Horses - Hessian Warmblood - horses and ponies on the internet

This page has been sourced from REC.EQUESTRIAN, the body of the text has been unaltered as far as possible. The information is for use at own risk. Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1993 15:05:57 CET From: Dr. Lutz Massonne

Hessian
Hesse

Although less known than Hanoverian, Holstein or Trakehner, the Hessian belongs to the "first class" of German warmblood breeds. In earlier times the heavier type was preferred, but today the Hessian warmblood became lighter. Apart from Hanoverian stallions also Trakehner stallions are used, which results in the common modern sport horse type. The state of Hessen is, as Westphalia and Hanover, a "horse country" and has a very large number of broodmares. Exterior: Like the Hanoverian a warmblood breed which can carry all kinds of riders, from lightweight to heavyweight. An elegant horse with much temperament, used for "big sport" as well as for the pleasure rider. A Hessian horse was in 1974 winner of the difficult jumping derby at Klein-Flottbek: "Kosmos" ridden by Hartwig Steenken.

Hessian warmblood, located in the state of Hessen. Reliable sources for local breeds in Hessen do not exist. There was no state breeding based on the local farmers in the former centuries. The princely stables bred with imported breeds according to the period's fashion and for their own use only, creating no unique breed type. The only exception was the Beberbeck stud which existed until 1929 and had a good name for noble half-breds. After being included in the Prussian stud agency in 1866 the Hessian breeders could not compete with the more important breeds of the other Prussian provinces. Therefore the rural breeders concentrated on breeding of draft horses as those were in large demand. The still existing warmblood breeding based on Oldenburg bloodlines was hardly noticed. Around 1960 the breeding of the modern riding horse started based on Hanoverian and Westphalian horses, Thoroughbred, Trakehner and Arabian stallions were used for refinement. Today Hessen is the 4th ranking warmblood breeding region with 4000 broodmares and 60 state stallions, based in the Hessian state stud at Dillenburg