The exclusive breeding rights to the late record-breaking dressage star Totilas are held by Paul Schockemöhle, a Dutch court has ruled in a dispute over the dead stallion’s semen.
The legal wrangle involves the stallion’s previous owner, Kees Visser, and Mr Schockemöhle, and has been rumbling through German and Dutch courts for some years.
H&H reported on an interim decision by a German court to prevent Mr Visser from selling Totilas’ frozen semen (news, 11 April 2021), which was upheld later that year following an appeal. Once the interim injunction proceedings were concluding, main proceedings had to be initiated to conclude the legal dispute by a final court decision. Mr Schockemöhle did so at the Oldenburg Regional Court, and these proceedings are ongoing.
At the same time, Mr Visser initiated main proceedings in the Netherlands, which have recently concluded, where he sought the declaration that he is…
