It’s a sell out at the Stallion Shows…
Story – Chris Hector Photos – Roz Neave
As Australians queue in 40 plus heat desperate to get their tickets to the one-day cricket series, Germans are queuing as their temperature rockets up to 4, for tickets to their particular brand of rollicking good fun – the Stallion Show.
With the German breeding season just weeks away, it seems that there are stallion shows everywhere. From the mighty state studs and their classic displays, to the mega-private studs, to the one-or-two stallion barns, the Hengsts are on display. In the German magazine Züchter Forum, there are 26 of the larger shows listed for February alone! As one German stallion owner remarked, ‘No-one comes to the horse shows, but if you drag a stallion out of the barn, suddenly there is a crowd.”
There’s even an emerging German equivalent of World Series Cricket, with the powerful show organizing corporation, Aufrecht Hippo-Promotion putting together two super shows bringing together the forces of 14 major studs. This is causing some misgivings amongst the stallion owners who are used to paying a fee of twenty to thirty euros to show their horses, for the super shows are charging up to Euro 1500 a stallion!
Our first stop on our stallion
show tour, is at the Westfälisches Pferdezentrum in Munster-Handorf, where the Westfaliens are kindly allowing the Trakehner Verband – currently celebrating its 275th birthday - to use their big auction and riding hall for a special display.
The stallion display is accompanied by a licensing, but so early in the year, not many horses are put up, with the big studs preferring to wait for the major licensing in Neumünster in August. None of the young stallions are licensed, one older dressage stallion, Showtime (Polarpunkt / Tenor) is accepted as is a perfectly hideous Thoroughbred, Timolino (Monsun / Trempolino) – I suspect nicer types regularly end up in Pal cans in Australia.
But the stars of the Trakehner breeding scene are here in force, pressing their claims to a sell-out audience of mare owners. Our pal, Jan Tönjes, a journalist from St Georg magazine, and author of THM Trakehner series in 2005, is up in the announcers booth, keeping up a running commentary with the Trakehner breeding director, Lars Gehmann. Jan estimates that we will see 75% of the active Trakehner breeding stallions before the afternoon is out…
The show starts with a tribute to one of the grand old men of the breed – Kostalany. Now 22 years old, the black stallion is still ready to piaffe, and the crowd is enthusiastically clapping on the beat.
From one of the old guard, to one of the new, the eight year old K2, shown for the Sprehe stud by Falk Rosenbauer who has recently rejoined the team at Grönwoldhof – now home to the Sprehe dressage stallions.
The young stallion looks a bit jacked up but he can really move… one of the great strengths of the Trakehner breed is that they all seem to enthusiastically step under themselves.
The new crop of Trakehners is also taller, more athletic looking, like the four year old Pricolino (Schwadroneur / E. H. Socrates) shown ever so sweetly by Ramona Strucken. She is the first to actually let her horse stretch and lengthen the rein, and the knowledgeable crowd rewards her effort with a round of applause. Brilliant huge trot, wonderful canter – I’d happily put a mare to this one.
One of the highlights of the afternoon is the display of ever so correct Grand Prix movements by the 14 year old Polarion (Van Deyk / Insterruf) ridden by Markus Gribbe, until recently the stable rider for Dr Wilfred Bechtholsheimer, the British based German whose daughter, Laura is forcing her way into the English team.
And when it comes to correct, sympathetic riding, they don’t get much corrector than Carola Koppelmann riding her Bundeschampionate star, Insterburg (Hohenstein / Giorgio Armani). The stallion is so sweetly into her hand, lovely pirouette, big expressive one times changes, then she drops the rein and he moves immediately into a huge unhurried walk. Some sweet baby piaffe before they steam out of the arena in the obligatory big trot with Carola waving as the crowd cheers…
Next in, one of the unsung new stars, Meraldik, an absolutely wonderful four year old, by Münchhausen out of the Thoroughbred, Caramel. The handsome chestnut is big and soft but all stallion, again beautifully shown by Nadine Plaster.
