The following bloodline information was, in great part, provided by Dr. Maren Engelhardt

SIRE: Contessa's sire EH BUDDENBROCK was awarded the Elite title in 2007 due to the success of his offspring in competition and overall conformational quality. He was named Trakehner Stallion of the Year 2010.
The Trakehner Verband awards the title "Stallion of the Year" to a major sire of the breed that stands out based on his success as a performance horse, sire of performance horses and breeding stock. Today, 10 years after his first son entered the arean at Neumünster, Buddenbrock has proven that he is not only a great, modern ambassador for the Trakehner breed, but a stallion of international format, with approval status in most German stud books and offspring on several continents competing as rideable, reliable, sound and talented sport horses. Buddenbrock is a true major sire of the Trakehner breed and has helped tremendously to put the Habicht line on an even broader basis. Buddenbrock was approved in 1996 and since then has produced approved sons almost every year. Out of Buddenbrock's very first foal crop, several sons were presented in Neumünster in 2000. He sired the champion of that year, EH King Arthur, and another approved stallion, EH Connery. Both have moved on to very successful performance and breeding careers. His offspring now compete at Grand Prix level in dressage (e.g. King Arthur TSF, Hinnerck TSF), have themselves produced exceptional new stallions (son EH Connery sired the two Res Champions Imperio and Editorial), and are among the highest inspected and valued mares of the entire breed. The five full siblings by Buddenbrock out of the elite mare Insterfee are probably a nice example of the quality this stallion can produce with the right match: Champion In Flagranti, approved In Petto, and the champion mares and under saddle winners SPS+PS In Zukunft, In Farbe and In Vita. He is also the sire of Epernay and the ATA's Inamorato. Buddenbrock's dam sire, Diamant stood in Austria and sired several highly recognized dressage horses for the upper levels. His sire Erzsand also had quite an influence on the ATA breed. The big Blinklicht family is known mostly for great, athletic sport horses, and apart from Buddenbrock and Benz, also the younger Bellheim (by Saint Cloud) comes from this line.

GRANDSIRE: EH SIXTUS was a FEI level show jumper and is the most important son of the great Habicht in breeding. Over 15 sons have been approved to this day, worldwide. EH Sixtus is not only an impressive stallion personality, but a leading performance horse producer and a shaping sire of our time. His offspring compete successful at FEI levels in eventing and dressage and EH Sixtus also has one of the highest jumper index scores of the breed. His daughters regularly stand in front at inspections and mare performance tests and he is also represented at championship shows like the Bundeschampionat on a regular basis. The Burnus AAH - Habicht line owes Sixtus its recent jump to the top, as athleticism, intelligence, jumping potential as well as soundness and movement quality are hallmarks of Sixtus' hertitage and he is able to reproduce that in his get. HABICHT by Burnus is probably the breed's most versatile and proven sport horse sire of all times and traces back to the famous Shagya Arabian stallion Lapis, a grey war time hero who helped his officer, Walter Schmidt-Salzmann, to find home from Russia during WWII. BURNUS, like Habicht, was a successful international event horse and accomplished breeding stallion not only in the Trakehner breed. Habicht, who also lived at the German Hörstein stud like his famous sons Sixtus and Windfall *Pg*, won the CCI*** Achselschwang under Martin Plewa and was the best German horse at the CCI**** Burghley prior to retiring at stud where he left an amazing amount of high quality brood mares and sons for the breed. He sired 12 approved sons and 133 approved daughters. His offsping earned approx. 200,000 Euro in their show careers. The sire line of Habicht-Burnus AAH Habicht offspring can be found at the highest levels in dressage (granddaughter Renaissance Fleur TSF/M. Theodorescu), eventing (Windfall *Pg*/D. Chiacchia) and show jumping (Livius/A. Kursinski). Habicht died at the proud age of 25 and left especially through his son Sixtus a great impact in the modern Trakehner breed. Habicht’s line is equally important as the Arogno and Mahagoni lines and the crosses of these lines are high in demand (e.g. the champion sire Polarpunkt by Arogno-Habicht).

