Benefit grey Oldenburg Stallion, by (Belantis/Sir Tender) born in 2015, standing approximately 16.2 hands.

The stunning winner of the 2017 Oldenburg licensing, Benefit is the epitome of the modern dressage stallion; elegant and light-footed, with a beautiful type and fantastic movement. He has a particularly good front, with a free, open shoulder and a good head-neck connection.

Sire - Belantis is a son of grand prix stallion, Bundeschampion, and performance test winner Benetton Dream. Benetton Dream  scored a 10.0 for his walk at the Bundeschampionat, in addition to 9.5 for trot and canter. Belantis was reserve champion at the World Breeding Championships as a six-year-old, taking home the silver medal behind Sezuan. As a five-year-old, Belantis had already finished 4th at the World Championships on 9.2. Belantis is now competing at international small tour under Isabell Werth, scoring +73% at PSG. From his first three crops, Belantis has produced five licensed sons.

Belantis is from a strong mare line; the 'P' line has produced stars such as Quaterback, Poetin, Quindale, and Don Royal. Directly from the dam-line are licensed stallions Quadroneur I & II (by Quaterback), Sommerhit, the full brother of Belantis  grand dam (by Sandro Hit), and Debut (by Direx). He is always uphill and elastic, with much cadence and an active hindleg. He won the National Championships in Prussendorf in 2012, and was the champion of his performance test, scoring 10.0 for rideability from the test rider.

Damline - Benefit's dam, Sam, jumped up to 1.35m level, and her sire Sir Tender is a son of Sion, whose sire Sultan is the third sire of Johnson and also sired Geoff Billington's great jumper It's Otto. Sir Tender's dam-sire Contender is a versatile and hugely successful stallion, whose son Contendro I has sired Olympic-level horses in all three disciplines. Benefit's mareline has also produced the Oldenburg-licensed and premium stallion Higher Heights (by Catoki), and some promising sport horses.

Oldenburg Breeding News in 2017: The grey Benefit (by Belantis x Sir Tender) was named champion of the 2017 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing in Vechta, Germany, on Saturday 18 November 2017. The licensing committee approved 21 colts out of a collection of 37 dressage bred stallions. Seven stallions received premium status.

The 2017 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing was certainly an interesting one with a big collection of wonderful young sport horses. The majority of the colts were "very talented sport horses" or "good geldings" as a figure of speech. A true stunner offering the complete package was lacking this year, but there were many impressive colts that ticked the boxes either on a conformation level, or in one or two gaits.

Benefit (by Belantis x Sir Tender x Welton x Figaro), bred and owned by Angelika Krause, was probably the most beautiful stallions presented in Vechta in years. The nobility in his face, his cresty neck and his outstanding shoulder freedom made him an undoubted, succulent 10 in front. His hind legs were still baby, not really showing the strength and push one hoped to see in a champion. Both on the lunge and in freedom, this colt moved with much expression in front but could convince slightly more behind. In canter he lacked a bit of suppleness and with every presentation this typy dark grey colt ground his teeth. He had a good walk. At auction this colt sold for 600,000 euro to Antonia Axson Johnson of Lovsta Stutteri in Sweden.

This is the third time in recent years that the Oldenburg society decided on a grey stallion as the champion to infuse more variety in the black and brown dominated stallion world. In the past Fairbanks and De Martino were grey champion but neither of these resonated with the breeders. Fairbanks did not get the attention of the breeders a champion normally gets and is now standing in the U.S.A De Martino hardly bred at all and has now passed away.

Oldenburg breeding director Dr. Wolfgang Schulze-Schleppinhoff praised the DNA unicity of this Belantis colt, as its pedigree is free from the traditional (over)used Oldenburg bloodlines alongside the stallion's basic gaits. "Even in the last round he showed a very good and relaxed walk," Schulze-Schleppinghoff remarked.

2018 news: The 2017 Oldenburg licensing champion Benefit became the high scoring stallion at the 14-day Stallion Performance Testing which was held in Schlieckau on 4 - 17 April 2018. A large group of 33 stallions participated in this testing for 3 and 4-year old, yet four dropped out. The Swedish owned Benefit was the high scoring stallion with a total of 8.40 points. He got 9.5 for character, 8.5 for trot and canter, 9 for walk, 8.5 for rideability, 7.5 for free jumping and 8.75 from the guest judge rider. His total for dressage was 8.66 and for show jumping 7.83 points. Benefit (by Belantis x Sir Tender x Welton x Figaro) is bred by Angelika Krause and the grey stallion sold for 600,000 euro to Axson Johnson at the auction following the Oldenburg licensing.