His sire, Münchhausen (Hohenstein / Konigstein) is no longer ridden by Fie Skasoe, but the new rider, the impossibly thin, Andrea Landy Silling, is all class and rides with such a light elegant contact. Münchhausen combines that sheer attractiveness that has long been a Trakehner hallmark, with a strength and power that makes the Grand Prix work easy for him. It is no wonder that he is now rating highly even in rival studbooks, like the Hanoverian.
I’ve long had the suspicion that if the much heralded Warmblood take-over of eventing occurs, the horses will be wearing the distinctive Elk Antler brand of the Trakehner. It stands to reason, unlike the other Warmblood breeds, the Trakehner has never been used for farm work, and the only outside blood introduced has been Thoroughbred or Arabian. American eventer, Darren Chiachia has had great success with the black stallion, Windfall, but his three year old stallion, Ballzauber (Axis / E. H. Itaxerxes) looks even more the modern eventer type to me – and he really has a fantastic gallop. They tell me the youngster can jump, so hopefully when the horse joins Darren in the States later in the year, he’ll have one that not only wins the dressage but completes the cross country…
That’s Hotline’s daddy - Hofrat
And just to reinforce the message that some Trakehners can jump, Czar (Lwow / Aragonit) who has made the long journey from Poland shows his scope over a metre fifty five oxer.
Klosterhof Medingen has many fine stallions, but stud-master, Burkhard Wahler always seems to have the knack of finding new ones. Mr Wahler, himself, shows off Krokant – a wonderful combination of the Hanoverian based Thoroughbred star, Lauries Crusador and Medingen’s great, Hohenstein. This is a super cross and has produced a young stallion that can really use his hocks.
Four year old Herzensdieb (Tambour / E. H. Tivano) is another young stallion that I’m tipping is going to be a hit with eventing as well as dressage breeders. Another tall, Thoroughbred looking horse, he has the advantage of one of the really wonderful younger riders, Helen Langehanenberg in the saddle, but Helen has only ridden him once before this display, and she is taking things quietly in the electric atmosphere. Still it is clear that the horse has a wonderful trot and a brilliant canter… and he was a star in the cross country phase of his performance test.
Left: Out of obscurity he comes - Silvermoon - Matiné’s dad. Right: Trakehner president, Petra Wilm, changed out of her riding gear to welcome the spectators.
Kaiserdom TSF (E. H. Van Deyk / Gajus) is usually ridden by one of the superstar young horse riders, Kathrin Meyer zu Strohen, but when she is ill, the stallion keeper’s wife, Katrin Poll gets the last minute ride and he doesn’t show to his best – leaving the starring role to his year older full-brother, Kaiserkult, ridden to perfection by another star waiting in the wings, Dorothee Schneider – and if these stallions can handle the noise and the atmosphere and the obligatory massive trot out down the centre line with the crowd howling their approval, the atmosphere in a Grand Prix at a WEG or a Games, should feel like a weekend gymkhana. And you can easily imagine this combination taking their place in a German team.
The 16 year old Silvermoon (Kostolany / Mahagoni) was the forgotten stallion of the Trakehner breed, used as a pleasure hack by the owner of a large Thoroughbred stud… this is until his daughter Matiné burst on the scene at the WEG in Aachen. He’s back in the thick of things, well ridden by Mathias Kempkes and showing where the mare gets her amazing talent for passage and piaffe – and a pretty flash extended trot!
One of the more amazing things about the Trakehner Verband is that they have Petra Wilm, a woman and a young(ish) and stylish one at that, as their president who actually competes Grand Prix on her stallion, King Arthur (Buddenbrock / E. H. Consul). They are in a closing pas de deux with Hofrat (E. H. Gribaldi / Guter Planet) ridden by Friederike Bünger-Peters. Hofrat is one of the hot stallions now, after his son, Hotline won the Hanoverian licensing before being acquired for a million euros by Paul Schockemöhle. Hofrat can really move.
The last six stallions come into the arena for a final whirl around – that was five hours of stallions, and no-one left until the very end!
This article first appeared in The July 2007 Horse Magazine