Carthago Z is the son of Capitol I, one of the great modern Holsteiner showjumping sires. Unusually for a Holstein jumping sire, Capitol carried no Cor de la Bryère blood, but he was richly endowed with the heritage of two great Thoroughbred descendants of the Bay Ronald line - Cottage Son xx and Manometer xx, he also carried a double cross of the influential anglo-arab, Ramzes.

Capitol I sired Cassini, Campione (and full brother, Cathleen, ridden by Meredith Michaels - now Beerbaum), Calato Z, Curtis (Mändli), Cliquot (Kirchof). With an index of 182 he head the FN young jumping stallion ratings.

Capitol’s grand dam Retina was a Hamburg Jumping Derby with Fritz Thiedemann. His dam, Folia, showed great jumping potential herself, and produced the licensed stallions Latus I and II, as well as the two Capitols, and famous daughters Kausa, Lektion (eventing) and U-Capitola (dam of Lord Capitol).

Folia’s dam, Vase, was a full sister to Romanus who competed with success with Hans Günter Winkler, despite the horse’s aversion to water jumps.

The dam sire, Calando I stood at several breeding stations in Holstein before pursuing a performance career that culminated in a German Championship with Karsten Huck. After jumping successfully in Luxembourg, Calando I returned to breeding duties in Holstein.

At his performance test, Carthago Z earned a 9.5 for free jumping and a 10 for jumping talent!!! Carthago Z finished in 11th place at the Atlanta Games with Jos Lanskink and the pair were members of the Dutch team at the Sydney Games. In all the combination competed in 15 Nations Cups. In 2001, the stallion, who had been leased to Leon Melchior since 1995, returned to his birthplace in Schleswig-Holstein and the Holsteiner Verband.

Carthago is already the sire of numerous approved sons and although he is no longer fertile he continues to sire foals for a while, thanks for the stock of frozen semen. He is retired on an island in the North Sea, with a couple of mares for company. One of Carthago's sons, "Czechmate", has produced three foals under ownership of Sequoyah Farms.

His progeny includes international showjumpers, such as Cim Christo at the 2004 Olympics under the Korean Bong Gak Sohn, as well as Kira III/Ludo Philippaerts/BEL, VDL Groep Spiga/Leopold van Asten/NED, Caitano/Ulrich Kirchhoff, Campus/Steve Guerdat/SUI, Cristallo/Alois PollmannSchweckhorst, Caya/Sheila Burke/USA, K-Carrera/Michael Aabo/NOR, Charlottenhof’s Classix Girl/Sören von Rönne, and Hofgut Liederbach’s Cathleen/Pia-Luise Aufrecht.