Horses

Both the Rhinelander and the Wurttemberger are German bred sport horses ?? the Rhinelander being a recent creation development commencing in the early 1970??s, whilst the Wurttemberger??s origins are far older with that??s breed development going back 400 years. The Wurttemberger has been bred at the Marbach Stud since the early eighteen hundreds from stock native to that region for over 200 years.
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THE RHINELANDER
The Rhineland heavy draught horse was once considered the best of the heavy horses in German.? This cold blood was developed from the Belgian Brabant and was a popular work hose up until the middle of the 20th centur in areas such as Rhineland, Westphalia and Saxony, however mechanization led to the breed numbers plummeting and they are now not even recognized as a breed in Germany

Even so, their stud book was never closed and breeders commenced a program of preferring lighter specimens of the heavy Rhinelander in their breeding programmers to create a warmblood riding horse, now known as the Rhinelander.

In the 1970??s, stallions of this lighter type were bred with warmblood mares that were descended from thoroughbreds, Trakehners and Hanoverians as well as from the old Rhenish breed.? The best stallions were selected from this mix of breeds and bred back to similar horses then inbred till a type was fixed, a type we now know as the modern Rhinelander.

Rhinelander Appearance and Characteristics
The modern Rhinelander is an attractive if not spectacular horse of approximately 1/28m(16.2h) high, usually chestnut in color.? They are wonderful club horse and can compete in dressage, show jumping and eventing classes.?

As is to be expected with such a new breed, they are yet to achieve the results in competition that come with conformationally perfect and performance proven horse breed such as the Hanoverian and Hosteiner, they are all the same a no nonsense performance horse and their lovely natures well suit the inexperienced rider.

Initial specimens lacked bone? - perhaps as a result of trying to reduce the cold blood influence with too much thoroughbred blood too quickly.? This problem has now been eradicated.? Much weight has been put into ensuring the Rhinelander Breed developed a straight elastic action and kept much of the equable temperament expected of a heavy warmblood.

THE WURTTEMBERGER
1573 saw the formation of the famous Marbach stud, which went on to become one of the greatest European horse breeding centers.? Its early fame was the creation of good all purpose horse suitable for use under saddle or harness with Spanish and Eastern horses as well as local heavy horses included in the breeding program.

The Wurttemberger is one of the earlier success stories of this program, having been developed in the 17th century.? Local mares of mixed origin were crossed with Arab. These were in turned crossed with Spanish and Barb mares as well as Friesian stallions.? Whilst maintaining its Arab influence, the Wurttemberger changed course somewhere with the introduction of the stallion Anglo-Norman to the breeding progam, most notably from the stallion cob type stallion, Faust.

For 200 years the breed saw only superficial changes, until by the middle of the 20th century saw a surge in demand for sport horses, and the consequential impact on the breed of the Trakehner stallion Julmond, who arrived at Marbach in 1960.? He is now considered the foundation sire of the modern Wurttemberger horse.

Appearance and Characteristics
The modern Wurttemberger stand around 1.63m(16h)high, they have lost much of their stockiness but remain a correctly proportioned horse of substance.? Their conformational excellence is accompanied by usually excellent health and a quiet temperament.? They are hardy and economical to keep.

Color is most often bay, chestnut, brown or black.? Head is proportionally sized with a? straight profile belying their Arab heritage, the have a long well muscled neck and prominent withers.? Their chest is deep with sloping well muscled shoulders.? Back is long and straight, croup is sloped. Legs are well muscled on well formed hooves.
They are excellent competitors in dressage, in 2008 WHISPER 128, a Wurttemberger gelding was the No.13 ranked dressage horse in the world,