice to ride on the flat, exceptional really—lovely and soſt. He goes in all three phases in a plastic bit. He has the biggest gallop too. He is a very competitive horse. I’ve never really had one that has been very competitive at each level like Will is. Te only thing he doesn’t like is to be tacked up and he will nip at you.” Along the way Jon and Will are learning to deal with the rigors—and the emotional ups and downs—of international
SPECIAL TRKEHNER SECTION Warmbloods Today 57
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