Jazz has been breeding long enough that his niches are fairly obvious. As far as KWPN stallions, Contango, Krack C, and Ulft lines seem to be the best. Our top mare, Orchis (Jazz x Roemer) is a hot, flighty mare on the ground–much better focused and really talented under saddle. We’ve bred her twice to both Freestyle and Donatelli, and have had a colt and filly from each cross. The Donatelli colt has been the most straight-forward and reasonable in his temperament; both Freestyles hot, but much more sensible than their mother; the Donatelli filly is hotter than her dam… The Freestyle colt was selected as a stallion prospect by the KWPN-NA, but didn’t grow enough–though he did pass the performance portion of the grading; the Freestyle mare is keur eligible and now schooling third level with the potential to go all the way; the Donatelli colt was a very high scoring foal, but is too young to have done anything undersaddle, as is the Donatelli filly. This year, the mare is due with a Serano Gold foal, and I’m about to send in the paperwork for her breeding to Rousseau for 2009. Basically, I’ve gone into this much detail because I think the Jazz temperament can come through regardless to which stallion you breed her. You couldn’t ask for stallions with better temperaments for dressage than Donatelli and Freestyle, yet the Jazz influence remains strong in two out of the three and really strong in one out of the four. (Does this sound like a Pundit square–do I have the term correct?)
Speaking purely from a pedigree standpoint, I’d be careful breeding about doubling up on the Pericles xx (Samber’s sire); he is known for producing a slight over bite and sometimes hocks that are too light in bone. Out of curiosity, does your mare’s hind leg construction take after the sickle hocks of Jazz or the sometimes really straight hind leg of the Sambers? That may also be a consideration in your stallion selection.
Sir Sinclair may not be a bad choice. He’s a really consistent producer and certainly seems to produce good temperaments, but he’s a little long in the hind leg–and I’d like to see him and his offspring “sit” a little more behind. With a Jazz x Samber mare, this shouldn’t be an issue, however.
Hope I haven’t gone on too much–I’m a Jazz fan, so wanted to share some thoughts.
I actually think he’s better than his big brother.