A three-year-old stallion. Though a large horse, the Trakahener is refined and balanced. Unbridled Photography
American Trakehner Association
1536 West Church Street
Newark, Ohio 43055
www.americantrakehner.com
It has been said that the Trakehner has everything everybody is looking for in a performance horse, and indeed, the breed’s list of attributes certainly leads one to believe it. Trakehners have size, bone, and correctness of conformation, yet are extremely “breedy” and beautiful. They are athletic, with magnificent movement that is comfortable, balanced, and free. Best of all, they have an ideal temperament—keen and alert, yet level-headed and able to take intense work. The breed’s popularity is growing at an astounding rate.
The correct name for the breed is the East Prussian Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin. It is one of the oldest European warmblood breeds with a history that reaches back more than four hundred years. Its foundation is the main stud farm established in Trakehnen, East Prussia, in 1732. The breed’s name is derived from this world-famous farm and the bloodlines can be traced back to this source.
A significant number of Trakehner-bred horses are now competing in performance arenas and gaining national and international recognition. As the list of Trakehner accomplishments grows, so does the list of breeders, riders, and friends who are charmed by the beauty and talent these horses have to offer. Trakehner enthusiasts firmly believe that their breed is the horse of the future in the Western Hemisphere.
History
Trakehner breeding began with a small local East Prussian horse, the Schwaike, which had phenomenal endurance and versatility. For many years it was crossed with various larger imported stallions to provide mounts for warfare, general transportation, and agricultural work.
In the early eighteenth century, King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the father of Friedrich the Great, began to see the need for a new type of cavalry mount for the Prussian army. War tactics had changed and now required a lighter, more comfortable horse with more endurance and speed than the heavier horses previously needed to carry armor and haul heavy equipment. The king wanted horses for his officers to ride that were attractive enough to make them proud, solid enough to stay sound, and had a comfortable, ground-covering trot that would enable them to travel quickly and efficiently. He chose the best horses from seven of his royal breeding farms and in 1732, moved them to the new royal stud at Trakehnen, where he began selectively breeding them and where the Trakehner breed evolved.
When Count Lindenau took over the stud management in 1787, he instituted even stricter selections, eliminating two-thirds of the stallions and one-third of the broodmares. He also allowed private breeders to bring their mares to be serviced by the royal stallions. Later, during the twenty years from 1817 to 1837, select English Thoroughbred and Arabian stallions were purchased and added to the breed, a practice that is still followed today under strict approval conditions by the German Trakehner Verband.
The first stud book of Trakehnen was published in 1877. Through the latter part of the 1800s and up to World War II, the Trakehner was a most successful breed, excelling as a military and endurance horse as well as proving its versatility by doing light draft work in the fields.
As a performance horse, the Trakehner also made its mark. In 1924, 1928, and 1936, Trakehners won three gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze medal in the Olympics (Dressage and Three-Day Eventing). In 1936, a German Trakehner won the Prix des Nations. Between 1921 and 1936, the Great Pardubice Steeplechase (next to the English Grand National, the most difficult steeplechase in the world) was won a total of nine times by East Prussian horses.
The breed easily recovered from its population being halved during World War I. But in October 1944, as World War II was in its final stages and the Soviets were closing in on the area around Trakehnen, orders came to evacuate the horses from the Stud. About eight hundred of the best horses were hastily transferred, but unfortunately they did not go far enough west. Most of them eventually fell to Russian forces and were shipped to Russia. Private breeders and their horses were not allowed to leave until January 1945, when the Russians had broken through the German lines.
What followed was a horror story that went down in history as “The Trek.” Mostly women, children, and the elderly fled with some eight hundred horses. It was the dead of winter and the snow was deep. The horse feed ran out and they had to scavenge along the way. For two and a half months and 600 miles, the group fled the pursuing Soviet troops and strafing of Soviet planes. They escaped across the treacherous expanse of ice and knee-deep water of the frozen Baltic Sea. Of the eight hundred beautiful horses, only one hundred pitiful skeletons limped into West Germany, carrying open wounds from shrapnel and burlap bags frozen to their feet because they could not stop to have their lost or worn-out shoes replaced. Only the hardiest had survived.
