By Jayna Pellett
The honorable Holsteiner! We are celebrating these horses as our April Breed of the Month. As the oldest warmblood breed, Holsteiners have mastered the art of changing with the times, consistently proving themselves with success in whatever they do.
Did you know that riders who choose a Holsteiner as their dressage mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the Holsteiner Verband is a participating organization?
Holsteiners are medium-to-large-framed horses with an athletic body type. Today they are exceptionally successful sport horses, but originally, monasteries in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Northern Germany (known for nutrient-rich marshes and pastures) developed the Holsteiner for agricultural purposes and coach-driving. Members of monasteries were often the most literate among ancient societies, where reading and writing skills were very uncommon. Therefore, they maintained various types of records, including equine pedigrees, and are responsible for much of the ancestral history known about horses today.
Dating back to the 13th century, the Holsteiner is considered the oldest warmblood breed and has undergone various use and type changes to keep up with dynamic market trends and demands. Though originally bred to pull machinery and coaches, industrial improvements in roads and carriages, as well as the invention of the locomotive, made traveling much more accessible and required less power from driving horses. Then, following the separation of Catholic churches and European states, breeding responsibilities shifted from religious groups to local officials and farmers, and in 1885, Claus Hell Senior (a distant relative of Maas J. Hell, the late and former Managing Director of the Holsteiner Verband from 1971 to 1982) created a set goal type for Holsteiner breeding:
“A refined, powerful carriage horse with strong bone structure and high, ground covering strides, which at the same time should possess all the qualities of a heavy riding horse.”
Just six years later, in 1891, Georg Ahsbahs, an economic advisor from the marshes of Holstein, founded the Holsteiner stud book and, later, the Elmshorn Riding and Driving School, an unparalleled facility that still houses the Holsteiner Verband sires today.
As early as 1919, the German government began offering awards to the highest-quality Holsteiner stallions between four and fifteen years old, standing at least 15.2 hands high, and who sired at least fifteen foals in the previous breeding season. Despite being amidst the World Wars, these incentives combined with growing Holsteiner populations encouraged regional breeding societies to merge, founding the current Holsteiner Verband in 1935.
Though World War II decimated horse populations worldwide, the Holsteiner Verband fought to keep their breed alive, purchasing thirty Holsteiners and three Thoroughbred stallions to begin a new chapter of Holsteiner breeding. By 1976, most of the top Holsteiners were at least 50% Thoroughbred, developing the taller, more refined, agile, and quick athlete represented by modern Holsteiners.
Nowadays, Holsteiner stallions must be at least 16 hands, and mares at least 15.2 hands for studbook approval, but the breed averages between 16 and 17 hands. They exhibit arched, rather high-set necks, strong legs, and powerful hindquarters, often featuring the Holsteiner hot brand on their left hip, given to foals upon inspection. The Holsteiner’s athletic build creates inherent impulsion, elastic strides, and a natural tendency to round their back and balance on their hindquarters, resulting in a soft and dynamic canter. Because of their history as coach-driving horses, Holsteiners also demonstrate more joint articulation than other warmblood breeds.
With a body type bred for agility, speed, and the strength to pull carriages, these horses are formidable forces – yet refined enough to dance their way through the most intricate freestyle. Holsteiners make up only 6% of the current European horse population, but the breed dominates in competition with many high-level dressage horses, show jumpers, and eventers. As of September 2023, the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (the international umbrella organization for sport horse breed registries) ranked the Holsteiner Verband ninth for dressage, second for show jumping, and fourth for eventing on their studbook leaderboards, consistently proving they can do it all, and do it all well!
