Mandiba

USA Event Team Olympics 2008 and WEG 2010 ,

World Breeding Federation Event horse of the year 2010.

Winner of 9 FEI 3 day events from 1* to 3*.

"My cross country round at the World Equestrian Games at Lexington on Mandiba was the best round of my life." Karen O'Connor - 5 times Olympian and 9 times USEA leading female rider of the year.

Full brother of High Kingdom (Zara Phillips) - 8th Olympic Games eventing, and Mandiba (Karen O'Connor), World Breeding Federation event horse of year 2010 (alongside Dressage winner Totilas & Show Jumping winner Hickstead.)

From the same families as leading show jumpers

Carling King, Abbervail Dream & Kilbaha  

By Master Imp TB, out of High Dolly 7/8 TB 1/8 ID  

MASTER IMP TB - the worlds leading event horse stallion with four horses at the London Olympics, High Kingdom (Zara Phillips), Master Crusoe (Aoife Clark), Ringwood Magister (Tiana Coudray) and Master Rose (Ronald Zabala) and two finishing in the top 10. In addition Master Imp's sire Imperious is the dam sire of Imperial Cavalier , 4th London Olympics, and the sire of leading event and jumping sire Puissance and Vivaldi (Nelson & Rodrigo Pessoa), winner of Hickstead Jumping Derby and triple winner of Hamburg Jumping Derby. Master Imp is also the sire of leading event horse sire Kings Master .

HIGH DOLLY 7/8 TB - by Chair Lift out of a Prefairy mare – easy winner of 4 point-to-points. Chair Lift is also the sire of Abbervail Dream (Di Lampard), who holds the record number of appearances in British Nations Cups, and dam sire of Carling King (Kevin Babbington), 4th at the Athens Olympic show jumping. Prefairy is by Precipitation , the sire of Furioso who is the most influential TB sire in continental show jump breeding, being the sire or grandsire of over 100 approved sires in Germany , Holland & France. Prefairy's dam sire is Foxhunter , who together with Furioso are the two main TB influences in the pedigree of show jumping supersire Cor de la Bryere , sire of Cavalier Royale , himself the sire of both Imperial Cavalier (Mary King) and Ben Along Time (Clayton Fredericks), Bejing Silver medalist and double winner of the eventing World Cup final.

Jackaroo is also related to Kilbaha , record appearances in Nations Cup teams for Ireland and triple winner of Hickstead Derby: Tudor Rocket , Kilbaha's sire, is out of the same mare as Imperious, High Kingdom 's grandsire. Kilbaha's dam was out of a Rhett Butler mare whose dam was by High Hat , and High Hat was the sire of Chair Lift who is the sire of High Kingdom 's dam. High Hat is also the sire of leading TB sire High Line , dam sire of this year's Grand National 2nd Sunnyhillboy and dam sire of Ela Mana Mou , 3rd Prix L'Arc de Triomphe & top sire. Also related to influential Dutch jumping sire and St Leger winner Julio Mariner through Hugh Lupus, Hyperion and Precipitation

HIGH KINGDOM

What was his dam like?

High Dolly was 7/8 TB and won four point to points, by a distance each time, and led until the final turn in the famous 4 mile La Touche chase over the banks, walls, ditches and steeplechase fences at Punchestown in Co Kildare. She was said to be by Chair Lift out of a Prefairy mare, which turned my breeding lights on in a big way, however when I bought her she had no proper papers or passport and it was many years later before I was able to prove her wonderful breeding. Abbervail Dream, Di Lampards record breaking Nations Cup horse was by Chair Lift, as was the dam of Carling King who was 4th in the Sydney Olympic show jumping; while Prefairy is by Precipitation who is also the sire of the warm blood showjumping supersire Furioso, who few realise is thoroughbred! Prefairy's dam line is also super impressive with Foxhunter, Gainsborough and The Tetrarch close up.

High Dolly was barely 16.00 and petite, but she was a wonderful performer with huge ability in all phases and an exceptional attitude. All her family have this unusual combination of courage aligned with great gentleness and willingness to work for the rider, which I believe is the fundamental reason for their success. High Dolly's dam was once bought by Paul Darragh as a jumper and this mare also bred a Grand Prix jumper that was sold to the USA by Cyril Light from Hickstead.

How to you assess horses and what makes High Kingdom an Olympic horse?

I rate all my horses as young horses and also the horses I look at for students. I use the headings Brain, Brawn and Beauty with equal value given to each, but I include the paces in both Brawn and Beauty so the paces are given added value. I believe it is possible to quite accurately assess young event horses as long as their brain and personality is given sufficient weight of influence. Unfortunately we often pay lip service to the horse's mental characteristics, or even ignore this area if the horse is very talented physically. I did this to a small extent myself with Biko, Karen O'Connor's great Olympic partner, when buying him as a 3yo with my brother John. He had huge physical ability but could never be described as easy to train. It took three years to gain his confidence before he went to Karen.

I had no doubt from the beginning that High Kingdom was a horse of the highest class in all departments and for this reason it was not difficult for Mark Phillips and Zara to buy him sight unseen. In fact High Kingdom is the highest rated horse on my list and second is Custom Made, who went on to win both the individual Gold medal in Sydney and Badminton with David O'Connor. Gilt Edge, David O'Connor's other Olympic medalist, and Karen O'Connor's Mandiba would be close behind. Mandiba is High Kingdom's full brother. I now have some very special youngsters who are of a similar outstanding ability both out of their full sister, Nuff Kisses, and by their full brother, Jackaroo. Jackaroo has a damaged foreleg and will never compete but he has a fine career ahead of him as a stallion. These four horses are all by the TB Master Imp.

I also have a 4yo stallion out of Nuff Kisses by the TB Power Blade (now with Ollie Townend) who is of Olympic quality. He is called King Jude and is truly magnificent. 16.3 and almost 97% TB with real substance and ability, so when breeders say they can't find quality sires with proven performance and genes they should certainly look at King Jude. He will be directed towards eventing.

What was high Kingdom like as a foal / young horse – did he always show potential?

High Kingdom was not a pretty child and always looked a year younger than he actually was. In addition he was the only one of the family with a disappointing trot. It took just three days on the lunge for Mandiba to come through in the back and look beautiful but it took me three months with High Kingdom to achieve this. However this was the only piece of the jigsaw to put in place. His temperament and gallop was always exceptional and his jump was good enough to go show jumping. He was never on the wrong leg and never unbalanced. At an early stage he jumped out of our fields for fun and he has continued this trait with Zara at Gatcombe where he jumps from paddock to paddock on a regular basis!

How long did you produce him for?

My wife Sarah (who was also the first person to jump Biko) backed him as a three year old but did not ride him further because I do not believe in riding a young horse unless they are first really using their backs. Then as a 4yo in the autumn he had three months on the lunge and finished going really well. He then went to Zara early on in the year as a 5yo. So Zara has done all the riding on him and deserves the greatest credit.

What are your thoughts, as a breeder, on him going to the Olympics?

It is a huge bonus and will be something for us to treasure for a lifetime. Mandiba went to the Olympics in Hong Kong but it was really a year too early in his career and I was anxious, but with High Kingdom it is a completely different feeling. He is a class act who has a great partnership with Zara. They are ready for the challenge.

William Micklem
Annacrivey Stud
Enniskerry
Co. Wicklow
IRELAND

m: 087 9788676
e: william@enniskerry.net
w: WilliamMicklem.com





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