A supremely beautiful horse, the Trakehaner is solid and stylish. This is a stallion. Abramova Kseniya/Shutterstock
Only a few hundred Trakehner Horses of the original eighty thousand in East Prussia were available by the time the rebuilding began. Though almost one thousand horses had actually reached the safety of West Germany, most of them were eventually lost to the breed due to the hard times. Those that were left were located and accounted for with the new Verband.
The next decade was spent rebuilding and reestablishing the breed. After 1945, the Trakehner breed was developed (according to the principals of maintaining a pure breed) at its primary German breeding location in Trakehnen using the East Prussian warmblood horses of Trakehner origin that remained after World War II. In 1947, the West German Association of Breeders and Friends of the Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin, otherwise known as the Trakehner Verband, was founded, replacing the East Prussian Stud Book Society, which could not function outside its homeland at the time.
The late 1940s and early 1950s saw a scarcity of Trakehners in competition as breeders struggled to rebuild their stock after the devastation of the war. By the 1950s, Trakehners were beginning again to win at dressage in international competitions. In 1950, the German Federal Government joined the state of Lower Saxony in support of a small breeding farm near the large stud at Hunnersruck. Through the late 1980s this corporation—the business arm of the Trakehner Verband—owned and managed stud farms at Hunnersruck, Rantzau, and Birkhausen. At each of these, it carried on selective breeding with its own mares as well as those belonging to private breeders. They used, and still use, Thoroughbreds and Arabians to improve and refine the breed.
Since then, Trakehners have experienced a comeback at the Olympic Games that culminated in the 1984 Olympics with a team gold and individual silver medal in show jumping by Abdullah, a Trakehner who competed for the United States. He also won the World Cup the following year. Another Trakehner, Amiego, out of the same dam as Abdullah, won the bronze in the 1987 Pan Am Games. Also in 1987, the Trakehner gelding, Livius, was a successful member of the United States Team.
Breed Development
At the beginning, the breed was a stocky, strong, native animal that needed size and refinement. The really important and decisive development of the breed occurred in the early 1800s when top-quality English Thoroughbred and Arabian blood began to be introduced in small quantities. The goal of the breeding programs then was directed toward breeding a better endurance horse that would prove itself not only highly efficient as a riding horse during wartime but also as a working horse on East Prussian farms during times of peace. The object ultimately was to add the size, nerve, spirit, and endurance of the Thoroughbred to the bulk, stability, and nobility of the native breed.
Further refinement in the breed came with the addition of Arabian blood. It is this carefully controlled addition of “full” blood that has given the Trakehner its characteristic breediness and refinement—the elegance and beauty that gives it the edge in stiff competition and sets it apart from other European warmblood breeds.
It is significant that, while the Trakehner still adds only Thoroughbred and Arabian blood to its pedigrees, most of the other European warmblood breeds use Trakehner stallions as improvers in addition to their Thoroughbred and Arabian breeding. This is because in Trakehners, the desired refinement is already present.
The Trakehner of today is a large horse, standing generally between 16 and 17 hands. The breed is characterized by great substance and bone, yet displays surprising refinement, perhaps more so than any other European warmblood breed. It is a superb performance horse with natural elegance and balance. It excels in dressage because of its elastic way of moving—the light, springy, “floating trot,” and the soft, balanced canter, made possible by a deep, sloping shoulder and a correct, moderately long back and pasterns. With its characteristic, powerful hindquarters, and strong joints and muscles, the breed also produces outstanding jumpers. However, perhaps the most outstanding attribute of the Trakehner is its temperament. It is keen, alert, and intelligent, yet stable, accepting, and anxious to please.
One of the most interesting and important annual equine events in modern Germany is the stallion testing and approval program, a procedure that originated for the Trakehner in East Prussia in 1926. Trakehners are tested and approved at a special function before breeding is allowed by the Trakehner Verband. This approval is acknowledged to be the strictest of any in the country.
