American Trakehner Association
Erhard Schulte archives
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to the Trakehner horse and the ATA. It is quite a pleasure to explain to non-members what makes our association unique. I hope that after reading the articles that follow, you
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o the gentle readers of Warmbloods Today, we welcome you to our sec- ond breed-specific section devoted
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One of a Kind
will have a better idea why our 900-plus members find this breed association something of great worth. From my insider’s point of view, the singular strength of the ATA lies in its members’ enduring and passionate commitment to the preservation and advancement of the Trakehner in a wide spectrum of riding horse uses, mainly in various competition disciplines and at all levels. This seems to flow from the history of horse breeding at
Trakehnen (in old East Prussia) for two and a half centuries, where the goal was to breed the best cavalry horse in the world, crossing a mixture of “blood” horses (Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and Anglo-Arabs) with the local very hardy mares of that region. Huge numbers of horses were bred, severely tested generation after generation by nearly ceaseless warfare, and careful records and selections were made by experts working in concert with hundreds of breeders. What resulted was the finest fighting horse in the world. The traits that bred true in the Trakehner were not just hardiness, endurance, and power; equally important were breedable mental traits such as bravery, cooperation with humans, quick learning, and what was called “nobility.” Today’s mechanized world has no actual use for a
military horse, but there are certainly some very popular riding sports that require this same type of horse. Examples are dressage, three-day eventing, show jumping, hunters, endurance riding and others. It makes perfect sense that the equine mental aptitudes needed for military riding horse use would transfer over to these sports, and they do. Nearly all other European regional and national
Warmblood breeds were originally draft horses, workers in harness, who pulled freight, carriages, military equipment or even plows. Only after the end of World War II did these breeds gradually change over to a quite different type, what we now call the “sport-horse type.” Most of them used the
At top: AEC winner Elizabeth Messaglia and Apollo Star. From L to R: John Nunn, Carl Bouckaert, Kelsea Moody and Michelle Chapman. © Josh Walker/USEA
SPECIAL TRAKEHNER SECTION Warmbloods Today 57
surviving Trakehner stallions extensively to rebuild their own breeds into what is needed in today’s market for riding horses.
Those in charge of the Trakehner horse, being a barely-rescued breed after World
War II, chose not to accept ANY other Warmblood
genetics into Trakehner studbooks, and that plan remains in effect. On the other hand, great use has been made of highly selected “blood” horses, and that will continue, because the benefits are quite obvious. What began as a hybridized breed turns out to require continuous infusion of “blood” horse genetics to remain refined and highly athletic. Now we need not look very far for an outstanding
example of this “borrowing” of the Trakehner type for modern horse breeding. You will find here an article written by a Dutch authority, Heleen Cramer, who took the time to interview and explore the attitudes of the breeders of the latest heart-stopping dressage superstar stallion: Totilas. It may surprise you to learn to what extent he was very purposely created mostly as a Trakehner horse, and in fact named in honor of one of those “between the wars” sires, one who had a massive effect on the present day sport horse. That historical Totilas (by Pythagoras) was foaled at Trakehnen in 1938, made it to the West at the end of the war, and continued to very heavily affect the Trakehner breed directly and the Holsteiner and other Warmblood breeds through his sons and daughters. More information is found about him on page 65, but I would here like to show you a
The original Totilas
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