One of the best things about my job, is the people
I get to meet, and there is no group that I'd rather visit than the great horse
breeders. They tend to be very singular individuals, and none are more distinctive
than Dr Schulz of Stellenfleth (to distinguish himself from all the other Germans
with the same surname, he is most often called Schulz Stellenfleth, wedding
his own name to the locality in which his stud is found.)
And what a wonderful place it is! Right in the northern most part of the Hanoverian
breeding district, his horses share the wind swept marshes of the River Elbe
with the huge flocks of wild geese, and Dr Schulz looks as if he has been crafted
from the land itself.
Yet the truth is he is a relative newcomer to Stellenfleth. His family home
was in part of Germany that was absorbed into Poland at the end of the last
war, and they moved to re-establish their sheep and cattle farm. For all the
feel that Dr Schulz and his horses have been here forever, his extraordinary
achievements have come in three short decades!
"I loved this country the first time I saw it," he says softly. And
the move brought the Schulz family into contact with horses for the first time.
The former owners had horses, and Dr Schulz's first contact was with the working
horses, carrying out apples to them in his holidays.
On a property of 200 hectares, the horse population grew to forty five, but
now the number has been reduced to 30 - but they all trace their ancestry to
one mare, Duellheldin by Duellant.
And before you get the idea that Dr Schulz is some sort of hobby breeder, having
fun with his mares and his geese, I should point out that in a very short space
of time, this one man has bred SIX of the more famous licensed Hanoverian stallions
of recent times.
"We started in 1964 with Duellheldin. She had two daughters by the Thoroughbred,
Marcio, and out of one of those mares, Marbel, we bred Garibaldi 1 in 1971 and
Garibaldi11 in 1974."
(In Germany, if you have full brothers, who are licensed stallions, then the
second, and subsequent stallions, are given the same name as the elder brother,
and a number to distinguish them - thus we have World Cup 1, 11, 111 and 1V).
Wolkenstein II - one of the 'hottest' young stallions in Hanover right now...
"Garibaldi 1 looked more a stallion, taller and more impressive, but Garibaldi
11 was the better stallion - he was so elastic that he proved a very good dressage
sire. Both of them were champions at the Performance Test."
It seems Dr Schulz's famous stallions come in twos, and the next famous duo
was Brentano 1 and 11, and again, Marbel features heavily, since it was her
daughter, Ferbel, by the famous Ferdinand, who when bred to Grande, produced
Glocke, the dam of the Brentanos. The Brentanos are by Bolero, a horse with
three quarters Thoroughbred blood, being by Black Sky, a Thoroughbred, out of
Baroness, another Thoroughbred, tracing to the Djebel line. Brentano 11 was
champion of the Körung (the initial stallion licensing) in 1983.
In 1989, Dr Schulz bred another star, Wolkenstein 1, by Weltmeyer, but this
time another key ingredient in Dr Schulz's breeding program - Grande - figures
largely in the equation. The dam of Wolkenstein 1 is Wolke, out of Gänseliesel
(Goosegirl), by Grande, and in turn, out of the marvellous Marbel. Wolkenstein
1, is now a breeding stallion in the Hessen stud book.
Brentano II - A genetic treasure trove, and still producing stunning youngsters
like the recently licensed, Beluga.
In 1990, Dr Schulz bred Wolkenstein 11, who was reserve champion of his licensing,
and who out of his first crop of colts, produced the reserve champion of 1997,
and the champion colt of 1998!
In all, Dr Schulz has bred twenty colts who have gone on to be licensed, performance
tested stallions.
"I was fortunate, I had a good start with Duellant, then Marcio xx. I was
one breeder who used Grande, as much as possible. Many breeders didn't like
him, the foals were small, and although they had a good eye, they didn't have
the nicest head. I saw how good they were as riding horses and I bred nine Grande
mares."
"I have only used horses of my own genetic foundation, and horses I liked.
It's is not just a matter of thinking, it is very much a question of feeling.
Once I tried to use an outside mare, but she didn't go in foal."
"I'm always trying to breed a better horse, I think I'll try as long as
I live. The result doesn't have to be a champion but what I think is a good
horse."
"I prefer to use stallions in my neighbourhood. If we use stallions further
away we have to take the mare and foal, and that's too far. You can use chilled
semen, but you can't get any on Sunday or Monday, then if you miss, you might
have to wait two or three weeks before you can breed the mare."
"In former times when you went to a mare show, all the mares were from
the local stallions - Grande, Bolero, Wendekreis. Now they are from all over
the Hanoverian region, and the breeders often don't know the stallions - they
look at the fine photos, then the 'numbers' (the breeding rankings) and notes."
"In former times, there were no statistics. Breeders looked at the horses
in question. How good do they look? Now there is a flood of numbers, part of
that is good - but for the individual horse it is dangerous. When breeders only
look at numbers and believe they have a real picture of the horse, it is very
dangerous. The breeder must look for himself, and the breeder starts looking
at the birth of the foal."
"It's written in Latin, in my pedigree book, 'horses are my life'."
A few days after we met Dr Schulz we saw him again, at the stallion licensing,
he had with him a piece of paper, a summary of his breeding credo:
My most important principle in breeding =
For building the generations, I only use daughters of stallions, the children
of which are successful in the sport.
This article first appeared in the April 1999 edition of The Horse Magazine