For stallions, the philosophy behind these approvals is this: in order to be an effective, prepotent, and successful sire, a stallion must display the most correct conformation, paces, and temperament possible and these features must all be natural. Approximately one hundred young stallions are selected out of hundreds applying for certification and for three days, they are carefully examined by an official commission. Only the very best are approved and each year out of approximately one hundred assembled, twenty to twenty-five are given this treasured honor. Within the next two years, the newly approved young stallions must undergo government training and performance testing. By these methods, it is assured that only the very finest stallions of the breed are preserved as breeding stock.
Broodmares are also evaluated before they are entered into the Stud Book. Very rarely is there an approved breeding stallion whose dam’s marks are not somewhat above average, indicating that these painstaking evaluations are the reason that the Trakehner has remained the superior breed it is today. Careful selection has retained the qualities that are valued and desired by breeders and trainers alike.
All over the world, Trakehner Horses continue to excel in most disciplines of equine competition, although since World War II when they were driven from their East Prussian homeland, their primary breeding area has been Germany. The full-bred German Trakehner of today is clearly recognizable by its famous brand—the double moose antler on the left hindquarter—a brand that has been used since the original days in East Prussia.
In North America
The Trakehner was first introduced into North America in significant numbers only in the late 1950s, being imported first into Canada and later to the United States. In 1957, Gerda Friedrichs, a German-born breeder who emigrated to Canada, began importing West German Trakehner stock to institute her own breeding program in North America. The get of three of her stallions—Antares, Prusso, and Tscherkess—have made major contributions to the bloodlines still found in the Western Hemisphere today.
In 1974, the American Trakehner Association (ATA) was incorporated. It eventually unified with the North American Trakehner Association (NATA) established in 1977, the same year stallion inspections began. These inspections now include a representative of the Trakehner Verband and are much the same as those in Germany. In 1979, the German Trakehner Verband signed an Agreement of Cooperation between the two associations where the Verband assured its help and support in establishing goals and breed preservation practices. The ATA was granted the right to use the double moose antler brand—the brand used in East Prussia—for their full-bred horses, but with a distinguishing mark underneath it to identify the horses were foaled in North America.
The Trakehner scene in North America is one of tremendous growth and enthusiasm.
Breed Specifics
Trakehners should not be saddle broke until they are about three years old. Though they grow rapidly, they tend to mature more slowly than their full-blooded cousins. Also they carry so much body that they don’t need the extra weight of the rider until fairly well grown. Once they are saddle broke, training progresses easily and quickly because of another shining attribute of this breed—its temperament. The Trakehner is keen, alert, extremely intelligent, and quick to learn, yet patient, accepting, and able to take concentrated work without “blowing up,” enabling it to excel in dressage as well as jumping.
The registry is based on bloodlines and registration candidates must have at least 50 percent Trakehner blood to be considered. Foal evaluation is optional and their certificates are issued based on documented bloodlines, not inspection scores. All fillies, colts, and gelded weanlings are entered into the appropriate registry book. Qualifications for the Original Stud Book or approved breeding entries are made when the mares are presented for inspection at three years of age or older and stallions are presented for inspection at two years of age or older.
The Trakehner has a light, floating trot and fluid movement. This is a young gelding. Bob Tarr
There are four registration books: the Official Appendix Book, the Official Registry Book, the Preliminary Stud Book, and the Official Stud Book. Each has a different requirement for eligibility. Also there are five divisions of the Official Registry Book: Purebred Trakehner, Anglo-Trakehner (cross with a Thoroughbred or Anglo-Trakehner mare), Arab-Trakehner, Part-Trakehner (cross to a mare other than Trakehner, Throughbred, or Arabian), and Imported Trakehner (pure Trakehners imported into the Western Hemisphere). Any horse qualifying for one of these divisions can be registered without any inspection for conformation or performance.
