Covering history: Haselau from 1965 to 1971, Groß Buchwald 1972 to 1974, Siethwende 1975, Haselau 1976 to 1979, perished in 1979

Ladykiller xx embodies the powerful type of the thoroughbred. He was a strikingly handsome stallion with pronounced masculine attributes. He had an excellent mastery of the three basic gaits and was imbued with the very best character and temperament values. Of the enormous number of thoroughbreds that were applied in breeding in the 1960ies and the early 1970ies, he turned out to be the best by far. The sires who came before him such as Anblick xx and Cottage Son xx and partly also those who performed stud duty as contemporaries of Ladykiller xx like the stallions Manometer xx and Marlon xx, also founded their own stallion lines. None however was as convincing on such a broad basis as Ladykiller xx. He clearly transmitted himself, his marked type, the magnificent head, correct and powerful foundation and excellent jumping ability in regard to capacity, manner of jumping, leg technique and above all spirit. A number of his progeny were conspicuous because of their light tan colour with “green” legs, as well as the occasionally open kidney region. His chestnuts were consistently even more noble than his bay progeny. Particular successes were achieved by mating with mares who were also of noble blood. Thus his best stallion sons by far, Landgraf I and Lord were both bred out of mares who themselves had significant proportions of the best thoroughbred blood. Landgraf I became the most important sire of showjumpers of the twentieth century. The Holstein Breeder’s Association erected a life-sized bronze monument in his honour on the precincts of the association centre in Elmshorn, the unveiling of which Landgraf I attended personally. Lord was approvals champion and likewise sent a whole armada of progeny to victory on the great showjumping courses around the globe. The fact that he was a three-quarter bred may be the reason why his hereditary transmission was not always of a completely harmonious type. Even though Ladykiller did not really sire dressage horses, he produced a son Lido whose forte in hereditary transmission was exactly in the field of dressage. It would be hard to find another Holsteiner who procreated dressage horses for the very highest demands as this stallion. In the Netherlands, the Ladykiller xx son Heidelberg, who was named after his damsire became the pacemaker of the breed. The sires Lorenz, Lagos, Ladalco and Lamour all also went to Holland following their successful above average covering periods in Holstein. Today it is almost a necessity of fashion in Holstein, that a horse carries Ladykiller xx blood at least two or three times, whereby it occurs from time to time, that horses in the first generations are inbred five or six times to this invaluable foundation sire. All along, a certain measure of inbreeding has been a regular formula for success in Holstein breeding. Anyone looking more closely at Holstein bloodlines or respectively, the pedigree papers of individual horses down to the roots, is frequently taken aback about how frequently the same name literally jumps into ones face in the earlier generations. Today, where fresh blood in Holstein does not take effect at all, continued inbreeding to the proven “classic” Ladykiller xx is a piece of brinkmanship that demands a great amount of sure instinct by the breeders of Holstein.