English Thoroughbred Cottage Son xx

Forty years have gone by since the English thoroughbred Cottage Son xx placed his hooves on German soil. His endeavours in the Holstein breed are long past yet his genotype is still enjoying unabated popularity today. Even before Cottage Son xx was stationed in Holstein at the age of 15 in 1959 he had been an outstanding sire in England.

At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, several of his British born progeny were at the start in three day eventing. This was a good prelude for the big charismatic stallion in the Holstein breed, even though he came at a time when horse breeding was totally in shambles and the Traventhal state stud was close to its dissolution when he began his siring activity there. After the thoroughbred Anblick xx, Cottage Son xx was the second upgrader in Holstein following the Second World War.

Young Lover xx	Son in Law xx	Dark Ronald
		Mother in Law xx
	Tryst xx	Rochester xx
		Trimestral xx
Wait Not xx	Cottage xx	Tracery xx
		Casetto xx
	Wait xx	Speed xx
		Clonkeen xx

Upgrading of the horse populations was desperately necessary if German horse breeders wanted to keep abreast of developments in horse breeding. This is where Cottage Son xx performed marvellous services. Fourteen of his sons were approved and 53 daughters registered in the Association studbook.

His best son was Consul, who unfortunately was taken out of breeding too early after covering for a few years at different Association stations. For quite some time, it looked as though the paternal line could not be maintained. Capitol I, whose younger brother began his siring career at the age of fourteen in 1992 was later to be the only representative of this lineage in the male line.

Capitol I was not easy to mate: Frequently his progeny were too heavy, some even to say it bluntly, too cumbersome and lazy. The Holstein horse Breeders Association therefore developed a whole host of requirements and conditions for the mating of mares with Capitol I for the maintenance of this bloodline, which at first glance appeared somewhat hard to comprehend, but ultimately bore fruit. Meanwhile, the legacy of Cottage Son xx has been placed on a broad basis once again by numerous Capitol I sons, so that the maintenance of the bloodline in the male line is no longer threatened. Despite this, the genotype of Cottage Son xx is very much sought after on the maternal side. Different to his English period, where Cottage Son xx produced overriding sports horses, this was not so much the case in Holstein. Not with standing this however, his influence is still very much appreciated and in Holstein one can occasionally find people who meticulously count how many times a horse is inbred to this marvellous thoroughbred.

In the fifties, the breeders of Holstein turned to the Thoroughbred fount once again - and in Cottage Son, they found a sire whose influence on the modern day showjumper is second to none. His great grandson, Capitol alone would secure his place in breeding history {although it should be noted that Capitol actually descends from Cottage Son via a rather different route than the one in the official studbooks. They would have Capitol`s sire Capitano being by the Cottage Son son, Corporal - but Capitano is grey, Corporal is brown, so he is not the sire of Capitano. However the real sire, the unlicensed grey Grand Vikar was also by a Cottage Son stallion, Colonel.}

Interestingly, Cottage Son fulfilled none of the usual German qualifications required of a Thoroughbred sire - he had neither raced successfully or competed in the sport. He broke down in his only race, but had been a successful sire of hunters and eventers in his native England, before being imported to Germany at the age of 15.

In England he was the sire of Cottage Romance, ridden in the British Olympic team, in 1960 by Michael Bullen, and (I am indebted for this information to my British colleague, Carole Mortimer, a breeding expert and journalist with Horse & Hound} several other elite eventers: Dapper was 5th at Badminton with Lt Colonel Frank Weldon, and Anzac was 7th in 1962 at Little Badminton.

He was however royally bred to be a sire of jumping horses - descending on his sire line from the great Bay Ronald. On the dam`s sire we find the great steeplechase sire, Cottage. Cottage`s offspring dominated English and Irish steeplechasing for two decades, during which time he produced three Grand National winners.Cottage was considerably line bred, with four crosses to Rock Sand and five to St Simon.His great grand-dam, Clonken is by Red Prince II, another successful steeplechaser and producer of steeplechasers. Red Prince II later stood in Trakehnen where he sired 24 approved stallions and 30 approved broodmares. Red Prince II was out of the Grand National winner, Empress.

A fatal accident in 1963 meant Cottage Son spent a mere four seasons at stud in Schleswig-Holstein, but in that time he managed to produce 14 stallion sons, and 42 approved daughters. He also produced the jumpers, Carlos, Colibri, Colorado, Conte, Cocacabana, Corsar, Cortina, Cottan, Cottage Incident and Georgie Girl; the dressage competitors, Cohinor and Coriolan, and the eventers, Arrarat and Comtur.

As a broodmare sire, Cottage Son has been a sensation, siring the dams of two of the all time greats of modern jumping breeding: Lord and Ramiro. His son, Consul was the sire of the world champion dressage horse, Granat.

According to Jasper Nissen in his excellent article on the Holstein Upgraders (Z Magazine, August/September 2004} he was "a tall powerful stallion with long lines, a great deal of expression, slight under-neck, moderate trot... His products featured best as breeding stock, especially dams, but also a good number of licensed sons that laid the basis for successful upgrading in Holstein. All his porducts made pleasant riding horses, were easy to ride, willing workers, with a very good, honest temperament."