All horses must be DNA-typed. Colts require a veterinary exam for soundness and freedom from obvious congenital defects. They are also required to have radiographs as well as a personal inspection by the Inspection Committee to qualify for the Official Stud Book. Only about two out of one huundred colts are approved.
The recommended minimum size requirements for stallions at two-and-a-half years old are 15.3 hands, but the average is about 16.2 hands. They must have a heart girth of 72 inches and a cannon bone of 7.5 inches. They must have a truly masculine, dramatic and powerful appearance.
The recommended minimum size for mares is 15.1 hands (preferably between 15.1 and 16.1 hands) with a heart girth of 70 inches and a cannon bone that approaches 7.5 inches. Mares do not jump. They should have a feminine, motherly expression.
Stallion breeding registration (after approval) is final after stallions complete their performance test requirements. They are judged on athletic ability, conformation, willing attitude, and a rigorous performance test. Stallions four years old and older are required to have an Under Saddle demonstration. Similar to the process in Germany, stallions are ridden in a group with other stallions and are expected to perform the walk, trot, and canter. They must also free jump three obstacles.
Standards for these inspections include obedience, willingness to work, and elegant, flowing, and elastic movements, which are the dominant characteristics of the Trakehner breed. The overall impression should be one of freedom, harmony, and balance. This selection process helps to preserve the true Trakehner type and provides an objective evaluation, insuring that only the best are bred.
Breeding Goals
The ATA uses the Verband bylaws to establish its breeding goals, which include a riding sport horse of Trakehner type that is talented for many uses. Selection criteria are the following:
I: Pedigree
The breed is based on the warmblood horses of Trakehner origin created in East Prussia, which carry high percentages of Thoroughbred and Arabian as well as Shagya Arabian and Anglo-Arab genes.
II: Outward Appearance
Colors: All colors allowed.
Size: The objective is a height of 160 cm to 170 cm (15.3 hands to 16.3 hands).
Type: Embodying the most noble German riding horse breed, the horse is characterized primarily by Trakehner breed type. Desirable is the highly elegant appearance of a noble, harmonious riding horse with great lines and distinguished by its expression and striking features. Trakehner type is to be evident in a well-defined, expressive head, large eyes, well-shaped neck, sculpted muscles, and correct, clearly defined limbs. Breeding stallions and broodmares should also display the typical expression of their gender.
Undesirable type is a coarse, plump appearance, big head, indistinct outlines, undefined joints, and in breeding stock, lack of gender expression.
Conformation: Desirable is a large-lined and harmonious body that enables the horse to perform in the disciplines of equestrian sports. This includes a medium-long neck that tapers towards the head, good freedom in the throatlatch, and a large, sloping shoulder. There should be well-defined withers extending far into a back that is able to perform its function, meet the requirements for an athletic sport horse and allow for movement that combines swinging, thrust, and balance. There is a long, slightly sloping, powerfully muscled croup as well as a harmonious division of the body into forehand, mid-section, and hindquarters.
Also desirable is a well, defined foundation matching the body with correct, large joints, medium-long pasterns, and well-shaped hooves, promising long years of use. In addition, the foundation should include correctly positioned legs; that is, legs that are correct when seen from behind, forelegs that are straight when seen from the front, and hind legs that have well-coupled hocks set at an angle of approximately 150 degrees with each leg having a straight toe axis that forms an angle of about 45 to 50 degrees with the ground.
Undesirable traits are the following: an overall unharmonious body, particularly a short, heavy, low-set neck; a short, steep shoulder; short or undefined withers; a short or overly long, soft back; tight or convex loins; a short or straight croup with a high-set tail; no depth of barrel; tuck-in flanks with a short area behind the ribs; incorrect limbs, including small, narrow, or tied-in joints; weak cannon bones; short, steep, or overly long soft pasterns; and hooves that are too small, particularly with inwardly directed walls. Also undesirable are misalignments of the legs, particularly legs that toe in or toe out; wide base or narrow base; calf-kneed, open-angled, or scimitar-shaped legs, and cowhocks or barrel legs.
