The Hanoverian in New Zealand
The Hanoverian Horse in New Zealand is developed from the Hanoverian Horse of Lower Saxony, Germany. (For information on the Hanoverian in Germany go to Hannoveraner.com.)
 The most successful New Zealand Hanoverian, Waikare (Witzbold / Rocklyn XX by Rocky Mountain XX) bred by Mr B & Mrs M Pyke and ridden by Kallista Field to 15th place in the Dressage at the Sydney Olympics. |
New Zealand's reputation as a world-class producer of thoroughbreds convinced the officials of the Verband to allow New Zealand breeders to use high-quality thoroughbred mares as the foundation for the New Zealand Hanoverian.
Licensed and Performance tested Hanoverian stallions have been imported into New Zealand over the years and bred to thoroughbred mares, with the foals being branded with the famous H brand.
There have been 11 stallions used in New Zealand for natural service or fresh transported semen.
The first was the black F - line descendent Winnebago (Winnetou / Wulfine by Wulf) who served in New Zealand from 1977 to 1979. This stallion developed fertility problems in 1979 and was sold to the USA where he was been a successful showjumper for many years.
Winnebago's progeny have included dressage horses Felicitation and Waldebago. The show-jumper Bago represented New Zealand at the Olympics as the showjumping mount of Mark Todd.
Winnebago was followed by another Winnetou son, the chestnut Witzbold (Winnetou / Lady by Lugano II), who served from 1978 to 1986.
This stallion has had the most significant influence on the New Zealand Hanoverian breed so far, producing many well-performed horses and being much sought-after as a dam sire in the 1990s. His progeny include Waikare (Witzbold / Rocklyn XX by Rocky Mountain XX) pictured above, and Mosaic and Playskool (both unbranded) in dressage. Monopoly, a Witzbold son, was a world ranked showjumper, representing Canada at the Olympics, and Witzmarc represented The Netherlands at the Olympics as an eventer.
Next came the chestnut Distelfink (Diskus / StPr Doreen by Dueker) of the famous jumping line that descends from Dollart.
Distelfink stood from 1981 until he was de-registered by his owners in 1993. Distelfink has sired many very talented showjumpers such as Super Moth and Duty Free. Eventers GV Braveheart and GV Danzar are both by Distelfink.
The A-line chestnut stallion Allermund was next on the scene (Absatz / StPrSt Alcantara by Aumund). He served from 1982 to 1985 before an accident terminated his career. Allermund did not produce many foals but his fillies have been sought to inject diversity into the New Zealand breeding population. In New Zealand a daughter, Antipodes, is a successful showjumper.
Genius (Garibaldi / Dreamy by Diskus), a bay stallion of the top performing G-line was next on the scene. Genius began serving mares in 1983 until his death in 2003. Genius has produced many progeny that are performing at high levels in both dressage and showjumping in New Zealand. The most well known of his offspring is the mare Gabana, who represented New Zealand at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, ridden by Louisa Hill.
The refining stallion thoroughbred Silent Hunter XX (Gun Shot XX / Spaws Arrow XX by Swaps XX) was introduced in 1987. Silent Hunter XX served from 1987 to 1991.
Next came the black D-line stallion Dynamit (Dynamo / Elfi by Eger II) who served from 1990 until 1998 when he succumbed to a tragic paddock accident. Dynamit progeny are well thought of and his earlier offspring are performing well in the New Zealand scene.
The black A-line stallion Anamour (Aalborg / Lucille by Lombard) began serving in 1995. This stallion has a very expressive trot and has been extremely popular with breeders.
With the large number of mares bred to him, Anamour will have the strongest influence on the New Zealand Hanoverian breeding population in the years to come. His semen has also been exported to Australia.
His youngstock are proving to be talented and highly rideable. In America, Aspire, a New Zealand-bred daughter of Anamour (out of the Hanoverian mare Felicitation by Winnebago), bred by Peter and Jan Zander, is performing well in eventing at Intermediate level, and is currently (June 2005) ranked fifth overall in the top ten young eventing mares in the USA.
Here in New Zealand, All Black II (Anamour/ Little Brown Jug xx, breeder Mary Wilson) is doing well in dressage at Grand Prix level with owner/rider Charlott Bayliss; Winter Acacia (Anamour/Arctic Oak xx by Oakville xx), bred by Judith Wear, owned and ridden by Laurel Cross, is doing well at Advanced level. Other Anamour offspring too numerous to mention are coming up the grades in dressage.
