The integration of warmblood breeds in Europe: reality or myth?
European Europeans by Christopher Hector (photos by Leanjo de Koster)
Some time ago, I wrote an article for Breeding News titled: Are Warmblood breeds now completely merged into one another?
For this article, several equestrian experts strongly criticized me.
One suggested that breed associations are like football clubs and it is good that they have their supporters.
Another said he does not like the idea of regional differences disappearing.
The problem is that I was not writing about something I thought was good — in fact, I liked the old system of small breeding stations that were local social hubs for a group of passionate supporters of their breeding association — I was describing a reality!
Looking at the approvals of five leading studbooks — Hanoverian, Oldenburg, Westfalien, Danish and Dutch — I noticed that of these five, only the foals in KWPN approvals were clearly Dutch.
The others showed that breeders were more interested in producing foals for the market; the pedigrees clearly show that loyalty to a studbook is a thing of the past. Whether Xavier and Astrid or Christopher, the pedigrees in each case show the infusion (or perhaps transfer?
) of blood from other studbooks.
When Dr. Roland Ramsauer died in October 2024, we lost one of the world’s greatest experts in the breeding of sport horses, which is not surprising because he literally wrote Das Oldenburger Sportpferd.
Although Roland was for years one of the classifiers for the Oldenburg Verband, he was not a faithful follower of this breed; in fact, he told me in 2017 that he was looking forward to the day when all breed associations would merge into one German sport horse studbook.
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He said: “Of course, when I started thirty years ago, the breeder would ask, oh, what breed is the stallion?
Today nobody asks.
Everyone asks what does the stallion produce?
They do not care whether he has the Bavarian brand or the Oldenburg brand or the Dutch brand or the Holsteiner brand.”
Is there still an Oldenburg horse, or do we just have one German sport horse — with the possible exception of Holstein and Trakehners?
He said: “Exactly.
We have one German sport horse.
In the south, the associations work together and do not say Brandenburg or Bavarian or Bad-Württemberger; they call it the German sport horse.
In the north it is a little different, it is still Oldenburg or Hanoverian or Westfalian, but in any case, the customers who breed and buy horses do not look at the brand, they only look at the pedigree.
If the pedigree is good, he buys the horse, for jumping, or dressage, or whatever else.”
Zonik Plus to examine the new dressage phenomenon, European gold medalist, Zonik Plus.
This stallion has been described as Hanoverian, although he was bred in Portugal.
His father, Zonik, is completely Dutch-bred (yes, two of the founders of the Dutch breed, Ferro and Jazz, appear in his pedigree) and in the third line of his pedigree only one foreigner appears, a Westfalien named Roemer.
The dam of Zonik Plus, Romanik, is known as Danish Warmblood, although she has a familiar mix of Oldenburger and Hanoverian blood.
Zonik, together with Edward Gal at WEG, is by Zonik Plus out of Heideblume, who was born from one of my favorite stallions, the black Trakehner Hohenstein, and from a Donnerhall mare.
Looking at the records, it is difficult to determine which breed society he belongs to.
Hohenstein the silver medal went to Freestyle; I really prefer not to use the prefix Mt St John, because this British farm had no role in her breeding.
This mare was presented by her breeder Stephan Kurz and purchased at the Hanoverian Elite Foal auction.
In this case, we are dealing with a horse that really is, as labeled, Hanoverian, although it has also received significant contributions from Hanover’s close neighbors, Westfalia and Oldenburg.
When Freestyle and Cathrine Laudrup Dufour were just about when my argument seemed a little shaky, the bronze medalist, Wendy de Fontaine, came to my aid, though I refrain from using her suffix, because this black mare was named Greenparks Wendy by her Danish breeder, Kurt Gosmer.
Wendy has the blood of five breed societies in her veins: Danish, Oldenburg, KWPN, Hanoverian, and Holsteiner.
Her sire, Sezuan, is by Zack and out of a Don Schufro mare.
Sezuan, a winner in his youth, and Dorothee Schneider, although now gelded, Sezuan has proven to be a very good sire and has stallion sons such as Secret, So Unique, Santiano, and So Perfect.
Perhaps you thought that an old, calm gelding could be found for his owner to leisurely ride around on, leaving the black stallion to his own devices.
Jagerbomb – there must certainly be a special prize for the highest-ranked Homebred…
Jagerbomb, who finished fourth and was ridden by Becky Moody, is another interesting combination, and even better, he is truly home-bred, by Becky and her family.
He is by Dante Weltino, who is known as an Oldenburger, but is by the Hanoverian son De Niro, Danone I.
Dante Weltino competing in Aachen even in Jagerbomb’s veins there is a considerable amount of Thoroughbred blood, because Dante Weltino’s granddam, Riconess, is by Noble Roi xx, who was approved for the Hanoverian, Trakehner, Oldenburg, and Holsteiner studbooks.
To find Jagerbomb’s maternal line, we have to travel from Lower Saxony to the Netherlands, because Jagerbomb’s dam, Udysee, is thoroughly Dutch and comes from a time when there was still no clear separation between the jumping and dressage lines.
Udysee is by Jazz, but her mother is a granddaughter of Ramiro and three other 1.60-meter jumpers, Jasper, Emillion, and Wellington, also have their share.
Bluetooth let us end with fifth place, Bluetooth, because he also shows that today’s sport horses are often a blend of the blood of several studbooks.
Bluetooth is by Bordeaux, a son of one of the Dutch breeding stars named United, who himself is by another outstanding horse named Krack C.
Bordeaux is out of a Trakehner mare named Gribaldi.
It is interesting that Dutch breeders seem to have made better use of Trakehner blood than German breeders, from whom the Trakehner originated.
Bluetooth is out of the Hanoverian mare named Lorena, by Riccione, a son of Rubinstein and another with the Hanoverian brand.
But to emphasize how arbitrary these labels are – Rubinstein was entirely of Westfalien breeding, but when he was rejected by the Westfalien commission, he was sold to the outstanding Oldenburg breeder named Gudula Vorwerk and accepted by the Oldenburger Verband.
Lorena's dam, named Loreana, is by one of the greats, the Oldenburger Don Schufro, who in fact was four-eighths Hanoverian, one-eighth Trakehner, and one-eighth Westfalien.
The new European champion, Zonik Plus, there are now serious predictions that the "breeds" will become a single German riding horse studbook.
This may cause some sorrow over one or more glasses of schnapps, but will the horses themselves be different?
I don't think so.
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Source: The Horse Magazine