Prolific dressage sire Sandro Hit has been euthanized after a short infection led to broader health complications. He was 28.

“Sandro Hit was especially close to my heart,” owner Paul Schockemöhle said in a press release. “He was something very special and the real founder of my now so large stallion station. His loss hits us very hard.”

Sandro Hit. Photo Courtesy of Stallion Station Paul Schockemöhle

Schockemöhle purchased Sandro Hit (Sandro Song—Loretta, Ramino-Welt As), who was bred by Reinhold Harder, at auction as a foal in Vechta in 1993.

In 1999, he won the World Championships for 6-year-old dressage horses in Arnheim, the Netherlands, under Dr. Ulf Möller, and then won the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf (Germany) that same year.

From then on, however, breeding took priority.

“Type, charisma, ground-hugging movement potential, rideability: Sandro Hit passed on his unmistakable melting pot to his offspring,” the press release announcing his death stated. “There was hardly a breeding area at home and abroad that did not make use of his genetics.”

He became one of the world’s best dressage sires: In 2017 and 2018 he held second place in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses ranking of the most successful dressage stallions, and since 2019 he has been in third place.

He sired eight horses who competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games, including team gold-medal winner Showtime FRH under Dorothee Schneider, and he appears in the pedigree of all three horses on the silver-medal winning U.S. dressage team.

Eleven Bundeschampions can be attributed to Sandro Hit, most recently Sisters Act MT OLD in 2016, who subsequently also placed in front at the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses under Dorothee Schneider. Poetin (2003 Gold 5-year-old), Polka Hit Nexen (2008 Silver 6-year-old), Soliere (2010 Silver 6-year-old) and St. Emilion (2011 Bronze 6yo) also stood on the podium at the World Dressage Horse Championships.

Sandro Hit has over 200 licensed sons, including numerous licensing winners, premium stallions and stallion market leaders. Two of them—Sir Donnerhall I and San Amour—are stationed at the same stud in Mühlen, Germany, where Sandro Hit spent his life.

“I am very happy to have quality sons of Sandro Hit on station, securing his wonderful genes. It is a very difficult farewell,” Schockemöhle said.