A Message from the President
Dear Members
Welcome to the March Newsletter.
Well when I wrote the last newsletter we were all brimming with enthusiasm heading towards the end of the season with Horse Of The Year set to be an exciting end to the season as it always is.
I am sure you will agree with me when I say I was bitterly disappointed to not be heading to Hastings to join in the fun and have a crack at a few title classes. One of the things I love the most about the Horse of The Year show is the way it brings all the disciplines together to celebrate all that is great about Equestrian Sports in NZ. Unfortunately it simply was not to be this year, but we look forward to better times ahead in the near future.
I hope you all, like me, have been following Katie Laurie's huge success on the USA and Canadian Jumping circuits? Kate may no longer ride under the NZ flag but quite a few of her horses are NZ bred including the NZWB, McCaw MVNZ (Corofino II / Cassini I / Lennon) bred by Mount View Sport Horses and owned by Carissa McCall.
A reminder that you only have till the end of March to enter your foals for this year's virtual Classification Tour. Entries are coming in thick and fast and we are looking forward to getting Matthais' feedback from this year's crop of foals.
The featured Heritage Stallion for the month is no other than the Trakehner sire, Falkensee who was imported from his homeland of Germany by a very special group of enthusiastic breeders. Although exported to Australia towards the end of his stud career, he left many a great competition horse here in New Zealand. Thank you to Wendy Raewyn for the help with the article and photos.
I hope you all enjoy the last of the Autumn weather, and if you have not got your foal videos done - NOW IS THE HOUR!!!
Jody
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The NZWA is excited to now be able to offer mare owners the opportunity to upgrade their mares into the NZ Warmblood Mare Stud Book (for Warmblood mares of any breed) and Foundation Stud Book (for mares with only Thoroughbred or Arabian blood). Although there will be no Classification Tour this year, mares are now able to be assessed via video which will be sent direct to Germany for Assessment - yet again the NZWA is paving the way with innovative solutions in these difficult times due to Covid.
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HERITAGE STALLIONS OF THE NZ WARMBLOOD BREED
Falkensee was a 1985 born, 170cm Bay Trakehner stallion licenced with the Trakehner Verband in Germany, the Trakhener Breeders Assn of NZ, and the NZ Warmblood Association.
A quote from the Trakehner Verband’s official report – “Falkensee, in his expression of hardiness and performance ability promises and excels also in the superb and swinging way of hi movements – a truly balanced horse and always engaged from behind and elevated in front. The German breeders have lost a valuable and promising sire who would have deserved special recognition not just because of his breeding but also as he showed a special expression of health and hardiness and willingness to perform”
On the 20th of March 1985 a beautiful mahogany bay colt was born on Dieter Trepkau’s farm in the small town of Langniendorf, west Germany. Falkensee had a normal upbringing at his breeder’s farm, and was selected to go to the central Trakehner licensing in Neumunster, North Germany, where each year around 70 2.5year old colts are presented to a panel of Classifiers to be approved for breeding. Of these, around 14 are licenced to be breeding stallions and the rest are not bred from and are normally gelded.
In the meantime, a group of people in New Zealand had formed a company called NZ Trakehner Horses Ltd, with the purpose of making a Trakehner stallion available to the breeding public of New Zealand. With this purpose in mind, in 1987 Dr Sylvia McLean and Marie Pyke travelled to Neumunster, Germany to select a young sire for New Zealand.
They looked around all the young stallions and made their selections. Some were passed by like Charly Chaplin who went on to be a Grand Prix dressage horse, because he was deemed to have too much “bling” for NZ breeder’s of the time. The young stallion Falkensee was the one that really caught their eye. They felt with his 25% thoroughbred blood, which goes back to Nearco, he would fit in with our TB breeding population in NZ. His performance lines were seen to be dual purpose as he carries jumping blood from Donauwind (the sire of Abdullah, Olympic Gold Medal winner in 1984) and very good movement from both his sire and dam. His behaviour in the atmosphere of the arena was exemplary, so he was chosen as “the one”.
Luckily for New Zealand, 1987 was the year of the world share market crash, so the stallion prices were down, otherwise a stallion of Falkensee’s calibre would have been well over budget for NZ buyers. The very next year the average price for a licenced stallion was over DM$100,000! Anyway, the purchase was made and Falkensee made the long journey to New Zealand.
During his New Zealand stud career he first stood between two studs, with part of the season being at Peter and Sylvia McLean’s Rosenberg Stud in the South Island, and also in the North Island with Brian and Marie Pyke. This was due to the fact he had never learned to collect semen off a phantom, so he was live cover only. Of course, this limited the amount of mares he could serve in a season, and this was the case for quite a few stud seasons.
Later Falkensee shifted to Range View Stud where he was taught to collect so he never had to travel between the islands again.
Over his breeding years, Falkensee left a big mark in New Zealand. He had top performing horses in all areas of equestrian sport despite not having large numbers of mares. Whilst there were some rumors around about his ‘questionable’ temperament, his progeny were just sensitive types but they were sensible and easy to train when handled competently. It was their great ‘teachability’ plus their athleticism that made them successful under good riders.
When the numbers are looked at, from the numbers of mares bred, to the progeny actually out performing in competition, Falkensee had a strike rate of over 85%.
Falkensee was a Principle Studbook Stallion due to the success of his progeny, which were mostly competed in dressage due to the elastic movement he passed on. But he did have some showjumpers, notably Sir Ralph and Darango, both bred by Ray & Kath Ward-Smith.
Some of his notable dressage progeny include:
Kiteroa Kingston – Grand Prix Dressage Horse
Monique III – Grand Prix Dressage Horse and Dressage Horse of the Year winner
Wolfgang Amadeus – Grand Prix Dressage Horse
Range View Tristan - Young Dressage horse at the Dressage Champs, Champion Novice and was Champion in hand – he was a talented up and coming dressage horse who sadly lost his life at an early age and was never able to reach his potential.
One of Falkensee's progeny also did some film work as well as being successful in dressage - Range View Nordjinsky (Falkensee / Polarschnee) He is full brother to Range View Natasha (Champion in hand & Novice dressage before retiring to Astek Stud as a broodmare), Range View Neumunster (exp Aus) Range View Nikita (exp Aus)
Range View Neumunster (Falkensee / Polarschnee) went on to become a breeding stallion in Australia.
Another stallion son of Falkensee in Australia is Kiteroa Dominic (Falkensee / Regency Rose / Lowenherz). This stallion is a para dressage horse for Nathan Harvey. Matthias Werner assessed and accepted Kiteroa Dominic into the Trakehners Australia Inc Premium Studbook with a 10/10 for ridability.
Falkensee himself was exported to Australia in 2002 to firstly Wolffdene Trakehner Stud Brisbane then Tasmania when the stud moved where he lived out his days
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Falkensee embodied everything a good Trakehner should be...
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Falkensee the day he was exported to Australia
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The stallion Kiteroa Dominic (Falkensee / Regency Rose / Lowenherz) he is a para dressage horse for Nathan Harvey in Australia
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Range View Nordjinsky (Falkensee / Polarschnee) as a successful dressage horse.....
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Range View Nordjinsky (Falkensee / Polarschnee) as a movie star!
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Range View Tristan - a successful young dressage horse, and Champion in hand – who sadly lost his life at an early age and was never able to reach his potential.
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