Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Knabstrupper-warmblood crosses: It's happenin' in Europe

If you like color (even if you don't) it's a pretty cool breeding development.

Breeder Karina Sartor Westergaard was gracious enough to provide information about her breeding program (see http://www.sartor.dk/ for more info), which I first read about on the COTH list.  She is breeding top quality Knabstrupper mares to stallions such as Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall. One of her prize horses is Sartor's Simply the Best, pictured right (both photos).

Karina's breeding goals...
Her main goal is to "produce top horses with special colour, great temperament and outstanding movements to the World's leading top riders."

Her horses have been sold to upper level riders in Germany, Sweden and elsewhere -- she's sold one to an Olympic rider as well. Most of the offspring are quite young but we'll start seeing them in competition soon.

A full brother to this horse, Sartor's Black and Magic, was sold to Germany and has named the top colt in classes and shows. I'll show some pix of him in a future blog post, but I just HAD to include the picture of STB in his cool show sheet. Look familiar????You can see Simply the Best's Facebook page for more info...


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8 comments:

  1. lythaDecember 7, 2010 at 4:33 AM

    The Knabstruppers I've seen in Germany are really beautiful, and I'm not fond of spotted horses in general. They are tall, have beautiful heads, and long wavy manes and tails.

    I've noticed it is also the cool new thing in Germany to breed "paintabians" and "arappaloosas" marketing them as colorful Arabians. The fine print on their stalls lets people know what percentage Arabian blood each horse actually has.

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  2. JeanDecember 7, 2010 at 5:44 PM

    Interesting trend. If everyone starts breeding amazing movers and high quality dressage horses, then perhaps color will be the only way to make one stand out from another.

    I'm not a big appy fan, but some of them certainly are gorgeous to look at, and that stallion is a "looker."

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  3. AnonymousDecember 7, 2010 at 6:50 PM

    I am in LOVE with that blanket! Someday......someday

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  4. AareneXDecember 7, 2010 at 8:16 PM

    I remember reading (somewhere) that the sparse mane/tail was genetically associated with the spotted coat pattern. I am a bad librarian (no cookie!) and can't remember the source of the info.

    That said, for many years I rode a TB/Appy who was built like a TB but with all the color characteristics of an Appy and a lush mane and tail. She was a dressage rider's dream....such strength and suspension. Ahhh.

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  5. AareneXDecember 7, 2010 at 8:26 PM

    okay, I can't stand being a "bad librarian" and saying stuff without citing sources, so here's a source: http://bit.ly/hHjvDv a nice blog post with info about the genetic source for "appy rat tails".

    May I have a cookie now, please?

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  6. UnknownDecember 8, 2010 at 10:01 AM

    I took a look at the site and it looks like some of them are ponies (if my conversion of cms to hands is correct)? That stallion in your blog post can't be a pony though, right? I really like the look of him.

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  7. dressappDecember 15, 2010 at 11:22 PM

    Pinto/Appy colored horses were starting to fall out of favor with the noblemen, so they gave a lot of them to Christopher Columbus to take with him to the new world. Now folks are starting to accept the flashier horses.

    So you'd think that Appies would have nice mane/tails from their Spanish forebears, but I believe the Nez Perce bred it out of them. I think the Knapstruppers don't have this issue. I was thinking about submitting my mare for approval, but 1 she has QH in her 4th generation and 2, I don't know if her tail is considered too thin. She has a thin tail, but not a rat tail like some Appies I know.

    Melyni Worth (http://www.knabstruppers4usa.com/) is located in VA and has nice Knabs. She's a really nice woman too and really promotes the breed in the USA.

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  8. CygnataDecember 30, 2010 at 1:34 AM

    Don't blame the Nez Perce completely... while thinner tails get caught on fewer branches, what happened is when the Army started confiscating Appys from the tribe, they took the "cream of the crop." While some of the horses went into the Army ranks, most were culled, in an effort to weaken the tribe.

    They mostly took those with the best conformation, and the best looks, and gelded or destroyed them, hoping that the tribe, bereft of the best stock, would be easier to fight against.

    I was a History minor for a while in college, and ended up studying this issue among others. And yes, I was studying documents from both sides.

    -Cyg

    ReplyDelete

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