It was Friedrich Wilhelm I. - King of Prussia - who decided to establish a big main stud to be able to breed successful riding horses for his army. After six years of hard work, the famous main stud of Trakehnen could be opened, including 1101 horses. 513 of them have been brood mares. It was the birth of one of the oldest and most famous riding horsebreeds worldwide. In the following centurys the main stud could produce a lot of significant stallions, for example, Thunderclap by Mickle Fell xx. He realy impressed the chestnut herd at Trakehnen. That herd, which also produced the marefamily of Halensee, T14. Our brood mares descended from this valuable marefamily.


So we can celebrate the 275th anniversary of the trakehner breed in 2007. It realy is a historic event! One important reason that we were able to celebrate this notable anniversary after what has been happening in the years 1944/45 was the fact that there were that group of 27 fabulous mares from main stud Trakehnen who reached western germany. Most of them were able to found there own familys. That was the spark for the restart breeding Trakehners. One of them was Halensee by Hannibal out of Halma by Dampfross. The type chestnut granddaughter of famous Hirtensang not only founded her own family, she also was highly distinguished twice at the DLG exhibition in germany. The family of Halensee is traceable to the mare Fatme in the year 1787! It is one of the oldest marefamilys worldwide.


Halensee born at main stud Trakehnen 1942 by Hannibal out of Halma by Dampfroß


You can get some impressions of Trakehnen before 2. WW here:

The famous herd of chestnut mares, Halensee was born here in the most expressive and consistently maregroup at Trakehnen.
The white castle of Trakehnen


pic.:Archiv Schulte 		When on Oktober,17th in 1944 all the horses and people had to leave the Trakehnen stud, the end has come for the most famous warmbloodstud in the world. Before the second world war 14000 mares and about 750 stallions had been registered at the east-prussian studbook! Only a few mares and stallions reached western germany after an unbelievable trek more than 1000 km during one of the hardest winters, ever seen. Many breederfamilys could only reach the west because of the heroic strength of their horses.

Foto: Trakehner Verband
Unbelievable high was the number of dead people during the great trek. Thousands and thousands of young and old, men and women and even children broke through the ice of the frozen sea and were never seen again. Only 1500 horses could reach the west. It was a little group of the 30.000 horse population in east prussia. But not all horses that could manage to reach the west of germany were save. Many of them died in fact of the tortures at the trek or died because of hunger in the first months after the war. There was no feed for the people, so it was much more difficult for the last trakehner breeders to find food for their horses. For the breeders it was hard to see the hungry horses, because the brave horses had saved the family lives during the trek, working so hard. Only 27 mares from legendary stud of Trakehnen could reach the west of germany. Some of them could found new lines of theirs old mare familys to continue breeding purebred trakehners!
In front of the horse museum in Verden you can find this replication of a statue which the trakehner breeders once raised for the original trakehner stallion Tempelhüter.


Gimpel

Now the after-war-generation had to work on, to lead the trakehner breed into a successfull future. Unforgettable are trakehner sportheroes in history like Absinth, Gimpel, Nurmi, Kronos. After the war then were horses like Ultimo, Hirtentraum, Abdullah, Peron, Thyra, Kleopatra and many more to present the high performance potential of trakehner horses.
Absinth


Breeding Trakehners, we think you have to learn from the successful breeders before the exodus from east prussia. So one point is using arabian blood. So as we saw Solero the first time, we thought he is really the ideal combination of rideability, success in sport and arabian roots via his dam Siri Arabella, a grand daughter of Dämon ox.



When in 1972,the Olympic Games were hold in Munich, there was a black, beautiful stallion starting for UdSSR, called Pepel. He performed well and many breeders recognized for the first time, that there was a pure-bred population of trakehner horses at Russia build up from horses that could not reach west germany after war. A lot of stallion lines and mare familys still exists at russian trakehner population, which the german breeders thought they had been dissappeared during the war! picture by russian trakehner ass.



Watch wonderful Pepel moving

Pilger invaluable stallion from main stud Trakehnen. He produced the dressage horse Herder before second ww and was able to establish his own stallion line at russian trakehner population. picture by russian trakehner ass.

Every dressage enthusiast knows the great Biotop. He was the last Grand Prix horse of Dr. Rainer Klimke. He is one of the most popular stallions from stallion line of Pilger.
Many thanks to Mrs. Betty Finke for this wonderful picture of Biotop!


Hockey sired about 40 international Grand Prix horses for dressage and also for show jumping! Almox Prints under saddle of Elmar Gundel, Perechlest/Ulla Salzgeber and Podchod/Elena Sidneva are only three names you might know. And for example he also is the father of Biotops dam Plaska.

Foto: Russischer Trakehner Verband
Foto: Russischer Trakehner Verband
Haza, mother of Hockey, representing the stallion line of Kupferhammer/Parzival. She also gave birth to Herson by Eol and is grand mother of Heops, who actually is a very successfull show jumper up to international level.
In the pedigree of Hockey you can find some of the biggest names in arabian breed, so he is a son of Pomeranetz ox and a great son of Priboy ox!

Foto: Russischer Trakehner Verband

And now, 60 years after the end of second ww and after the iron curtain has been fallen, we are able to combine the best of both sides, east and west. So for example watch our foals, born 2005, Honoré by Goldschmidt, by Biotop and Helikon by Lowelas, by Hockey. They represent the great chance for the trakehner breed to combine the best lines and they could also be a symbol for peace and friendship among the breeders from west and east!