Lauries Crusador xx, bay Hanoverian Stallion by (Welsh Pageant / Square Note [High TopI]), born in 1985, standing approximately 16.3 hands.

Hanoverian stallion of the year 2006!
Lauries Crusador raced as a 2 and 3 year old in England. In his first season he raced 6 times and won twice with two placings. As a three year old he raced three times and was placed three times. He finished his career with stakes winnings of almost twenty thousand pounds.
His sire, Welsh Pageant was a good racehorse winning 11 races and £53,527. He was even better as a sire, with his progeny winning 342 races, and £1,920,000. His dam, Square Note won over hurdles as well as on the flat, and produced five wiiners - Aventina Lady, TSW Homes, Nippy Chippy, Chimera and Lauries Crusador.
Lauries Crusador's great grand-dam, Umbrette is out of Equitation (by Fair Trial) - Equitation is also the dam of the stallion. Ecuador (by the Hyperion son, Hornbeam) who stood at the State Stud Celle where he sired many good Verden auction horses, and the state stallions, Egerlander, Eklatant and Eldorado.
The five year old British born Thoroughbred Lauries Crusador came to the State Stud Celle in 1991, via the Dutch stallion owner, Henk Nijhoff and the former Director of the Holstein Verband, Maas Hell – who later became one of Germany’s biggest private stallion owners.
Stationed at the Landesbrück breeding station, the Thoroughbred was met with the suspicion that all ‘full blood’ stallions face in Germany but convinced the local breeders with his presence, quality and exceptional movement. His career as a breeding stallion has exceeded all expectations.
In 1993, his son, Lancier (out of a Wendekreis mare) was purchased by the State Stud at the ‘first lot’ and he is still based at the Dorum breeding station.
In 1994, six of his sons were licensed, including Longchamp (out of a mare by Eisenherz) who was purchased by the state stud. Longchamp was an easy winner of the dressage section of his performance test, and was reserve champion at the Bundeschampionate in 1995. Since then Longchamp has progressed to S level dressage with his rider, Wolfhard Witte.
In 1995 a dark bay colt, by Lauries Crusador, out of the dam of Wolkenstein I and II was presented by the famous breeder, Dr Max Schulz-Stellenfleth. When he was not licensed, he was gelded and now competes at FEI level with Falk Rosenbauer under the name, Little Big Man.
In 1996, Susanne Rimkus, the head of the state stud at Warendorf, purchased the colt Laurentianer (below, out of a mare by Grande). Larentianer went on to win his performance test and the world six year old title ridden by Michael Farwick. Since then Laurentianer has competed at FEI level with Marlies van Baalen.

In 1997, another Lauries Crusador son, the handsome chestnut Londonderry (out of a mare by Warkant) won the Stallion Licensing in Verden. Two years later he won the Riding Stallion Championship at the Bundeschampionate, and was reserve champion at the 2001 Bundeschampionate. He is currently competing on the prestigious Nurnburger Berg Pokal Prix St Georges circuit.
Lauries Crusador is now proving himself as a sire of brood mares. The champion of the 2000 Hanoverian licensing, Don Crusador (by Donnerhall) is out of a daughter of Lauries Crusador.
He is the sire of 61 state’s premium mares and the results from the mare performance tests confirm his high dressage rating, with an average of 134 – while the jumping average of 70 indicates that he is purely a dressage sire.

Londonderry
Dr Ludwig Christmann, assistant breeding director at the Hanoverian Verband assesses his influence:
"We are very lucky to have in Lauries Crusador. A Thoroughbred stallion who in the first generation producesGrand Prix horses, is very rare, already there is Lesotho with Ellen Schulten-Baumer, and Le Beau in northern Germany with Mr Koch riding him. Falk Rosenbauer has been very successful at Prix St Georges with Little Big Man…"
Do you think Dr Bade even dared to hope that a Thoroughbred could produce such horses in the first generation – or was he hoping that in the second generation his choice would prove itself?
"We don’t expect this of a Thoroughbred stallion. Often it is the second cross not the first cross, but we are lucky with Lauries Crusador who has produced good stallion sons like Longchamp and Londonderry, and they will play a big role."
What are the qualities that Lauries Crusador brought to Hanoverian breeding? What is his stamp?
"He improves the frame of the horse. He puts on the long legs that we like, and the big shoulders that we hope from a Thoroughbred. What is also very important is the rideability of his offspring. They are very good in their mind, very co-operative, also good for collection. From their mind, from their interior they are very good horses. They have good movement but they are also trainable so the movement gets better under saddle, which is better than the other way around.".The 2003 Hannoverian Stallion Book records that up to that time Lauries Crusador had produced 441 competition horses with winnings of Euro 228,258. The most successful so far has been Lesotho with winnings of Euro 28,931.
He has had 218 dressage performers for 3461 placings (19 at S level) and 42 jumpers with 527 placings.He is the sire of 27 licensed sons.
On the FN index he has a dressage rating of 135 and a jumping rating of 69.He was 26th on the Hannoverian dressage stallion rankings, with his son Longchamp in 18th place. However Lauries Crusador is 3rd on the Hannoverian list for type with a ranking of 160 just behind the two Trakehners, Caprimond and Hohenstein.

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