Covering history: France from 1971 to 1974, Zangersheide 1975 to 1985, France 1986 to 1991, passed away in 1991

The golden bay Anglo-Norman stallion Almé Z is a phenomenon. Without ever having stood at stud in Germany, the 1966 French born Ibrahim son influenced almost all the German warmblood breeds from the Belgian model studfarm of Zangersheide. Before he went to stud in Belgium, he had already performed covering duty at his French home and left inter alia the approved sons Galoubet, I love you and Jalisco, all of whom have played a role in international showjumping. Almé Z was himself a successful international showjumper with Francois Mathy and Johan Heins and transmitted his gift for jumping lavishly to his progeny. The overwhelming number of Zangersheide products carried the Hanoverian brand. However despite the fact that two of the three Almé Z sons standing in Holstein had Hanoverian dams, the Holstein Association, which otherwise looks askance at any form of extraneous blood, did not hesitate to avail themselves of the Almé Z blood. Ahorn Z who was bred out of the famous Holstein mare Heureka, as well as the stallion Aloubé Z and Athlet Z deriving from Gotthard broodmares managed to make their imprint in the Holstein breed and to found their own stallion lines. The chestnut stallion Alexis Z exerted an enormous influence on horse breeding in the South West of Germany or more precisely, on Rhineland-Palatinate-Saar. Initially only used to cover the private herd of mares of the Drachenhof stud, the popularity of this stallion has meanwhile spead to the whole of Germany. Alexis Z likewise received special treatment by the Northern German breeding associations who gave the green light for his utilisation. His progeny can be found in Holstein as well as in Hanover. Alexis Z is out of the Hanoverian mare Wonne who was a successful international competition horse under Peter Schmitz. While the Almé Z sons were on their march of victory through equestrian Germany the, French breeders did not remain inactive and made use of the outstanding Almé Z sons in their breeding programmes. Galoubet, who himself was highly successful with Gilles Bertrand de Ballanda (trademark: vehement lashing out) became sire of the small but nevertheless great stallion Quickstart, who with Meredith Michaels (now Beerbaum) won Grand Prix’ more or less in series and covered in Oldenburg. The Galoubet grandson Quattro B (via Qredo de Paulstra), who apart from outstanding breeding achievements also enjoyed successes on the course with Gilbert Böckmann is also performaing stud duty in Oldenburg. Of late Holstein is also utilising Almé Z blood again via Quidam de Revel, in order to place this line on a broader basis. Where there is a lot of light, there is obviously also shade. A considerable number of the strong performers of Almé Z approved sons and grandsons were troubled just like their sire resp. Grandsire, by scrotal hernia, which means that following a colic, many had a testicle removed. Still, Almé Z was one of the most significant sires of the twentieth century and most certainly the first who deserves the title of “Euro-stallion”.