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Article:Trakehner Breeding: History and the Modern Trakehnerby Christopher Hector

Warmblood Stallions of North America

—Warmblood Stallions of North America 2013,originally published in The Making of the Modern Warmblood

2 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2013 issue

Horse breeding in East Prussia, birthplace of the Trakehner, originated in the thirteenth century when the Teutonic Knights colonised the land—and with it the hardy local Schweiken horse.

In 1732 King Friedrich Wilhelm II ordered the establishment of the royal stud at Trakehnen. 1100 horses were brought to the newly established breeding centre, including 500 mares. Those first horses were from a number of breeds, namely Neapolitan, Danish, Andalusian and Oriental, as well as some riding horses imported from England. The main stallions in the eighteenth century were Oriental but the early products were not impressive and the operation suffered from a lack of a coherent breeding policy.

On the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, Trakehnen was passed into the hands of the state, and for the first time, there was a well-thought-out breeding policy. Mares were selected on the basis of their breeding and conformation, and those that failed to meet the standards were sold. The new ruler, King Friedrich Wilhelm II, was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic and he appointed Count Karl Lindenau as the stud manager. In 1787, Count Lindenau culled twenty-five of the existing thirty-eight stallions, and 144 of the 381 broodmares, remarking that they were “not lean and strong-boned enough, moved too narrow in the hindquarters and there were too many curbs; some horses were eliminated because they were suspected of having spavins and some had boxy hooves.” It was after this major upgrade that the foals born at the central stud were branded on the right thigh with the single seven-pronged elk antler1.1 Alces alces, the Eurasian elk, which is the same species as the North

Lindenau also opened up the stud, transforming it from a royal stable to a centre for horse breeding for the whole of Prussia. The local farmers could now send their native mares to the stallions at Trakehnen—and the area became the major source of supply for the army for the next 150 years.

In 1786, Herr von Brauchitsch was installed as the first Land-stallmeister, or State Stud Manager, and took up residence in the great house at Trakehnen. The central stud’s broodmares were located at five different farms, with the mares of a riding type at Alt-Trakehnen and Bajohrgallen, and the carriage types at Kalpa-kin, Gurdzen and Guddin. The herds were divided according to their color, and there were black, bay, chestnut and mixed herds, This color coding remained in operation right up until the flight from Trakehnen in 1945.2 Right from the start, large numbers were bred, with 7324 mares approved in 1796 alone.

During the nineteenth century, Linedenau’s policy of using only Arab and Thoroughbred blood was continued, and by 1860 some 15,559 mares were bred to Trakehner stallions, of whom 68.4% were Thoroughbred. By 1912, there were 48,467 mares, and 84% of the stallions were Thoroughbred.

The director of the stud from 1895 to 1912 was Buchard von Oettingen. One of his first moves was to introduce three stal-lions—Obelish, Optimus and Lehnsherr—from the south west-ern Beberbeck stud, to give the breed more substance.

American moose.2 This has come to be known as The Trek, a formative event for the Trakehner breed.

by Christopher HectorHistory and the Modern Trakehner

This article is reprinted with kind permission of the author, Christopher Hector, from his 2010 book, The Making of the Modern Warmblood, from Gotthard to Gribaldi.

Trakehner Breeding

The Anglo Arab, Thunderclap (by Mickle Fell xx) - a major influence on the chestnut herd in the nineteenth century

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the policy took an about-face, and he started upgrading the Trakehner with increased use of English Thoroughbred blood. He purchased Perfectionist xx in 1903 for the then high price of 20,000 Gold Marks. This stallion produced the stallion sons, Tempelhüter, Jag-dheld and Irrlehrer—all of which established their own sire lines. In the pre-War years, East Prussia was supplying approximately 7000 horses a year to the cavalry, and they wanted fast, handy horses: horses with Thoroughbred blood.

