Unless you've spent some time in Germany, and visited
a few of the breeding organizations, it's hard to understand why meeting Susanne
Rimkus, the Director of the Westphalien National Stud (or to give it the proper
title, Das Nordrhein-Westfälische Landgestüt), is such a shock.
For a start, she is young, attractive, female, she actually rides the stallions
(to Grand Prix dressage level) and when she wants to show you a stallion, she
darts into the tack room, puts the halter on the horse and leads it out, herself.
The traditional German breeding director is/does none of the above.
Talk to the locals, and they'll confess they were a bit suspicious of the new
lady director, appointed as she was by the new lady Minister for Agriculture,
but then they tell you that they think she is doing a pretty good job, they
admire her policy of getting the stallions out competing, and are rather proud
of how well 'their' director rides at the stud's demonstration days.
Suanne Rimkus meets a group of Australian breeders at the Westfalien Stud
Certainly Susanne has the air of someone well and truly on top of her job, and
she is having nothing of the new theory of breeding two different lines - one
for dressage, one for jumping...
"Here in Nordrhein-Westphalia, we aim to breed a horse which moves well,
which is a comfort to ride, and also able to jump. Not a specialist - but we
feel we can find the specialists amongst these horses."
"Most of our buyers ride in their spare time, they can feel confident when
they buy our horses that even if they jump at the weekend, they have to ride
dressage during the week, or during the winter, and that has to feel nice for
them. They want to have a horse that is nice to work with, and can jump."
Susanne is the head of the combined Nordrhein-Westfalien studbook: "Formerly
they were two separate organizations but now they are coming together more and
more. The main licensing of the two and a half year old stallions is here in
Münster for both stud books. They have a commission with representatives
of both studbooks, but mare selection and the foal shows, they do separately.
Our national stud is responsible to both."
"Our breed is based on Hanoverian blood. In
former times our studbook changed from heavy horses to Warmbloods with the help
of the Hanoverian bloodlines. The change was made after the Second World War.
It was my predecessor, Dr Gert Lehmann who did great work in changing the horses
over to more sport horse types. This is one of our important tasks."
"I look at several licensings in different areas for stallions for our
studbook. Of course the Nordrhein-Westfalien licensing is the most important
for me, but then I look in Hanover, in Holstein - although I haven't bought
a Holsteiner yet - and at the Trakehner, we only have one Trakehner stallion
at the moment, and for many years there were none. I think about using Trakehner
blood for elegance and type, like the Thoroughbred. The Hanoverian licensing
is the most important after our own, and we look at Oldenburg because in Oldenburg
there are many bloodlines... but again I haven't bought an Oldenburger stallion
yet, just Hanoverians."
"We have a few Thoroughbred stallions, but not enough. Today it is very
important to show our breeders that you can ride Thoroughbreds; that they are
good riding horses. Formerly they were just shown in hand, and they would be
leaping and bounding all over the place and the breeders were afraid to use
them because they thought they would get nervous horses. I try to show the Thoroughbreds
under saddle, and if I buy new Thoroughbreds, I test them here at the National
Stud before buying them."
"Only after I ride them do I decide. You need so much time to look at the
racecourses to find the right Thoroughbreds. They are many that are not suitable
in their construction, more and more they are breeding Thoroughbreds that are
high and big behind, with the neck downhill, like a Quarter horse, and that
is not what we need for the Warmblood horse."
"I am always looking for Thoroughbreds that are built uphill, and that
is not too easy to find. If they come from the racecourse, then usually they
cannot trot. Our Thoroughbred stallion, Conception, when he came here, he could
not trot very well, but as I have seen many Thoroughbreds, and I rode Thoroughbreds
at the racecourse myself, I could imagine that he must be able to trot after
some training, and now he trots really well. He is also very talented for piaffe/passage
and I hope to educate him up to Grand Prix. You have to find Thoroughbreds that
are like that."
"Australia is famous for its Thoroughbreds, but unfortunately it is so
far away. It would be very interesting for me to look for Thoroughbreds in Australia
- our eventing riders are very interested in that."
"Although we have our State Stallions, we also have many private stallions.
In the Nordrheinland, we have many more private stallions, but while they have
more stallions, the State stallions cover more mares. Most of the breeders trust
the State stallions. We have twenty-eight deckstations where we send our stallions.
They go out at the beginning of February and come back at the end of July."
"Most of our stallions cover the mares naturally - then we have twenty
to twenty five stallions which are for artificial insemination. Our station
here at Warendorf is the main insemination centre. I like our stallions to cover
naturally because I pay close attention to maintaining our bloodlines. If I
have too many stallions available with AI, then the breeders will concentrate
on them. I think it is one of the strengths of Westphalien breeding that we
have so many bloodlines, then if we bring in outside blood - Holstein for instance
-
we can select from our own bloodlines the mares that will be suitable because
we have such a variety to choose from."
And your own background, has it always been with horses?
"I have always been with horses. I had some education as an amateur instructor,
then I studied Agriculture, specialising in animal breeding and feeding. As
I have always been interested in horses, that's where I specialised, but because
there are not many jobs with horses, I then worked with cows and pigs."
