The Holsteiner Horse & Breeding of the Future

During the European Championships in Madrid the Holsteiner showjumping horses showed overall the best quality. In the individual results they took places two through five. By virtue of its talent as a jumping horse the Holsteiner is loved the whole world over. Other studbooks such as Hanoverian, KWPN, BWP and Zangersheide are gratefully using the Holsteiner genetics to improve the performance of their breeding products.

In 2011 the Holsteiner Verband had a prosperous year in sport. The climax for the Holsteiner was in Madrid at the European Championships. Corradina (by Corrado I, Stamm 104A) scored silver with Carsten Otto Nagel and Carlo (by Contender, Stamm 318A2) bronze with Nick Skelton. The top five was made complete through New Orleans is by Colbert (born 1995 by Cantus out of Diora by Bold Indian xx), with Gerco Schröder and Coupe de Coeur (by Calido, Stamm 4232) with Henrik von Eckermann. Thanks to the already named Corradina and Lambrasco (by Libero H, Stamm 6372) with Janne Friederike Meyer Germany could take the team gold with them back home as well. The same Lambrasco and Meyer, earlier this year, have won the most important Grand Prix in the world, the one in Aachen. Also, Casall (by Caretino, Stamm 890) has shown his talent this year with Rolf-Göran Bengtsson. Casall, now considered the top stallion owned by the Holsteiner Verband, won two Grand Prix in the Global Champions Tour.

Working together

The quality of the modern day Holsteiner is good, but what about the Holsteiner of the future? On the 9th and 10^th of May this year the Holsteiner Verband organized two discussion days, with Verband selected breeders, riders, dealers and stud owners. During these days there were four working groups each with their own discussion subject. 1. The Holsteiner Verband in the future, regarding the interests of the members and the breeders (moderator Christian Dietz) 2. The rider of the future (moderator Janne Friederike Meyer) 3. The breeding of the future (moderator Prof. Dr. Kalm) and 4. The Holsteiner studfarms (moderator Friedrich Dehn). The results of these discussions were presented to breeders and interested people on the fourth of October 2011. The first speaker was Anton Hildmann, the former CEO of BBDO Germany, a big marketing company with clients like Adidas, BMW and Mercedes Benz. He emphasized that people’s individual thoughts and emotions enter in to the breeding equation. The Holsteiner horse is already, because of this emotion, not only a product but a brand that people are proud of and have a connection with. ‘Everybody who is involved with jumping horses knows what a Holsteiner is’, according to Hildmann. ‘The Holsteiner breed should continue with his specialization, breeding of top notch jumping horses. They can keep this status by collaboration with all involved parties.’

China

The Holsteiner horse is, according to Christian Dietz, leading the showjumping horse breeding. For the future it is important to think about the breeding goal, the health of the Holsteiner horses and the communication with the members. For the first time the membership outside Schleswig-Holstein is greater than the membership residing in the Holstein area. Dietz distinguishes the members of the Holsteiner Verband in the following three groups: I. People who are raised with horses, II. People with financial possibilities to invest in good broodmares and III. (Leisure) riders who are interested in the Holsteiner horse and who might want to breed a foal out of their mare. In general the members out of group III. aren’t as well-versed in breeding and don’t have an agricultural background. This is the biggest group and they need the most guidance. Dietz: ‘A good example is China. The Chinese have to learn everything from A to Z about keeping sport horses. From training, feeding, stabling, pasture management and caring for the horse. Also, worldwide information needs to be published for those who don’t know much about horses and are in need of guidance. Advice with stallion choices, intensive communication and a worldwide database with information will help acquaint newcomers with the nuances of the Holsteiner breeding program.’

Baking a cake

Prof. Dr. Kalm continued with the Holsteiner breeding in the future. According to him the breeding goal should be sharply focused on performance, health and conformation. With foals from recently approved stallions it’s important to score them using a linear score formula, also this can be used as a tool with mare selection. X-rays will become more important for the new approved stallions as well as for their offspring. Each stallion needs a progeny report from at least 30 foals to get a good idea about the x-ray results. There was a question from the audience as to whether the Holsteiner Verband would publish the results of the x-rays. Norbert Boley, manager of the studbook center in Elmshorn, answered: ‘Publishing is a not to be underestimated problem. A stallion with OCD will be razed to the ground and it doesn’t matter if it comes through his genetics or through the environmental conditions in the premises where he was raised. First the science has to make a few steps forward in research before we will publish the results. We have to be really careful with this.’

The Holsteiner Verband also expects in the future results from the genome analyses. So that based on chromosomes they can discover where the hereditary predisposition is located and select for this. This might sound like a fairytale, but that was thought in the beginning also about the technique of artificial insemination. Prof. Kalm made an astonishing comment about using the technique of embryo transplantation in Holstein more ‘with embryo transplants we can secure more top heritable genetic material.’ A few years ago embryo transplantation wasn’t even considered. At the stallion approvals in a prior year the audience hissed at two stallions that were born through this technique. Also Prof. Kalm emphasized the importance of communication between the Verband and its members. According to Jan Lüneburg, president of the Holsteiner Verband, there will be more done with advising for stallion choices. ‘Breeding horses cannot be compared with baking a cake; just put some ingredients with each other and then get a good product. Guidance is needed for those who are starting out in Holsteiner breeding.’

Sport Results

Friedrich Dehn talked about the outcomes from the work group studfarms. The Holsteiner Verband will remain as much as possible a closed breed and will use select stallions from other studbooks as breeding considerations. There will be an effort to let these stallions cover ten to twenty mares and score their foals separately. According to Dehn four to six year old stallions should participate in championships to get name awareness. The connection between the Holsteiner Verband and private stallion owners should be tighter, to supply as good as possible stallions for Holstein. There came a question from the audience how far the Holsteiner Verband is with developing a system to let the sport results from Holsteiners outside Germany be connected with the breeding value system in Holstein. To make an example; Burggraaf (by Landgraf I, stamm 7126) never counted for his mother in the breeding value, he jumped at 1.50 meters in competition and was an important approved stallion for the KWPN. To make another example; Capone I (by Contender, stamm 890) is an international showjumping horse with Kyle King and Capone II full brother to Capone I is an international driving horse who won gold in the four in hand driving with Boyd Exell at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky 2010. Their results never counted for their mother. Dr. Thomas Nissen made a promising comment: ‘The FEI and the FN will work on this to make sure results are available in the future.’