Return to Haflinger
Horses Home page
Aladdin Van de Peelkant
1988 – 2001
by
Anita Sweeney, Arkansas
I first saw the stallion, Aladdin Van de
Peelkant, early in 1990 when he had just arrived at his new home in
Virginia
from quarantine after a long trip from
Holland
to the
United States
. He and the other two horses on the
same shipment were sick with shipping fever, but even ill, Aladdin was quite
impressive. Over the years, we bred
several mares to Aladdin and were around him at the National Show and HRNA
Stallion Parade so I came to know him quite well and grew very fond of him.
There are quite a few Haflingers in the country with Aladdin as part of
their names (including several stallions) and frequently when mentioning
Haflingers, their full names aren’t always given.
Therefore, when several questions arose about Aladdin Van de Peelkant on
the Haflinger Friends internet list, there was some confusion.
I sent a message to the group with some information about him and after
receiving so many e-mails it seemed there were quite a few people somewhat new
to the breed who would like to learn more about some of the well known
Haflingers from the “past”. So
for those of you who remember Aladdin or who may be interested in learning more
about him, here are some of my recollections of this lovely stallion.
Aladdin Van de Peelkant was born
May 3, 1988
, in the
Netherlands
and was bred by Wijs De-Broeren. His
sire was Atoll (HF.K.104) and his dam was Helga Van de Geuzendijk (HF.K.2289).
Aladdin was imported to the
U.S.
from
Holland
as a two year old by Anne-Louise deVillegas of Plain Dealing Ltd. in
Keene
,
Virginia
. Also arriving on the same shipment
was another stallion, Marvellon Van Bermeteyn, and a mare, Paloma Van’T
Ruitersgat. When the deVillegas
family returned to
Europe
, Aladdin was purchased in late 1990 by Donald Hoover Michael of West Virginia
and the rest of their Haflingers, including two other imported stallions,
Marvellon Van Bermeteyn and Wilco, were sold to different farms here in the
U.S.
In 1991, Aladdin’s first breeding
season, we took Auzzie NTF and Cassa NTF to
West Virginia
for breeding, and in ’92 our first Aladdin foals were named A Real Deal WBF
and Call Me Classy WBF. Over the
next few years we came to know well the narrow roads and steep hills of
West Virginia
from long trips to Hoover’s farm to take mares for breeding.
We had seven foals born at Willow Brook sired by Aladdin and sold several
mares that were in foal to him.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe Aladdin was
ever shown in any performance events and the only time I’m aware of that he
was shown in halter classes was at the 1993 National Show, where he was named
the National Grand Champion Light Stallion.
In 1996
Hoover
retired from breeding Haflingers and sold Aladdin and all the rest of his
Haflingers as a "package deal" to Jonas Keim from Keim Corner
Haflingers in
Shreve
,
Ohio
. We visited Jonas, Emma and their
family at their farm shortly after Aladdin moved to
Ohio
and were delighted to find that he had such a great home with the Keim’s,
whose daughters showered Aladdin with lots of attention and good care.
Aladdin Van de Peelkant was a lovely
stallion with good conformation and an outstanding disposition.
He stood 58” tall and was a rich chestnut color with a full stripe and
thick white mane and tail. Not only
was he a very nice horse to be around, but most of his offspring I’ve met or
have heard about have also have excellent dispositions.
Many people who own Haflingers sired by Aladdin use them for their family
use, either just for fun or for breeding and performance.
When you talk with these people, you find the thing most of them comment
on first when describing their Aladdin offspring is their exceptional
temperaments and willingness to do whatever is asked of them.
If you are lucky enough to own an Aladdin son or daughter, you’ve
probably found that out for yourself.
I know from first hand experience about
disposition and willingness to please because in 1994 we purchased A Lot of Gold
(a two year old from Aladdin’s first foal crop).
We found Gold’s disposition to be exceptional and were amazed at his
willingness to do whatever was asked of him with no fuss and no bother.
To illustrate the versatility of just one of the many of the Aladdin
offspring, Gold has been to every Ohio Equine Affaire since the mid 90’s when
Haflingers became a featured breed there. Whether
on display at the breed pavilion or participating in the breed demonstrations,
he has been a great representative. Gold
has also been to numerous shows, driving clinics, expositions, demonstrations,
and
CDE
’s in different states and always conducted himself like a perfect gentleman.
At one driving clinic, the clinician bent down to verify for herself that
he really was a stallion because he was so quiet and so well behaved.
At the Ohio State Fair Gary showed Gold in many ADS pleasure driving
classes and won quite a few of them, including the overall pony championship
title. At the National Shows Gold
was shown in English pleasure, Western pleasure, all kinds of driving classes
including the cones scurry, barrel races, pole bending and even won a costume
class pulling “Fred Flintstone” in a cart made from tree branches, with
wheels made from slices of a downed tree and a harness and reins made of rope.
Following in Aladdin’s hoof prints Gold was Reserve Grand Champion
Pleasure Stallion in 1998. If ever a
horse has “been there and done that” and demonstrated an unflappable
disposition even when pulling a cart past cages full of lions and tigers at the
fairgrounds in
Columbus
, it is this Aladdin son.
Sadly, Aladdin van de Peelkant died
May 7, 2001
, from unknown causes. He was fine
when turned out in the pasture that evening, however when they went out early
the next morning they found he was dead. There
was no lightning storm as has been mentioned by some, there was no prior
illness, and there was no apparent cause of death that their vet could
determine. Aladdin had his 13th
birthday just a few days before he died. As
sad as it was to lose this lovely stallion, during his time in our country he
made a tremendous contribution to many Haflinger breeding programs by supplying
fresh bloodlines to the gene pool here in the U.S.
In the course of his lifetime, Aladdin sired somewhere around 124
offspring which are registered with
AHR
.
Author’s
Note: Jonas
and Emma's children are grown and now have other interests so on
Saturday,
February 12, 2005
, there was a dispersal sale at Keim Corner of all their Haflinger horses.
Jonas was nice enough to provide me with pictures and information about
Aladdin, and I sincerely appreciate his permission for me to tell you about this
outstanding stallion. Also thanks as
usual to the ladies in the
AHR
office for their help in providing me with additional dates and information.