III: Way of Going
Desirable are diligent, cadenced and ground-covering basic paces (walk—four-beat; trot—two-beat; canter—three-beat). The movement should be elastic and energetic, developed from the hindquarters, transmitted over a supple, swinging back to the forehand, which freely moves forward out of the shoulder. The direction of movement of the legs should be straight and forward.
Charm and nobility are evident in the Trakehner’s refined head. Julie Moses
At the walk, the movement should be supple, energetic, and elevated with clearly defined steps. At the trot and canter, there should be a clearly noticeable phase of suspension, with the movement being elastic, full of impulsion, and light-footed, carried with balance and natural elevation of the neck. Some knee action is desirable. Horses are examined in-hand as well as at liberty.
Undesirable are short, flat, and non-elastic movements with a tight back, irregular movements and heavy movements that fall onto the forehand. Also undesirable are wobbling, rocking, paddling, winging, base-narrow, toeing-in, base-wide, or toeing-out movements.
Jumping: Desirable is an elastic, “scopey,” and deliberate jumping technique that displays calmness and intelligence. The jumping sequence should clearly show a collecting (powerful and quick push-off at takeoff), a distinct, quick angling of the limbs (with the forearms being as horizontal as possible over the obstacle), a rounded back with noticeably projecting withers, and a neck that is bent downward while the hind legs open up (“bascule”). During the entire sequence, the flow of the movement and the rhythm of the canter should be maintained.
Undesirable is careless jumping and lack of aptitude, hanging legs, a high head over the obstacle connected with a hollow back in which the flow of movement and the rhythm of the canter are lost, being out-of-control, and hesitant jumping.
IV: Internal Characteristics
Internal Characteristics includes performance aptitude, character, temperament, and soundness. Desirable is an uncomplicated, friendly horse that is willing to work. It isn’t nervous but reliable, which, in the way it appears and behaves, gives a wide-awake, intelligent impression and reveals a good character and a calm, even temperament. Also desirable is robust health, good mental and physical stress ability, natural fertility, and freedom from genetic flaws.
Undesirable are horses that are difficult to handle, are nervous, timid, or cowardly.
V: Summary
What is desired is a sound, large-framed, correct riding sport horse of Trakehner type with harmonious lines and talented in many ways, with impulsive, ground-covering, elastic movements. Good character, well balanced temperament, intelligence, willingness to work, endurance, and hardiness during work are to be particularly apparent characteristics of its innate traits.
The observer should immediately be aware of a striking, elegant presence. The combination of size, bone, and substance with a classic breediness, producing the unmistakable Trakehner type is clearly distinguishable from all other warmbloods. Charm and nobility are evident in the refined head, often slightly concave in profile, with its broad forehead, smallish muzzle, large, kind, wideset eyes, and solid jawbone. The throatlatch is clean and fine and the long, graceful neck is set into the shoulder at just the right angle to provide maximum balance.
The ideal Trakehner has a large, solid body, standing in a rectangular frame—compared to the square frame of the Thoroughbred, as an example—with a deep, sloping shoulder that allows for tremendous freedom of movement. The legs should be correct and the movement true and square. The pastern should have medium length—neither too short and upright nor too long and sloping—and the cannon bones should be relatively short, thus allowing the horse to stay sound through years of hard work. A back of medium length flows into large and powerful hindquarters with broad, solid hocks carried well under the animal as it travels. A deep barrel provides the necessary lung capacity and is closely coupled to a long, sloping croup.
It is the combination of the thrust from the quarters, the swinging back and the freedom of the shoulder that produces the Trakehner’s famous floating trot. Its trot eats up the ground, is supremely comfortable, and is so light and springy that it actually looks as if the horse does not quite touch the ground as it strides. The ideal Trakehner is naturally balanced, so its canter is soft and flowing, and jumping comes easily from the strong quarters and the well-defined hocks that provide the necessary thrust.
Credit: American Trakehner Association