In eventing, Anamour offspring are proving themselves. Among others, the Anamour/Distelfink son Henton Attorney General (bred by Bridget and Dave Sutton, Henton Lodge Hanoverians) has had wins at Intermediate level with rider Lizzie brown, while Annie Oakley, bred by Mary Wilson from a Witzbold mare, was placed sixth with owner/rider Megan Finlayson, in the CCI1* section of the 2008 Bell Tea National Three Day Event Championships held at Taupo.
The chestnut D-line stallion Dream Boy (Dream of Glory / Erntekrone by Eisenherz II), began serving in 1999. He is strong in type and brings the very desirable Donnerhall blood to New Zealand. Dream Boy strongly stamps his offspring with his very good type.
His earliest progeny are out competing now, most notable among them is the mare Dream World MH, bred by Judith and Peter Matthews, out of the imported Weltmeyer mare, Welkantje.
The most recent breeding stallion to come to New Zealand is the very elegant, dark bay Limonit (Lancier/Weltadel/Salvano). In his Performance test in 2002, Limonit gained the highest dressage score and was placed third overall out of fifty stallions.
His first New Zealand foals, born in 2006, are firmly stamped with his superb colour and type.
Limonit brings to New Zealand the valuable bloodlines of Lauries Crusador xx on his sire's side and Weltmeyer on his dam's side.
The small Hanoverian breeding population in New Zealand has made rapid breed progression difficult but we have nevertheless produced some very good horses. This is a testament to the New Zealand environment, which is ideal for raising horses. With frozen semen now able to be imported to New Zealand we expect to be able to produce even more exceptional horses by taking advantage of the best stallions available in Germany, our own top-quality mares, and of course the best horse rearing environment in the world.
The future of New Zealand Hanoverians is exciting.
The Hanoverian
There can be no question that the Hanoverian horse today represents one of the most prominent breeds for riding horses in the world. The studbook comprises close to 19,000 active broodmares and 450 approved breeding stallions, and covers the largest homogeneous breeding area in Europe. In fact, Hanoverians are found in all five continents.
Today the Hanoverian horse represents the most important breed of sport horses in the world. Olympic as well as World Champions and the largest number of World Cup winners are from Hanoverian breeding. A huge number of top competition horses have the H brand - the Hanoverian trade mark - on their back left side, which takes its inspiration from the crossed horse heads at the gable of the breeding farms in Lower Saxony.
But not only top riders benefit from Hanoverian horses. The horses with the "H"-Brand also delight pleasure riders in many countries throughout the world.
The breeding aim is the Hanoverian - a rideable, noble, big-framed and correct warmblood horse, which, on the basis of its natural abilities, its temperament and character, is suitable as a performance horse as well as a pleasure horse.
On this basis the Verband strives for the breeding of talented sport horses for the disciplines.
The usual process is that breeders of common interests and breeding aims come together and form an association, start a studbook and establish rules and regulations concerning registration. That is, however, not the way it happened in Hanover. There, it all started with the foundation of the State Stud at Celle in 1735. Since this time the State stud has kept careful records of pedigrees of their stallions and the mares bred to them, so when in 1888 the Royal Agricultural Society officially established the "Hanoverian Warmblood Studbook" it already had an excellent basis on which to build from.
Foundation of the Studbook
In 1899 the Chamber of Agriculture took over the studbook as keeper, and carried on until 1922 when it passed these duties on to the Verband hannoverscher Warmblutzüchter (the Society of Hanoverian Warmblood Breeders), which came into existence that same year and is the governing body today.
Foundation of the Verband (Verband hannoverscher Warmblutzüchter)
The "Verband" came into being in 1922 through the unification of 54 local breeding clubs in Hanover, some of which were more than 50 years old. Combined, they accounted for some 10,560 breeders. The idea was not so much to rob these clubs of their independence and their individual and peculiar character, but rather to co-ordinate their activities for the good of all.
Most of these local clubs still exist today, and they are the main pillars of the Verband. They determine to a far-reaching extent the choice of State stallions sent to their district and they organise the annual mare grading shows. The constitution of the Verband provides that in Lower Saxony each individual member must also belong to one of seven district societies, which in most cases cover the area of a country or similar governmental unit.