Horses

The TRAKEHNER Horse is one of the world's most famous and best all round riding or competing horses. Whether this is due to its hardy base stocky, judicious use of quality Arab blood, these combining factors or some other reason, they seem to have been able to take the best from these breeds and the refining quality of thoroughbred blood infusions, whilst retaining its own character far better than any other warmblood.

TRAKEHNER ORIGINS
The development of the Trakehner can be traced back to the 13th century, in what was then East Prussia. The area had been colonized by the Order of Teutonic Knights, who put in place a horse-breeding industry with the indigenous Schweiken pony used as the base stock. A tradional farm horse, the Schweiken was descended from the Konik itself descended from the Tarpan.? From these influential breed it inherited its natural vigor, toughness, and endurance.

In 1732, 500 years after the Teutonic Knights had arrived Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, father of Frederick the Great, founded the Royal Trakehner Stud on drained marshlands parceled by Gumbinnen and Stalluponen in the east of his kingdom. It became the primary source of stallions for Prussia, and soon became renowned for breeding stylish coach horses of vigor, and stamina

By 1787 the emphasis had switched to the production of cavalry and war horses.? Even in this early point of their development an exhaustive testing system was in palace and detailed breeding records were being kept. Meticulous attention to detail in genotype breeding, supported by a series of performance tests became the hallmark of warmblood breed development throughout mainland Europe. At one point in the 19th century, the stud at Trakehnen covered over a massive 13,760 hectares (34,000 acres).

Herds of mares that were divided by coat color: chestnut, bay/brown, mixed colors, and the dominant breed color, black.

TRAKEHNER INFLUENCES
English Thoroughbreds and quality Arab horses were introduced to upgrade the breed further in the 19th century. The thoroughbred influence over time became predominant?- by 1913 84.3% of all Trakehner mares were by Thoroughbred stallions.

The breed was extensively utilized ?in the First World War as a war horse and was considered the best in existance. The Arab effect should nto be underestimated and always remained ' a powerful balancing element, counterbalancing deficiencies in constitution or temperament caused by the Thoroughbred. An Arab mare herd still existed as late as 1936, and even in ?1956-1958 the Anglo-Arabs Burnus and Marsuk were still being used at the studs at Rantzau and Birkhausen.

The greatest single influence on the Trakehner breed of a horse was the English Thoroughbred Perfectionist, son of Persimmon. Foaled in 1893, Persimmon was bred and owned by the then Prince of Wales and ?later King Edward VII (1901-1910.. Persimmon won the Epsom Derby and St Leger in 1896, and was both fast and an excellent jumper. The blood of his son Perfectionist, and that of his best stallion offspring, Tempelhuter, appears in nearly all of today's Trakehner pedigrees.

Upon his death in 1932, Tempelhuter had produced 54 stallions and 60 brood mares at Trakehnen.

TRAKEHNER as SPORT HORSES
The Trakehner stands between 1.63 and 1.68 m (16-16.2 h)high and has an extremely long and successful impressive record. Trakehners dominated the 1936 German Olympic teams, which won every medal at the Berlin Games, and have continued to be successful in international competition since the WWII