Then came the Great War of 1914-1918 and the main mar-ket, the cavalry, literally disappeared when, under the terms of the World War 1 Armistace, the German army was limited to 100,000. The breeders in the 1920s and 1930s swung to produc-ing a heavier dual-purpose horse, sired by stronger part-Thor-oughbred stallions. But still there was something different about the Trakehner. German equestrian journalist, Jan Tönjes explains:

“In those pre-World War 2 years hardly any of the other famous studbooks of today focused on the production of sport horses. Holstein and Oldenburg kept their eyes on coach horses and on working horses, Hanover was producing horses for the cavalry and Westphalian farmers would collapse with laughter at the suggestion of breeding horses with only one purpose, namely to

put a saddle on and ride either dressage or even jump over fences. If there were horse shows in the 1940s then the broodmares that day-by-day pulled carts or ploughs would have to serve as show horses on weekends.3

“In 1936 the Olympic Games took place in Berlin and Trakehners won six gold medals. Kronos and Absinth won individual gold and silver medals in dressage and Nurmi was the Olympic champion in Three Day eventing. Pure-bred Trakehner horses can only have Trakehner, Throroughbred, Anglo-Arab or Arab parents. This concept made the horses unique among all other Warmbloods in Germany, most of whom were at some stage in their history bred for agricultural rather than equestrian pursuits.” 4

Performance testing of stallions was key to the program and in 1926 a stallion testing station was established at Zwion. The three-year-old stallions were tested over a three-day cross country test and the stallions were prepared in the famous Trakehnen hunts across the formidable fences of the estate.5

3 Editor’s note: This is certainly true, but it is also important to note that the well-bred Trakehner mares also earned their feed from heavy agricultural work. There are plenty of images of noble Trakehner mares ploughing fields!4 — The Horse Magazine, March 20065 Editor’s note: At Zwion, the first testing station of its kind in the world, the stallion test lasts a full year.

Tempelhüter at the age of 20. From 1916 to 1931 he produced 333 foals - 65 became stallions, and 59 mares.

Dampfross, by Dingo, a primary sire from 1923 to 1934. He produced 2261 remounts for the cavalry!

At the 1936 Olympics, Absinth, winner of an individual silver and team gold with Major Friedrich Gerhard.

Nurmi and Hauptmann Ludwig Stubbendorf, team and individual eventing Gold at the 1936 Games.

Pythagoras, born in 1927, by Dampfross out of a Tempelhüter mare. He stood from 1934 to 1944 and disappeared in wartime confusion of the winter of 1945. He was rated the best all round sire of the stud.

The pure bred Arab, Fetysz was born in Poland, and stood as a primary sire at Trakehnen from 1937 to 1944. He had a huge influence on East Prussian breeding. He was one of 16 great sires that vanished at the end of the war never to be seen again.

4 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2013 issue

In 1944, in the face of the advance of the Russian Army, the Trakehnen stud was abandoned. Stallions, broodmares and youngstock were loaded on to west-bound trains, while the East Prussian farmers harnessed their broodmares to carts and headed west. Some perished on the way, some were left behind as the group moved; eventually only about 1600 horses out of the origi-nal 27,000 made it to the newly formed West Germany. During the next two years, the numbers fell further until there were only 700 mares and 60 stallions—and no foals.

In 1947 Germany’s first national (as distinct from breeding district based) studbook was formed, the Association of Breeders and Friends of the Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin: the Trakehner Verband.

The following forty years saw a huge revival of the Trakehner breed, and by the 1990s there were some 1400 foals per year being registered in West Germany. In 1987, there were 3410 Trakehner broodmares, served by 301 stallions. Ten years later, there were 5068 mares, and 234 stallions. Since then there has been a slight decline in Trakehner numbers. In 2007, there were 3573 mares and 222 stallions. The Auction6 figures represent steady progress: in 1987, the average price for a licensed stallion was €23,264 and the average mare price, €7,948. By 1997, the stallion average was up to €51,384 and the mare average at €13,692. In 2009, the stallion average was €62,705 with a top of €250,000 for the licensing champion, Kentucky (Donaufels / Lehndorffs).The mare average in 2010 was €13,700.7

Still there were twists and turns along the way, and at one stage it looked as if the Trakehner breed had totally lost its focus. Once again, it is Jan Tönjes, well-known as a friend to the Trakehner, who makes the point:

“In the 1950s famous dressage riders in Germany such as Willi Schultheiss, Harry Boldt or Otto Lörke would ride Trakehner

6 The International Stallion Market of the German Trakehner Verband in Neumünster (NMS)7 Editor’s update: At the 2012 NMS stallion auction, the average Trakehner stallion sold for €81,000 at auction. The NMS stallion auction was the most successful of all warmblood stallion auctions in Germany in 2012.

dressage horses, in the 70s and early 80s Gabriela Grillo’s Ultimo was Germany’s top dressage horse, team gold winner at the Mon-treal Olympics. Hirtentraum with Uwe Sauer as well as the gor-geous black mare Kleopatra, one of the last horses competed by Georg Theodorescu, were perfect examples of good sporthorses.