"I taught people in the 'new' Germany, the
eastern part, teaching the management of cows and pigs, and I learned then to
be able to operate with a lot of older men who were the heads of farms there."
"After that I worked for three months at the Holsteiner centre at Elmshorn,
working with the stallions, I knew Landgraf, and Lord."
"Then I moved to Warendorf, to the National Federation. We have the only
national federation for both sport and breeding, and the National Federation
is the umbrella organization for all our stud books, we have more than 26 studbooks
in Germany. I was in the breeding department and learned a lot about the structure
of horse breeding, and I had the contact with the National Stud in Warendorf,
and so I got the job here."
That was a big challenge?
"It was, it was the big chance, there are only nine state studs in Germany
and most of them do not change their directors very often. It happened...
Your long term goals?
"The biggest plan is to breed good horses, and that has been the goal of
every director before me. As I am a woman, I look closely at the handling of
the horses, I hope we will have modern easy-to-handle horses which move well
and are not just specialists in one discipline - they should be able to compete
in dressage and jumping at level L, and out of those you can find the specially
talented horses. I hope that many many people will feel comfortable on our horses."
The National Stud is an impressive complex with 57 staff and 17 students, and
is also the home of the German Riding School which was established in 1888.
Stallions who fall from favor - either because their foals are not
up to standard, or if the 'type' doesn't please the breeders, find their way
to another barn where 43 school stallions live the life of an honest riding
horse.
As is the case throughout Germany, the 150 breeding stallions winter at the
centre before going out to the local stallion stations. The creme de la creme,
stay at the Stud and are bred using AI.
King of the Band is Polydor,
now 26 years old, and still with the grandeur and dignatas of a sire who heads
the World Breeding Rankings and who ranks in any calculation of the all-time-great
jumping sires, through his famous offspring, the most famous of being Two Step
Twenty-one year old Weinberg is another grand old man, and another to star on
the world breeding rankings for dressage, based largely on the exploits of his
son, Goldstern (Klaus Balkenhol's star horse).
But the one we've really come to see is Florestan.
This is the name that has been popping up in all the top young horse classes,
this is one stallion that everyone is talking about. And there he is - much
more handsome than he appears in his photo in the German Stallion book - and
the very model of correctness.
The Stud Director is aglow with pride as she leads him out for us:
"His oldest foals were seven years old last year and they have been successful
at level S dressage and jumping, this is very good for a young stallion, he
has a very high breeding estimation, he is something special."
"He is a very good riding horse himself. He was trained to level S dressage,
but unfortunately he was injured and we have not ridden him for four years,
but now we can ride him again, and he is very easy to handle, and he has very
comfortable movements, they are not always spectacular but they are good to
train. It means a lot for a dressage horse that you can have very good piaffe
and passage."
"His conformation is very good, his shoulder and his back, he is a nice
type, but he is a stallion that needs elegant mares. Although he is nice looking
himself, he needs mares with Thoroughbred blood. When I see foals by him, out
of Thoroughbred mares, it is always a very good crossing."
"He has a very good walk, trot and canter - and the canter is very important
for jumping and dressage, and you cannot train a canter, we need a natural walk
and canter."
Certainly we get some idea just how well Florestan stamps his foals, when we
go to the mare shows, the next day. We are in the heart of 'Florestan' country,
and about half the foals we like, seem to be by him, and they are all, like
their father, very correct and wonderful movers.
The way of showing the foals in this area is unique, and very clever; with the
foals attached to their mothers. We saw one or two youngsters rear up and get
their leg over the rope, but since they are attached with quick release catches,
they were quickly freed, and it certainly made it safer for the foals. According
to the breeders it only takes a couple of days to teach the foals to 'lead'
that way.
As always, I marvelled at the advantages the German breeders have, with their
fillies, mares and foals, continually being inspected by independent experts,
and looking around the sidelines, it is clear that there are so many breeders
who have spent so many years thinking about breeding, experimenting with bloodlines
and crosses, the knowledge pool is obviously another huge factor in their success.
Certainly the overwhelming majority of the horses we saw were a tribute to the
Nordrhein-Westfälische breeders. Refined, good moving, very attractive
horses and as the records show, the area has produced more than its share
of superstars. From 1978 to 1996, Westphalia produced the following European,
World, Olympic or World Cup Champions: Gert Wiltfang's Roman, Reiner Klimke's
Ahlerich, Norbert Koof's Fire, Leslie Burr's McLain, Nicole Uphoff's Rembrandt,
Monica Theodorescu's Ganimedes, Wolfgang Brinkmann's Bugati Pedro, Klaus Balkenhol's
Goldstern, Isabell Werth's Fabienne, Lesley McNaught-Mändli's Pirol, Thomas
Fuchs' Dylano, Dirk Hafemeister's PS Priamos and Martin Schaudt's Durgo. What
a record!
Our thanks to Suzanne Rimkus for her time and hospitality, and to Peter Krautwig, the PR/Presse Director of the Westfälisches Pferdestammbuch who spent so much time arranging our visit to the area. If you are visiting Europe, the Westphalian officials are only too happy to assist you in seeing their horses.
One of the exciting new stallions, Fürst Piccolo
This article first appeared in the March 1999 edition of The Horse Magazine