Trakehner Horse

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

Trakehner horse (Trakehner horse) - riding and harness sports horse breed, bred on the territory of the former East Prussia (Germany) in the XVIII century. It is the only one of all half-bred horse breeds that is bred clean. It is currently popular with athletes, breeders and amateurs.

In 1732 on the territory of East Prussia in the village of Trackenen the stud farm of the same name "Trakehner" was opened, which at that time had more than one and a half thousand horses. The main task of this stud farm was to provide the Prussian army with excellent cavalry horses: playful, unpretentious and hardy. Local small mares of the forest type (Shvays) and stallions of eastern blood - Arabian, Berberian, Turkish, Persian, Neapolitan and Spanish - participated in the crossing. Later, crossbreeding began with purebred English stallions. The Trakehner horse, based on the breeding program, must have excellent feed efficiency, good disposition and versatile performance.

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To improve the local breed, the blood of thoroughbred horsemen and Arabs was involved. The work was carried out in the direction of creating a horse that best meets the needs of the time. At the beginning of their existence, Trakehner horses were supplied to the court stables for carriage service. With the transfer of the plant to the state ownership, the breeding work was rebuilt either to raise stallions to improve peasant horse breeding, then to produce a cavalry horse for the needs of the German army.

After World War II, the Trakehner breed in Germany was on the verge of extinction. A large number of horses either died during the evacuation to Western Europe, or were captured by Soviet troops. So during the three-month evacuation of Trackenen to Western Europe, only 1,000 horses reached the site. In 1956 the smallest number of Trakehner horses in the history of the breed was recorded: 602 mares and 45 stallions. The breed was saved thanks to enthusiasts who kept Trakehner horses in their stables, which were the national pride of Germany.

In the 1960s, German horse breeders decided to retrain the Trakehner breed from cavalry to sports. And since horses of this breed have proven themselves in classical sports (show jumping, dressage and triathlon) from the very beginning, interest in this breed has increased not only in Germany, but also in other European countries and even in the USA.

The formation of the breed was significantly influenced by abundant feeding, good conditions for stables and levados, and a varied combined system of training and testing. It included cross-country horse racing, participation in parfour hunting, overcoming obstacles, dressage tests, in carriages, in agricultural work.

Trakehner horses are distinguished by their large stature, massiveness, dry constitution, nobility and elegant external forms. They are easy to move, able to jump well over obstacles. All this makes them valuable both for modern classic sports and for improving other warm-blooded breeds.

The Trakehner Horse is a great sport horse for riders of all skill levels. These horses, having a balanced character and free, productive movements, in recent decades have numerically dominated in the countries of Europe and America in all classical equestrian sports, showing high results, especially in dressage and obstacle course competitions. It is noteworthy that in the world ranking of the best dressage breeds, the Trakehner breed is divided into two categories: "German" Trakehner and "Russian" Trakehner, the latter often being higher.

Height at the withers is 162-165 cm. Average measurements (cm): stallions height - 166.5, chest girth - 195.3, cannon girth 21.1; mares 164.6 - 194.2 - 20.2. The color is predominantly dark: black, karak, bay, brown, auburn, less often gray.

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Merit in classical sports made a good advertisement for Russian trakehns. This is confirmed by well-known names: Ashes, Topky, Espadron - Olympic champions. Ostryak, Etude, Tantalum, Gift, Kherson, Package, Dragoon, Harpoon and many others - winners and prize-winners of competitions in the USSR.

The Trakehner stallion Ash became world famous. On it, Elena Petushkova won the 1970 World Dressage Championship, and won a silver medal at the XX Olympiad in Munich.

The stallion Carpet (Kirov Stud) twice improved the record for high jumping - 2 m 27 cm.

The stallion Adding machine of the same plant at the Royal Exhibition in England in 1965 was recognized as the champion in the hunter class, and the Item was successfully used as a manufacturer in Germany.

One of the most celebrated trakehns is the gray stallion Abdula. Under the saddle of Condor Haifeld (USA), he won the team gold and silver individual medals in show jumping at the Olympic Games in 1984, and won the World Cup the following year.

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The Trakehner horse is bred throughout Germany, today the number of this breed is approximately 2,500 mares and 270 stallions. It is also bred in other countries - France, Denmark, USA, Poland, New Zealand, England, Croatia, Russia. In Russia, the Trakehner breed is bred in the Moscow KZ, the stud farm named after I. Kirov, the Kaliningrad stud farm, the Experimental stud farm, as well as in the stud farm. Dovator in Belarus.

Only 3% of the total number of stallions receive a broker license. The breed today contains the lines of Dampfross, Fetish, Ararad, Pythagoras and purebred Pasteur.