“In eventing it was Habicht ridden by Martin Plewa, who later became Germany’s eventing team coach, who helped the Trakehner horse to gain a good reputation among sport riders.

“Finally Abdullah, Conrad Homfeld’s legendary grey stallion, and Anne Kursinski’s Livius were international perfomers branded with the double elk (moose) horn, the registered trademark of German bred Trakehners.

“Trakehner breeding politics definitely took the wrong path in the 1970s. The idea of having something special led to a false goal: beauty. It was no longer performance that was important but beauty. More and more Trakehner breeders concentrated on beautiful faces, straight limbs—and forgot about things like rideability or jumping ability.

“By the end of the 70s some of the wiser Trakehner breeders real-ized this was a problem—maybe as serious as the situation after World War II. Stallions with weak toplines, flat movements and no eagerness to work became extremely popular. If the progeny of these kind of fashionable stallions would refuse to work then Trakehner breeders would often blame the problem on the rider: ‘He’s just not able to ride something so special and sensitive as a Trakehner.’ One of the biggest problems was stiff-legged move-ment without any knee action. Horses that move very flat, more like skaters than the dancers required in the dressage ring.8

“Stiff and beautiful were the distinguishing features and no other

warmblood breed was interested anymore in the Trakehner horse. At the same time, the number of sport riders looking especially for a Trakehner declined, since with the decline of the Trakehner breed, came the rise of other warmblood breeds such as the West-phalians, Oldenburgs, Hanoverians or Rhinelands. The absence of

8 Editor’s note: The original Trakehner war mount was a horse with very flat, yet very efficient, movement. High knee action got you nowhere in the cavalry. When high knee action became a desired trait in riding horse breeding in the 80s—and even more extreme today—Trakehners were still moving like their ancestors. The Trakehner breed has undergone a tremendous breeding effort since then.

A typical young horse competition at Trakehnen: the three year olds that were broken, then hunted and sold through the stud. These sales were partly the model for Hans Joachim Köhler when he established the Verden Sales in the 50s.

Otto Lorke and Fanal (born 1934 by Hausfreund).

Dressage stars in the 1980s: Gabriela Grillo and Ultimo

The Trakehner continued

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jumping ability in the Trakehner breed became proverbial in the 1980s, no matter how high and well Abdullah jumped.”It was in the 1990s that the bad reputation of Trakehner horses as poor perfomers changed. Slowly but surely the number of Trakehner horses doing well increased, especially in dressage and eventing.

Eventer Peter Thomsen rode the grey mare White Girl in the bronze medal-winning team at the 1994 World Equestrian Games. For the first time a horse competed with the suffix “TSF” which stands for Trakehner Sportpferde Foerderung, a club de-signed to support Trakehner horses in sport and to bring together promising young horses and good riders at an early stage.

For France another Trakehner starred, Marie-Christine Duroy’s Summersong by Fleetwater Opposition (himself an eventer at three star level and for more than a decade the leading sire in the UK for producing eventers). The Kiwis who did so well in eventing had Jaegermeister II by Polarschnee (a Trakehner stallion, who was imported to New Zealand and then Australia in the 1980s) with Andrew Nicholson in the Bronze-winning team in Atlanta.

In Germany it was Windfall with Ingrid Klimke when the pair quali-fied in dressage and eventing for the Bundeschampionate. Windfall, by Habicht, went on to yet greater success under US rider Darren Chi-acchia after he was purchased by Dr. Timothy Holekamp and brought to the US. Marina Koehncke was a member of the German team for the WEG in Rome on Boettcher’s Longchamps by Sir Shostakovich xx. Trakehner success internationally has been fairly impressive given that there not more than 1000–1200 Trakehner foals born each year.

