GRUNNUS

Height: 168cm (16.2 hh)
Germany

Grannus is a legend. With a current total of over five million DM, the offspring of this black Hanoverian stallion include seven Olympic horses and more than 60 approved stallions.

Grannus was the second foal of State Premium Mare, Odessa, who was sired by the Trakehner stallion Ozean.

At the age of two and a half, Grannus was sent to the approval in Verden and he was already a striking stallion with that certain ‘special something ‘

In his first breeding season in Oldenburg in 1976, Grannus covered a mere 30 mares. His first crop of foals were branded as ‘much too small’ and Grannus soon had the regrettable reputation of ‘pony maker’. Klatte reacted by sending his stallion to jumping events. It didnt take long before Guido Klatte was saddling the stallion for championships. Eventually there seemed to be no limit to what the stallion could jump. When he was eight years old, he won all three jumping competitions at the DLG and in 1982 he took third place at the German Championships for juniors in Bad Segeberg.

At 14 years
Now that Grannus was successful, breeders started to pay attention and signed up their mares for his service. Grannus often covered mares three times a day and even had to be picked up from shows to fulfil his duties and then return. His very first crop produced the Warendorf State Stud stallion Gunter as well as internationally successful jumpers Gaby and Gigolo. His first really great jumper was the Olden berg, Grand Slam, who won numerous prizes with Nick Skelton.

By 1990 Grannus became a millionaire for the first time, his offspring having won over a million DM. That rose to two million in 1992, three million in 1996 and over four million and rising in 1998.

He had a spectacular end to his life when in full view of several thousand spectators at Klatte’s 1993 Stallion Presentation in Vechta, the 21 year old suddenly fell to the ground after taking his last breath.