Cottage Son xx Progeny

Horse	Year	Sire	Dam	Breed
HAMLET II2	1951	COTTAGE SON	SLATER4	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
INDEX27	1951	COTTAGE SON	JANEY6	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
REALITY24	1951	COTTAGE SON	#	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
COTTAGE QUIZ	1952	COTTAGE SON	REDWING II	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
WILD HONEY III	1952	COTTAGE SON	WILD HONEY II2	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
ANZAC10	1954	COTTAGE SON	LADY MARIA II	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
COTTAGE LIGHT	1954	COTTAGE SON	STARLIGHT207	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
DARTAGNAN38	1954	COTTAGE SON	SHARIFFA	ANGLOARABIAN TB
JIMINY CRICKET6	1954	COTTAGE SON	JEMIMA IV	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
CANDLELIGHT16	1955	COTTAGE SON	BELLIGHT2	THOROUGHBRED
TESSAS COTTAGE	1955	COTTAGE SON	TESSA IV2	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
SILSONETTE	1956	COTTAGE SON	SILVER BUTTERFLY	THOROUGHBRED
SHILLELAGH8	1957	COTTAGE SON	LEDSTON PARK	THOROUGHBRED
KNOWLE CASTLE	1958	COTTAGE SON	EN AVANT7	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
SCOTTISH CROFTER	1958	COTTAGE SON	GOLDEN SCOTSGIRL	BRITISH SPORT HORSE
TICHBOURNE COTTAGE	1959	COTTAGE SON	MISS LINCOLN2	THOROUGHBRED
COLOMBO5	1960	COTTAGE SON	NONNE9	HOLSTEINER
CONSUL24	1960	COTTAGE SON	ISOLDE7	HOLSTEINER
Consul was a 16.1H, noble, well muscled, beatiful stallion with a great deal of charm. Good shoulder and good lines. Very good gaits. Consul produced a lot of very nice broodmares as well as competition horses with nice legs and gaits. Consul broodmares are highly esteemed. He sired the dressage horse Granat. Consul produced 2 approved sons and 39 approved daughters.
CROMWELL6	1960	COTTAGE SON	FERA2	HOLSTEINER
UGANDA H2	1960	COTTAGE SON	CSARDAS12	HOLSTEINER
UNGARIN	1960	COTTAGE SON	RESEDA5	HOLSTEINER
COBALT3	1961	COTTAGE SON	NANDOLFA	HOLSTEINER
COLIBRI6	1961	COTTAGE SON	COGIA	HOLSTEINER
COLONEL3	1961	COTTAGE SON	PIAVE5	HOLSTEINER
CONTE2	1961	COTTAGE SON	PARI2	HOLSTEINER
CORSO6	1961	COTTAGE SON	REIZENDE2	HOLSTEINER
COTTAGE COEUR	1961	COTTAGE SON	NIKOLA2	HOLSTEINER
VALINE H	1961	COTTAGE SON	HOLLE H	HOLSTEINER
VALINE8	1961	COTTAGE SON	HOLLE10	HOLSTEINER
VANESSA74	1961	COTTAGE SON	MARLENE30	HOLSTEINER
VERFASSUNG	1961	COTTAGE SON	HERBINE	HOLSTEINER
VICTORIA16	1961	COTTAGE SON	OLYMPIA10	HOLSTEINER
VIOLA II	1961	COTTAGE SON	RICARDA2	HOLSTEINER
CHRONIST4	1962	COTTAGE SON	ORGESCH5	HOLSTEINER
CODEX2	1962	COTTAGE SON	ETTAL4	HOLSTEINER
CORNETT2	1962	COTTAGE SON	GRENOBLE3	HOLSTEINER
COTTAGE DREAM	1962	COTTAGE SON	ALPIKA3	HANOVERIAN
ESKAPADE4	1962	COTTAGE SON	ELWIRA11	TRAKEHNER
WINKLE	1962	COTTAGE SON	ALPIKA2	HOLSTEINER
WUESTENROTH	1962	COTTAGE SON	KAPUA	HOLSTEINER
ZABIA5	1962	COTTAGE SON	PAPELLA	HOLSTEINER
CORPORAL	1963	COTTAGE SON	GIMARA	HOLSTEINER
PIROSCHKA VIII	1963	COTTAGE SON	PEPI9	TRAKEHNER
ZARAN2	1963	COTTAGE SON	REFERA	HOLSTEINER
ZOLA4	1963	COTTAGE SON	HUSCHE	HOLSTEINER
ZORKA4	1963	COTTAGE SON	ILSCHEN	HOLSTEINER
ALDA5	1964	COTTAGE SON	POLDA4	HOLSTEINER
ALWINE3	1964	COTTAGE SON	UHRENDORF	HOLSTEINER
APOLLONIA19	1964	COTTAGE SON	CYRILLA6	HOLSTEINER
CORSAR5	1964	COTTAGE SON	CHORMAEDEL	HOLSTEINER
CORONATION COTTAGE	1970	COTTAGE SON	BRACKEN2	THOROUGHBRED
CONSOL3	1973	COTTAGE SON	ISOLDE
WARSCHAU I	1974	COTTAGE SON	GRUDE	HOLSTEINER
GUARANTEED3	1995	COTTAGE SON	LADY SCOT2	SADDLEBRED-CROSS
ALWINE H		COTTAGE SON	UHRENDORF H	HOLSTEINER
AURELA		COTTAGE SON	LADY MERCEDES3
AVA20		COTTAGE SON	FELDTOR	HOLSTEINER
CAPORAL14		COTTAGE SON	GIMARA
COTTAGE ROMANCE		COTTAGE SON	BORDER GIRL	THOROUGHBRED
EXCESFUL		COTTAGE SON	EXCELLENT2	THOROUGHBRED
HAUPTSTUTBUCH WIELAND		COTTAGE SON	SYLVIA34	HOLSTEINER
HEIDEROSEL II		COTTAGE SON	HEIDEROSEL
VANESSA95		COTTAGE SON	PARADE10	HOLSTEINER
VEGA80		COTTAGE SON	LIESA2	HOLSTEINER
WIELAND4		COTTAGE SON	SYLVIA34	HOLSTEINER
ZARA20		COTTAGE SON	REFERA