The Trakehner breed was also well represented in dressage, with a number of stallions successful in international competiton. In the mid 90s Peron TSF (by Mahagoni) led the charge. The stallion

had been exported to the USA after the stallion licensing, and re-appeared under the saddle of Michelle Gibson for team

bronze medal and a 5th place individually at the Atlanta Games. Another was Heuriger by Herzbube who, ridden by Ellen Bontje, took team Silver at the 1994 WEG in The Hague and an individ-ual 5th place. Heuriger was the world’s most successful dressage stallion, some feat given that Donnerhall was part of the German

team in The Hague.The Trakehner also gained more than any other German breed from the fall of the Wall. When Germany was re-united in 1989, the Trakehner breed was boosted by Trakehner lines that traced back to the main stud in East Prussia and had not been available for over forty years. This was especially a boon because the Trakehner horses that were bred in former East Ger-many showed real jumping talent.

Russian Trakehners also played a sig-nificant role in the developement of the modern Trakehner. Almox Prints was a pure Russian Trakener from the Kirov Stud. By legendary Prussian sire Hockey, he took part at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He also won the Grand Prix of Rotterdam and Wiesbaden and a small num-ber of breeders took the chance to get outcross genes and jumping ability. On the KWPN Jumping Stallion breeding index for 2007-8, Almox Prints is in 9th place on the standings for mature stallions.

For dressage breeders it was Biotop, the last Grand Prix horse of the late Dr Reiner Klimke. Biotop (whose dam is by Hockey) sired Shakira who in 2003 was named German champion mare. So far two of his sons, Goldschmidt and Monte Castello, are licensed.

Anky van Grunsven’s TCN Partout by Arogno is another dressage stallion with international wins, although he lived in the shadow of stable mate, Bonfire. His son Monteverdi competed for a while with Fie Skarsoe and is now a popular stallion.9 For a while it seemed a Trakehner horse, Monica Theodorescu’s Renaissance Fleur TSF (by Tuareg), was about to grab one of the prestigious

places in Germany’s dressage team. Then, only two days after winning the Neumünster World Cup qualifier in 2003, the grey mare broke her leg!

The Trakehners announced their revival at the Bundeschampionate in no uncertain terms in the form of the two full-brothers, Kaiserkault TSF and Kaiserdom TSF, when they one after the other took the Six-Year-Old Dressage Horse Championship. They are both out of an elite mare, Kimora by Gajus, and by Van Deyk (by Pa-tricus xx). For a while, Van Deyk covered as few as three mares in a season, but with the success of his two stallion sons, he is now an influential sire. Van Deyk was bred by Hans Eberhard Schneider, whose daughter, Dorothee, commenced her ca-

reer on the stallion. The pair never won a Grand Prix, but finished second on several occasions, and Kaiserkault is now looking like a serious Grand Prix contender for the future, as is Kaiserdom with Kathrin Meyer zu Strohen.10

9 Editor’s update: There is a very strong dressage line in Germany due in part to Monteverdi’s outstanding sons. His son Oliver Twist sired the 2007 NMS Champion and French Dressage Champion Grand Passion and Aston Martin, the Danish Young Horse Champion, among others. This line is represented in the US by Baron Verdi, by Monteverdi (see his page later in this section).10 Editor’s note: As of 2012, Kaiserkult has won at Grand Prix and is listed

Biotop and Dr Reiner Klimke.

Darren Chiachia and Windfall: one of the Trekehners that starred in eventing.

Peron showed that the Trakehners could be international dressage stars.

6 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2013 issue

Jan Tönjes, in his series of Trakehner articles in The Horse Maga-zine, contended that “by far the most influential sire11 in the post-World War 2 times, Arogno was not a product of one of the often praised damlines from the Trakehnen main stud (who actually did not walk all the way from East Prussia to Germany, like so many other mares, but were moved by train to safe areas in Western Germany when it became apparent/obvious that the Russians would sooner or later conquer East Prussia).

“Arogno, a bay stallion standing at 16.2 hands with a picture-perfect conformation and a beautiful face, was a halfbred. His dam Arcticonius was an Irish Thoroughbred inbred to Nearco. She was imported to Germany and entered into the Trakehner main marebook. Later she recieved elite status. As a producer she was probably the best Thoroughbred mare ever to be used in a German Warmblood breeding program.

