ROYAAL Z's dam, Fanny Girl Z, was sired by Ferdinand, one of the all time great performance sires with earnings of over one and a half million deutschmarks. In his time Ferdinand helped establish the world-wide reputation of Hanoverians as being the best show jumpers in the world. Werner Schockeinoble once said of Ferdinand, "There has been no stallion known in the younger breeding history who passed on to his sons so consistently courage, confidence, and jumping ability"- and this against all other bloodlines.

Ferdinand sired 12 approved sons, 194 competition horses, 165 Main Studbook mares, and several Olympic horses in both jumping and dressage. He was 18 years old before his first offspring made him famous. Examples include Hugo Simon's Flipper - a horse who, at fifteen two and a half hands, had the heart of a lion, winning 75 Advanced classes including 12 Grand Prix for a total of DM290,000; Ferdl, who at 7 years old won a team gold in 1960 at Rome with the German team; and notable in dressage, in which Ferdinand produced horses with particularly good canter and walk, was Mehmed, Reiner Klimke's Olympic dressage horse. Another Ferdinand son, Pomme d'Api, earned over DM100,000 and held the European puissance record of 7 foot seven inches.

The Ferdinand son Wendekreis was another enormous influence, with over 50 approved stallions and 400 main stud book mares. The Wendekreis son, Werther, is famous for producing horses with a wonderful trot, and attitude for dressage. Recently a decision was made to return this line from the letter W to the letter F, to distinguish the Ferdinand line from the Woermann line, and a number of very nice Werther progeny are reinvigorating this wonderful line.

Ferdinand is by Ferrara, a descendent from the mighty Feiner Kerl by Fling. The dam of Grande is also descended from Fling on her sire's side as from Feiner Kerl on her maternal side. Gotthard, Fruhling and Duellant also descend from Fling.