Assessor for 2020 Tour

We are very happy to confirm that Gerd Kuest will be back for the 2020 ACE Breeding Inspection and Assessment Tour.

Gerd Kuest has now been coming to Australia for fourteen years, as the assessor of an annual inspection tour for the Australian Continental Equestrian Group Inc. Impressing all who meet him with his tremendous knowledge of horse sport, and warmblood breeding, in particular, we thought some of you may be interested to learn a little more about this internationally respected breeder, owner, and judge.

Gerd, the third generation of horse breeders in his family, was already breeding in the late 1970s whilst studying to become a lawyer at the University in Münster. At that early stage of his 45-year breeding career, he already bred the Hanoverian stallion Fidelio (by Furioso II) in 1978, which in turn sired the famous stallion Florestan. Gerd’s grandfather delivered more than 60 licensed stallions for Hannover and was president of a regional department of the Hanoverian Breeding Association. Although from solid Hannoverian roots, in 1987 Gerd founded his own Holsteiner breeding line, “Stamm 8888”. Gerd has to date produced 19 licensed stallions, and ten of these have been from “Holsteiner Stamm 8888”.

This small but high performing breeding line, in addition to producing 10 licensed stallions in the last 20 years, has produced Olympic horses in show jumping and eventing, a CHIO Aachen winner, and Young Horse World Championships finalists in showjumping and dressage. Most years there is more than one horse qualified for the German Bundeschampionat from this line. For example in 2013 a licensed Stallion, in 2014 a licensed Stallion, and in 2015 there were three, being a licensed stallion in the dressage, a licensed stallion in the Young Horse Class and a gelding for the showjumping. Horses bred by Gerd are successfully competing in Europe, USA, and Australia, winning up to Grand Prix and World Cup Qualifiers in showjumping.

In August 2015 Gerd’s young stallion ‘Sir Olli’ (Sir Donnerhall x Florestan) starred when representing Germany at the FEI World Championship for Young Dressage Horses in Verden, scoring an amazing 8.98 for 5th in the first round, and 8.58 for 7th in the final.

Gerd’s extensive career in the horse world has included the coaching of riders. He trained his daughter to win a European Championship in eventing and has trained junior German teams to win gold, silver and bronze medals at World Championships. He has also spent many years as a judge and classifier.

He judges eventing and Young Horse classes, including at the German National Championships and the German Bundeschampionat. He is an International 4* Eventing Judge and has judged many international Championships and the World Cup. He is an official German breeding judge and has judged mare and foal shows extensively in Germany and Denmark, including qualifying foal shows for the German Foal Championship.

He spent 13 years in an official capacity for the Schleswig-Holstein State government breeding department, assessing the young Holsteiner mares at the annual Young Mare Test (under saddle and Freejumping). Gerd assessed more than 5000 mares during this time. He also served 10 years as a member of the Stallion-Licensing Team (classifier) for German Sporthorses (ZfDP) and served on the Licensing Team for the Holsteiner Breeding Association.

Gerd has himself ridden successfully up to advanced levels in Showjumping and Dressage, including winning medals at Student Rider Championships and competing at the German Bundeschampionat. Gerd rode in 14 auctions of the Oldenburger Verband in Vechta, as well as auctions for the Westfalian Breeding Association in Münster.

All in all ‘Herr Kuest’ has a depth of experience with breeding, riding, coaching, and training, and a level of expertise, rarely seen in Australia, and the members of Australian Continental Equestrian Group Inc. are very grateful to receive his frank and fearless assessment of their stock on his annual visits down-under.