Enjoy one of Warmblood Stallions of North America’s more popular Foundation Friday posts! Every other Friday we will be featuring a foundation sire – one who has been influential in the development of warmblood breeds. We pull from the incredible archive of The Horse Magazine, published by Chris Hector of Australia. Thank you, Chris, for permission to draw on your expertise!
165 cm
Grey
Breeder: Alphonse Chauvin
Almé was by the great French stallion Ibrahim out of Girondine. Almé’s dam, Girondine, was a daughter of the Irish-bred Thoroughbred Ultimate, and as well as Almé, she also produced his three full-brothers, all licensed stallions or successful jumpers.
In the 2003 edition of Annuaire Monneron, Bernard le Courtois, has this to say about the present influence of Almé, describing him as “father of world breeding”:
“It is obviously no surprise to see that the line of Ibrahim is influential in French breeding. Almé’s line is becoming increasingly important in many great breeding countries as could be seen during the World Championship in Jerez 2002. I have received from the USA an analysis of the results, which I find interesting and would like to share with you. Among the 92 horses participating, the division between the sexes is relatively well balanced: 32 uncastrated males, not all of them stallions, 34.8%; 31 geldings, 33.7%; and 29 mares, 31.5%. Five stallions had more than one product: Quidam de Revel (5), Capitol I (4), Le Tot de Sémilly (3), Robin Z and Touchdown (2 each). Quidam, Robin and Touchdown are grandsons of Almé and 21 horses in the event (22.3%) were descendants of Almé. At the end of the speed class and of the Nations Cup we could count among the Top 25: 10 stallions, 7 geldings and 8 mares; 9 of them came from Almé (36%). When we arrive at the Top 10 (after two rounds of the individual championships) we find ourselves with four stallions, one gelding and four mares, four of them from Almé (40%). The four horses in the final (where the riders swapped horses) comprised one stallion and three mares, three of them from Almé, 75%! If we were to draw some preliminary, hasty, but nonetheless interesting conclusions we might suggest that if we want to produce horses of high quality the best way would be to invest in mares coming from our leader of the dynasty, Almé. One thing is sure and certain, and that is that Almé remains a valuable asset in the pedigrees of our sport horses. And everything comes together when we remember that the best six-year-old in Europe this year – Mozart des Hayettes – had Almé twice in his pedigree.”
Almé was also influential in Germany and The Netherlands. His grandson Acord II (by Ahorn Z) is in 13th place with 16 winners. In Holland, Almé’s son Animo is 19th with 12 winners. Animo’s son Andiamo Z is ranked 64th with 5 winners.
There was further Almé influence through another son, Jalisco, sire of Quidam de Revel, in turn the sire of Dollar de la Pierre, sire of Rebozo. Quidam was also the sire of Nabab de Reve, sire of silver medalist London.
To read the entire article, with pedigree, details of Almé’s sons and daughters, on the Horse Magazine website, click here.
There are several stallion descendants of Almé in North America. Click on the following links to read about each of the ones on WarmbloodStallionsNA.com:
