2025 Hannoveraner Breeder Orientation Course
Verden
I want to give my perspective to what I learned when attending the Hanoverian Breed Orientation Course. To be given a taste of insider knowledge of a legacy going back hundreds of years has enriched my viewpoint on the reasons people breed horses and further helping me define who I want to be as a horseman.
They started off the program really well with the backstory lecture of how they came to be. As well as the current administrative workings and policies that are ever progressing. After coming home and explaining my experience with people I realized I wanted to define some terms for people in the way that bridges the american concepts with the way they do things.
Celle State Stud
English King George II made this area 200 years ago and still used today
A studbook is the official record of a specific breed's pedigrees, while breed is the overall group of animals with those established characteristics. The studbook is the database that documents which animals belong to the breed, while "breed" refers to the animals themselves and the physical and genetic traits they share. In practice, the studbook is the tool used by a breed registry to define and manage the population of a breed. We may also call a studbook “registry.”
In the course they defined it as a : publication of a studbook with a purpose: "Creation of a public certificate which officially provides the descent of all available, faultless dam mares suitable for breeding, produced by homogeneous parents and corresponding to the type of Hanoverian half-blood horses and their offspring."
Breeding Aim: The selection criteria used to set goals for a breeding program that identifies the traits that are needed to be improved in a population. An individual breeder should have one as well as a registry. It serves as a roadmap for genetic improvement, often with the ultimate purpose of increasing profitability, suitability for a specific purpose, or conservation. The aim will change over time to meet the needs of the humans. Since we survived off of horses until after the world wars the aim has changed a lot.
Hannoveraner First breeding aim 1867 “The preservation of a powerful, large,strong horse,capable carriage horse and, in addition, a useful military horse. Versatile use of agriculture, military, carriage trade.”
Breeding Aims changed after WWI and II.
1922 “A half-blood horse that is as heavy as possible, capable of performing any agricultural work, but also has enough blood, nerve and gait to be used as a strong riding and carriage horse.”
1948 “A correct, noble warmblood horse that is just as suitable for farming as for riding purposes of all kinds.
2025 Current breeding aim: The Hannoveraner is to be bred as a horse which is particularly suitable for riding. The aim is to produce horses which, on account of their inner qualities, rideability, external appearance, sequence of movement, natural jumping ability and health, are suitable as performance as well as leisure horses.
On the wall at Schockemohle Stud where I got to meet him in person
On this basis it is aimed to breed horses with particular ability for the discipline either of dressage, jumping or eventing. With the qualities mentioned, it is also aimed to breed horses which are suitable for driving sport. The breeding aim offers each individual breeder enough freedom to realize his own ideas.
This tune of empowering the breeder with data and knowledge was transcendent the whole week. How do you compile data for your breeders? They have to have a system in which that identifies the traits that are being passed down. So that they can see if their breeding aim is being met. The ways in which they do that are with mare, foal and stallion shows, stallion licensing and tests as well as in performance.
The tools they use:
Grading the horse based on if it matches their ideals in both conformation and movement. The typical 1-10 scale.
Adelheidsdorf and Vidar a stallion who produces both dressage and jumping
He had the coolest personality and all the stallions there were so happy and well handled at Adelheidsdorf.
Linear scoring. A standardized system for describing an animal's physical and functional traits. Instead of a single score, it provides detailed, objective descriptions of characteristics like, length of neck, frame size, ect. Which are then used to generate breeding indexes and select animals with desired traits. This system helps breeders make more informed decisions by separating genetic potential from environmental factors and identifying potential faults.
Vet exams with x-rays for stallion licensings and the VET+ name prefix for papers.
They have special software that complies this data to let breeds find out what inheritability the mare’s and stallions traits are.
The whole experience was about them wanting to show us their philosophy and system of how they achieve and uphold it. Their breeding philosophy
“Our breeding philosophy is to be among the best breeding societies in the world for dressage, jumping and eventing.
Our horses should be able to be ridden by professional and amateur riders
For this, rideability is an elementary element in the breeding objective
We are open to new bloodlines, but want to preserve the identity of the Hannoveraner.”
Their emphasis on mare lines and rideability was crucial in their selection processes.
To be honest I can’t remember to breeding of this mare at Huf Zur Lage. I think it is a jumer out of the Lady Gaga line.
The majority of the trip was getting to have first hand accounts of breeding programs. Which honestly was my favorite part. Hearing breeders individual stories and family legacies. Seeing and hearing their dreams. The same dreams I have a whole ocean away…My favorite breeders were the ones who made it personal. The ones where you can see the belief in their animal. The horses made their name and feed their families so they were prized family members. Every person does it for slightly different reasons so the type/look/style of their horses were all a bit different but they all had that same Hanoverian quality and big kind eye.
Hof Zur Lage is an inspiraton of what a family breeding business is. To see 9 generation from a single mare to produce sucessfully in both jumping and dressage. To see father/mother/daughter/son all make the operation successful.
The last few days of the course was getting to be up close with the Verden Hannoveraner stallion licensing and auction with commentary from our instructors of the course. It was definitely a unique experience that has similarities of events I have experienced in the states but nothing like this. It was a proper classy German culture Stock Show/ Rodeo/Dressage at Devon vibe all in one.
It was a trip of a lifetime for me. I gained knowledge and experience that I could not have gained elsewhere. The first day of the course exceeded my expectations and then every day after that compounded the knowledge. The people and connections that were made are going to be friendships that will last a lifetime.