Argentan I
Argentan was one of the most important founding sires of the modern Hannoverian. Argentan was Reserve Champion of his stallion licensing in 1969, and the following year, was 4th out of 15 candidates in the performance test.In 1994 he was crowned Hannoverian Stallion of the Year as a result of his extraordinary success as a sire. Argentan was the sire of 805 competition horses who won a total of DM1,648,638. His broodmares in particular were highly regarded and included three Champion German Riding Horse mares at the DLG show.
He was the sire of 19 stallion sons most famed of which Argentinus.
The late Werner Schockemöhle, a man regarded in his lifetime as a walking encyclopaedia of Warmblood breeding, had this to say about the great stallion: "For twenty years I have judged the foals in the areas to the north, near Varkstead, where Argentan stood. Then he was the most important stallion - for type - in Hannover. He made fantastic types, but he had the mistakes of Absatz/Abglanz. He was not so good in the shoulder, and often he was not good in the front legs, especially the fetlock and the pasterns. The fetlock was often not large enough, it was too light, and the pasterns were too short. Together that shortens the life of the front leg when it is used hard in the sport."