SIRE DAM: Budenbrock’s dam is the Elite mare SPS,PS+ES BALLERINA, who also produced the National Champion mare and Bundeschampionat finalist Bandera, the premium mare Batida (dam of the premium stallion Blitz & Donner), as well as the premium mares Balaleika, Biskaja, Borgia and Baracuda. The mare family behind this success story also comes from the main stud Trakehnen via the chestnut mare Blitzrot (family designation T6A). Among her influential descendants are EH BENZ (Contessa's dam sire) the State Stud stallions Bernstein, Blickfang, Blitz, Baluster, Belsazar, Bellheim, Blitzwind, Carajan II and the impeccable reforming stallion of Dutch dressage breeding, Doruto!

DAM: CORNETTA III is a daughter of the Elite mare Cornau. She has had a successful career as the much loved hunter/jumper partner of her owner.

DAM DAM: PS+ES CORNAU is also the dam of the major sire EH CONSUL (see below). Of Cornau's 11 offspring, her only colt is an Elite stallion and, so far, 5 of her 10 fillies are dams of Elite, Premium or Approved stallions. Cornau's daughter ES CORNA (by Illuster, and herself a GP mare and Bundeschampion in 1985) is the dam of the approved premium stallion CHECKPOINT (himself sire of the approved Schwalbenglanz) and CORNE, the top selling mare (by Buddenbrock - making her a 3/4 sibling to Contessa) at Neumunster in 2006. Cornau is also the dam of CORNU, the dam of CORNUS and the FEI dressage gelding Chapeauclaque. Cornus showed at M level in showjumping and M and S levels in dressage and is the sire of the FEI stallion, Ursprung. Another of Cornau's daughters, COLMAR, is the dam of the approved stallion COMTESSO. Cornau's daughter CARO-DAME II is the dam of EH CONNERY (also by Buddenbrock, making Contessa a 3/4 sibling - see picture at top of page. EH Connery is emerging as the most successful sport horse sire among EH Buddenbrock's many sons. Connery's son Imperio, Reserve Champion in Neumünster 2005, won Silver at the FEI World Championships in Verden and became Bundeschampion of the 5yr old Dressage Horse in 2008. He won Bronze the year after and also had a great first crop of sons in Neumünster. Connery's influence in Hanover seems to be growing as well, with two approved sons and the excellent eventer Charlie Weld, who won the FEI World Championships of Young Event Horses in Lion d'Angers/FRA in 2009.). Cornau's daughter CATHERINE is dam of the ATA approved stallion CARDINALI. Cornau's daughter CORNANDIA, has had two stallion candidates at NMS, Campario and Cosmopolitano.

The Corry branch of the big Corrida family from Trakehnen has further produced stallions and performance horses such like EH Cadeau (approved, Young Horse Dressage Champion), Couracious (approved, 70 day test dressage index winner), Carel Deak (approved), Couleur Fürst (approved, S level show jumper, M level dressage), Caanitz (approved, S level show jumper), Cornett (FEI dressage), Cocteau (FEI dressage), Conte Coyano (Grand Prix dressage), Casar (eventing), Coktail (international dressage) and a Russian branch of this family stands for the world class eventing sire Fleetwater Opposition and the two times Olympic show jumper Almox Prints J.

DAM SIRE: EH BENZ by EH Rockefeller out of Premium Mare Blinklicht is an accomplished FEI dressage horse and elite stallion based on his own performance record and the quality of his offspring, in advanced competition in dressage and driving in Europe. EH Benz is one of the breed's top movement producers (based on the statistical analysis of inspection scores of his daughters in Germany). He is out of the famous family of Blitzrot (main stud Trakehnen). Benz is one of the best trot-producers in the current Trakehner breed and sired the approved sons Emerson and Minetti. He also sired the S level dressage gelding Hopkins as well as the advanced level dressage horses Chronometer, Galileo, Gute Aussicht and Sunny SL. He is also the dam sire of the 1999 reserve champion stallion in Neumünster, Maserati by EH Partout, who is a successful dressage stallion.

