2010 Oldenburg Licensing Champion, De Martino. Photo: ©Kiki Beelitz 2010 OS Licensing Champion, Coupe d'Or Photo: ©Kiki Beelitz	The Oldenburg Stallion Days The Oldenburg Stallion Days are 4 days jam packed with some of the best stallions in sport horse breeding. The main event is of course the evaluation of the invited young stallions who are judged by the Oldenburg Stallion Committee, and then licensed or rejected for breeding in the Oldenburg sport horse breeding programs. These stallions are 2 1/2 years old, and they are put through a pre-selection evaluation in early October along with hundreds of other candidates where the top 80 are selected and invited to the Haupt Körung (Main Licensing) which takes place in late November at the Stallion Days. The Oldenburg Stallion Licensing Committee made up of the Breeding Director, Dr. Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinghoff, Wolfgang Egbers, Jürgen Esch, Dr. Evelin Schlotmann, and Ulrich Henschke are all very experienced breeders, judges, riders and trainers themselves. The same is of course true for the Oldenburg-International Jumping Verband (the OS) whose Stallion Licensing Committee is made up of Peter Weinberg, Jan Vleugels, Dr. Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinghof, Harm Thormaehlen and Uwe Heckmann. On Saturday of the Stallion Days, the morning begins with the presentation of stallions who were not only licensed over the previous days, but were also considered worthy of being awarded the Premium status. The Premium Stallions for Oldenburg (OL), and then OS in a separate group, are brought in for a walk ring where they are ranked and the champion stallion is named. Following this, three 5 year old stallions from OL and three from OS will invited to the Haupt Premium (Main Premium) walk ring where the breeding committee evaluates them based on their scores from their stallion performance tests, the quality of their foals, and this look at their movement and conformation. They are then ranked and celebrated. Saturday afternoon and evening are then packed with an exciting auction where bidders have the opportunity to buy stallions from the licensing who are being offered for sale, and then everyone is treated to a wonderful few hours of performances of older stallions from all over Germany and Europe who are approved for Oldenburg breeding. In the future, the current stallion licensing process and the timing for licensing the stallions during the year will be changed. Please read the summary report about the presentation of this new system by Dr. Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinghoff at the recent discussion and debate on our Breaking News page dated October 18th, 2011. 2011 Stallion Days This year the Stallion Days will take place from Wednesday, November 16th to Saturday, November 19th, 2011. Click here for more information. Click here to see the invited Oldenburg stallions. Click here to see the invited OS jumper stallions. Click here to find the Vechta Horse Center on Google Maps 2010 Stallion Days In 2010, two fantastic champions were named. The Oldenburg champion was De Martino (Don Schufro x E-Silveret (Sandro Hit)), and the OS champion was Coupe d'Or (Coupe de Couer x Rivera (Rivero xx)). For the full 2010 report and videos, please click here.