“Arogno’s sire Flaneur was runner-up at the grading in 1968. His sireline (Maharadscha by Famulus by Fetysz ox) is based on the Arab Fetysz. Maybe this is what makes him so special. One last thing needs to be pointed out, to complete the confusion: Maha-radscha’s dam Marke is also very influential as foundation mare of her own damline that produced sires such as Mahagoni, Matador (Hohenstein’s grandsire) or Mackensen.

“It wasn’t only the excellent conformation and his pretty head that helped Arogno to win the Reserve Champion Stallion at his grading in Neumuenster. It was his movement and his rideability. As a 3-year-old he was reserve at one of the first Bundeschampio-nate and finished his stallion performance test in Adelheidsdorf as the best Trakehner stallion to be examined that year.

on the German national B-Team, and Kaiserdom has also won at FEI dressage.11 Editor’s note: Other Trakehner experts might take exception to that statement, citing the tremendous influence of Pregel and his son Donauwind, and most certainly Bernus AAH and his son Habicht.

“By far the most successful Arogno offspring [in performance] was TCN Partout out of Pedola by Donauwind (Abdullah’s sire). Purchased at the Trakehner grading 1989 by several Dutch Trakehner enthusiasts, he was brought to Anky van Grunsven who took Partout on to an international career. He was Dutch Champion in the small tour, two times 2nd in the Dutch Grand Prix championships only beaten by Bonfire, won several Grand Prix specials and claimed the victory at the World Cup qualifier in Amsterdam. He was also named Anky’s reserve horse for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.”

And it was an Arogno son who spread his influence in Denmark: Schwadroneur. Born in 1983 by Arogno out of Schwalbenburg (another producer of four graded sons) by Ibikus. Schwadroneur was Reserve Champion at the stallion performance test. Ridden by Anne Grethe Törnblad (born Jensen, famous for riding Mar-zog in the 1980s), Schwadroneur had thirty-six wins up to Grand Prix Special. In the 1990s Danish dressage breeding had only

Winning the six year old championship at the Bundeschampionate, Kathrin Meyer zu Strohen and Kaiserdom.

Arogno: the most influential postwar Trakehner stallion? Photo: Werner Ernst.

Flaneur

The Trakehner continued

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one name: Schwadroneur. He sired an incredible number of sport horses, champion mares and graded stallions.

German sport statistics list an index of 151 for Schwadroneur in 2003: a top score that gives him a place somewhere up there amongst Weltmeyer, Rubinstein and Donnerhall. In 2000 and 2001 he had the top-priced mares at the International Trakehner

Stallion Market. Tamara was sold for 140,000 deutschmarks, Evita for 110,000 deutschmarks. In 2000 he was named Danish Stallion of the Year and also Trakehner Stallion of the Year in Germany. Esprit by Schwadroneur and Nicole Ahlefeld were 10th in the world ranking dressage.

His best son is Hertug, like Partout out of a Donauwind mare. As a young horse Hertug won everything a horse can win in Denmark. Three years in a row he was unbeaten at the Young Horse Champion-sips, and in 2009 he was the most popular dressage sire in Denmark.

Tönjes finished his survey in The Horse Magazine on an upbeat note: “No matter in what directions Germany’s breeding policy may go, one thing is for sure: the Trakehner horse is here to stay. Within all the other breeds Trakehners are gaining more respect than, say, fifteen years ago. With performance, not beauty, being the emphasis, the Trakehner horse has managed to improve its reputation and the number of breeders thinking about using a Trakehner stallion or at least one carrying the famous bloodlines from East Prussia, is increasing. The way back to the top where the Trakehner once was may be long but the direction is clear. So here you go, Trakehner horse!”

The influence of the Trakehner is not only to be found in their own studbook but also in “modernizing” other breeds, particularly the Hanoverian. And one of the key players of modern times in Hanover has been the stallion, Caprimond.

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Partout and Anke van Grunsven; the Dutch have been quick to use Trakehner blood. Photo: Jacob Melissen.

8 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2013 issue

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