DAM’S SIRE SIRE: EH Benz’ sire EH ROCKEFELLER was a German Trakehner elite stallion and one of the best sporthorse producers in the breed. Described in the early ‘90s by equine experts as one of the best German warmbloods ever born, regardless of brand or breed, he was an FEI-level dressage winner and Germany’s National Stallion Champion in 1997 (all breeds). He had beside Benz three other approved sons in Germany, all of them leaving quite the mark on the breed: Fontainbleau was the champion stallion in Neumünster in 1993 and continued his career at his home stud in Hörem. He became a successful international CCI*** event horse and very sadly died at only 12 years of age. Among his many offspring are the international eventers Kunta Kinte TSF (who also won the prestigious Bundeschampionat), Karama M and El Greco. Fontainbleau sired the approved stallions El Greco and Albarrano (premium). He is the dam sire of the ATA's approved Inamorato. He is also the sire of Poster Boy. Chardonnay was a successful FEI dressage stallion and in 1997, Germany's most successful 7 year old dressage horse at Advanced level (all breeds!). He had only very limited chances in the breed, but since 2006, stands back at stud in Germany. Chardonnay sired the successful dressage stallion Alter Fritz, himself sire of the approved Chabrol (UK). Artistic-Rock is yet another FEI dressage stallion, and today stationed in the Netherlands. The very powerful mover had even less chances in the breed, but managed to produce such amazing mares as St.Pr.St. Heavenly (100,000DM auction mare in Neumünster) or St.Pr.St. Hillary (both mares were members of the National Champion mare family - get of mare - at the National Trakehner Mare Show in Neustadt/Dosse 2004). EH Rockefeller was equally important and successful as the sire of outstanding mares (e.g. National champions Klassic-Rock and Gute Reise) and performance horses that competed at the top levels in all three major disciplines. Among them are the dressage horses like Rocky Balbloa, eventers like the CCI*** successful Eos, show jumpers like Flambeau and driving horses like Asterix. When EH Rockefeller died very unexpectedly at age 17 in the same year that his sire EH Consul passed away, the breed had lost two of the best sport horse producers it ever had, and the gap was impossible to fill to this day.

EH CONSUL (Contessa's 'maternal uncle') appears in the 4th generation of her pedigree as the sire of EH Rockefeller. EH Consul was a major stallion for the breed and deserves the same recognition as Habicht, Donauwind or Mahagoni. His offspring stand for top athleticism, intelligence, high natural rideability and soundness. EH Consul was an important mare sire as well, and left also a huge mark on the Hanoverian breed (e.g. champion stallion Don Frederico, approved premium Don Vino, the Verden top seller Dark Diamond or the Olympic and World Championship Gold medalist Bonaparte all have EH Consul-dams!!). Like other famous stallions of his era, Consul was an "Anglo" Trakehner, highlighting the need of constant TB influx into our stud books most dramatically. He produced his first foal crop in Neumunster, Germany, in 1986, with a resounding roll of the drums:  SEIGNEUR, Champion - with a record price in the auction; ROCKEFELLER, Reserve Champion; ONASSIS and INKOGNITO. In total, Consul produced a total of 10 approved sons in the Trakehner breed (in addition to the above:  RESSORT, GUTER PLANET, ENCHANTEE, KAISERWALZER, GARIBALDI, and KHALIF)

DONAUWIND has some of the most valuable blood in the Trakehner breed through the renowned stallion line founder, PREGEL (who appears in the 5th generation on the sire's side). Donauwind sired 19 approved sons and more than 100 approved daughters. He was well known for producing first class, multi-talented riding horses who are very rideable and trainable. Donauwind's most famous offspring is the legendary jumper stallion Abdullah, who won World Championships as well as Olympic Gold and Silver medals. Donauwind also sired the stallion Fabian - a Grand Prix dressage horse ridden by Dr.Reiner Klimke.