BTB: Stallions stories: The Salon de Refusés

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 01:00 PM PST

I had heard that Rubenstein, one of the three great warmblood stallions of the 20th century, had a lackluster performance at licensing. This great article (below) lists other stallions who could be classified as late bloomers. The author uses the term Salon de Refusés which I had not heard before (definition here). This is a fantastic article, hope you enjoy it...

clipped from http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2010/11/salon-de-refuses-the-stallions-that-almost-werent/

Salon de Refusés – the stallions that almost weren't

November 4th, 2010 at 12:46 am

Sires that almost didn't make it…

By Christopher Hector

I guess it is one of the paradoxes of Warmblood breeding that while most observers are convinced that the process of stallion licensing and performance testing is integral to the success of the major studbooks, many of the most famous and successful sires, had difficulties at either the licensing or performance testing stages.

Stallions like Cor de la Bryère, Galoubet, Voltaire, Rubinstein, Grannus, Libero, Doruto, Quidam de Revel, Irco Marco and Landadel were all initially 'failed' at either the initial licensing stage, or at the later performance test, before going on to greatness.