Eurequine Stallion’s legendary Landkoenig passed away last week at 29 years old. Owner Edgar Schutte spoke of the big, gentle stallion’s passing, “[he was] healthy until the end, leaving us with a giant legacy. Landkoenig laid down not to wake up and moved to greener pastures where he is no doubt chasing his old stablemates Pablo and Escudo II. He was my big buddy for a long time, and I already miss him.”
24 years ago, Schutte found Landkoenig through his breeder, Laura Bettinger, who had his producing damline in her family for many generations. The German“chef d’equipe,” Herbert Meyer, bred his best mares to Landkoenig right after he was licensed, inspiring Schutte to purchase the stallion when looking to add some Holsteiner blood to his breeding program.
As a three-year-old, Landkoenig received a 9.5 for stadium jumping in his 100 day test at Adelheidsorf, and he given high jumping breeding values during his career as a stallion in the Hannoveraner Jahrbuch Hengste and US Stallion yearbook lists. In 2002, he broke the record for producing the highest selling jumper ever in the history of the Hanoverian Elite auctions in Germany. Lantinus, a four-year-old gelding, sold for a record-setting price of 215,000 Euro—something never done by a jumper. This marked the first of many magazine covers in “Der Hannoveraner” of the striking bay stallion and his multi-million dollar offspring.
Easy going Landkoenig produced so many like himself. In addition to setting sales records in Germany, Landkoenig’s offspring won Grand Prixs, qualified for the Olympics, and surpassed a million-dollars in winnings in just a few years. His most famous offspring, Lantinus, started his Grand Prix career with Gregory Wathelet for the Ukranian team winning 3, 5-Star Grand Prixs in one month as an eight-year-old. Later with Denis Lynch on the Irish team, Lantinus ranked FEI #1 worldwide and went clean at the opening rounds at the Beijing Olympics, won the Aachen Grand Prix, and others in the Global champions tour and qualified for the London Olympics. And he was far from the only successful offspring of the late stallion.
Meanwhile in the US, Landkoenig held the highest jumper breed value and a full breeding book. He also produced top hunters, successful futurity horses, and eventers out of both warmblood and Thoroughbred mares.
Landkoenig’s legacy will live on through his many offspring, although Eurequine Stallions and Schutte will miss him dearly. Frozen semon with a LFG remains available. To read more about Landkoenig and to view some of his offspring, visit Eurequine Stallions.
