We were very privileged that South Africa was chosen to become home to the recently deceased wonderful Dutch bred stallion, Dageraad, who became the first licensed Dutch Warmblood stallion in the country. Ramiro Z, Dageraad’s sire, was unequivocally one of the best show jumping sires the world has ever seen.
Dageraad undoubtedly helped raise the bar on the overall standard of warmbloods being bred in this country. Although Dageraad’s lineage is a jumping one, several good dressage horses have also come out of this line. I noted that at the last Olympic Games in Beijing, the horse that won the individual show jumping gold medal, “Hickstead”, ridden by Eric Lamaze shares the same grandfather, i.e. Nimmerdor, as Dageraad (dam side). There is no doubt that Dageraad’s progeny and relatives are out there proving themselves in a big way, because they can!

Her mother, Knockelley Dawn, was South African bred Thoroughbred hails from the “sugar” line, having Queen Sucre as her great great grandmother on her dam side. Somebody once told me that all the horses in the “sugar” line are very sweet natured.