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ARABIAN ROOTS OF WARMBLOOD BREEDS
If you think of Arabians as hot horses who are difficult to control and therefore not suitable for dressage or jumping please read this!
All warmbloods have some Arabian blood in them and warmblood breeders today still have to reintroduce Arabian bloodlines to ensure intelligence, bone density, suppleness, and other Arabian traits. It is very important as an owner to understand that the development of any warmblood "breed" is a dynamic process of constantly seeking the perfect balance of the size borrowed from the cold blooded breeds, with the speed, athletic ability, heart and mind of the hot bloods.
We are frequently asked why we breed Arabian lines into our sport horses and would like to offer the following information to the public.
1. Historically, Arabian bloodlines have been sought throughout Europe because these horses have evolved in a harsh environment where natural selection has reduced the herds to only those animals with large hearts, lungs, dense bone, blood vessels close to the skin surface, and other traits which account for Arabian's endurance abilities. In addition, in ways that behavioral science cannot yet explain, the breed has been domesticated in a unique manner, gentle enough to live in intimate contact with humans, including their young children, yet remaining bold and fierce in battle.
2. The Arabian look has been admired for centuries throughout the world and the balance, soundness and athletic ability has been used for sport horses since the middle ages.
An Example: The Story of Lapis
Lapis was a Yugoslavian Arabian stallion captured by the Germans and assigned to the Army Riding and Driving school at Krampnitz. There he won the admiration of first Lietuenant Schmidt-Salzmann, who took Lapis to the front in 1941 as his cavalry mount.
The stories of thi stallion's devotion to his rider and the hardships he endured are numerous. Lapis swam alongside his rider's boat across the Elbe River to escape enemy forces, only to be taken prisoner by the British. Diplomacy secured the release fo the horse and rider, and Schmidt-Salzmann received permission to bring him home.
There he was bred to a Kisber mare, 68 Fenek V, who bore Burnus, foaled in 1948. Burnus, a promising event horse under Dr. Reiner Klimke, became injured and was put to stud. The Trakehner Verband recognized the qualities of Burnus, and "gratefully accepted" (quoted from Dr. Fritz Chilke, the president of the Trakehner Verband( him into the Trakehner Stud.
Burnus sired the famed stallion Habicht. Thirteen sons and ten grandsons of Habicht have been approved, demonstrating the consistent quality generated by this lineage.
Habicht sired 13 approved sons: Mauritius, Effekt, Parforce, Kolumbus, Empire, Markant, Balzflug, coktaqil, Emeer, Seeadler, Sixtus, Windfall and Vivus.
·Windfall is an accomplished event horse, winning the 1999 Wiesbaden CIC** in addition to being the first event team horse to qualify for the finals of the German National Dressage Horse Championship.
· Sixtus has sired five approved sons, and was one of the youngest stallions to be named a German Elite Stallion. He has numerous wins up to Grand Prix as a show jumper, and was a member of the German show jumping team.
·Seeadler sired Bellevue, the leading Trakehner show jumper in Germany in the 1980's and is gransire to Renaissance Fleur who is being competed in FEI level dressage by Monica Theodorescu.
·Coktail is grandsire to Olympic dressage horse Peron. Coktail has sired two approved sons, Domhardt, a winning FEI level dressage horse, and Martini, who is documented as the leaading sire in the USDF Horse of the Year tallies. Though an accident terminated his Grand Prix dressage career, Martini has sired two approved sons, 22 ATA stud book mares and numerous prformance horses.
·Balzflug was approved not only by the Trakehner Verband, but was accepted by the Belgian Warmblood Paard and the KWPN. Three of his sons are approved by the KWPN in the Netherlands, where he is considieed a top dressage producer. Two of his sons are approved by the Trakehner Verband. alzflug was Reserve Champion of his performance test, and won a Gold medal at the Belgian National Championships. Other habicht offspring who are full siblings to Balzflug have also made their mark; one won her mare performance test, another placed third in the German combined training chamionships, and another won Cahmion Mare at the Dutch Trakehner Championships.
·Parforce successfully competed as a Grand Prix Jumper. His son Phantom was the number one jumper in Germany for three years running as of 1998.
· Mauritius placed in the 1999 CDI World Cup at Intermediare and Grand Prix
· other famed habicht offspring include Livius, winner of the 9181 World Cup, who was later ridden by Anne Kursinski to win the Calgary Grand Prix in 1982 and the Gold Meadal at the Pan Am Games. In the highest levels of jumping, Habicht get include Dakapo, Kos, Pandur, Kyra and Korofino. At FEI dressage are Risiko, Halifax and Aaraon. Eventing at the top levels are Konrad, Avalon and Foray.
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