My boy
Dears,
the weather is still lousy, therefore the horseys couldn't go out on the meadow today what means: I still couldn't take a photograph from my baby boy. But I nevertheless need to swoon about him ...
Actually my day didn't start too nice. Since Saturday I had toothache and yesterday it had become pretty bad. It were two front teeth in the upper jar which's roots obviously had become septic and they hurt like hell. Besides I look liked a hamster with my upper lip and the cheeks swollen.
So the first thing I did this morning was making an appointment with my dentist. He paid me the rather disputable compliment: "Whoa - I've rarely seen such a nice inflamation! And you needed only one weekend to breed it? Fascinating!" Admittedly I think his "delight" about went away as he had to set his first injection. I'm certainly no soft egg, but - well, I yelled rather loudly. It felt as if he'd plant a bomb in my jaw. Luckily my dentist is a nice and patient guy. He waited for a few minutes for the injection to work before he sat the second and third. Then he pulled the first tooth - and that wasn't too bad. In the contrast to my molars which had been hell to pull the front teeth went out rather easily. I started to relax - but only for a minute later almost jumping at the ceiling! The dentist had pulled the crown from the other front teeth - and I wouldn't have believed a teeth can hurt so much despite of the anaesthesia! My good doctor immediately gave me the fourth injection - it hurt. After two or three minutes he only touched the tooth. I almost jumped under the ceiling again. He started to look very worried. "Hmm - I think I should send you into the hospital. You probably need a general anaesthesia."
Oh no! I didn't want to wait. I wanted to get rid off the teeth as quickly as possible! So it was "My assistant will hold your head, you will hold to the chair and I'm pulling - it will hurt, but I try to make it as quick as possible!"
Luckily the teeth went out rather quick - but I was close to fainting. And as he told me he'd put the prothesis on the wound, I thought: "That's torture!" But he was right with doing so. In the moment my mouth actually feels okay. As long as I don't touch the gum with my tongue, it's fine.
Only problem is: I'm not done yet. In 14 days four teeth in the under jaw must become pulled ... and my only comfort is: They're front teeth too, so it will be a quick job. Besides the four teeth which have to go are the last of my teeth which still have roots. The remaining tooth are all treated, so I have good chances that after the next stunt I won't get so bad toothache anymore.
Back at home I first went into the stables. In the morning as I'd been there baby boy had been sleeping and I even couldn't see much of him because Filia stood in front of him. But now he was awake and darling Filia, though anxiously watching over him, didn't mind as I entered their stall and talked to him. He is - as most healthy foals - rather curious and even a bit cheeky. Other babies hide behind their moms, but not this one. He came forward to me and as I offered him my hand, he immediately started to suck at my finger. So I had an opportunity to study his face - and he's so sweet! As most very young foals there's such a "bump" on his forehead and it makes for the curl on it being rather wispy. And his face is, as his great-uncle Robin's, black and he's got this cute blaze which ends in a pink underlip.
Besides he really looks like a stuffed animal! His black brown coat is very soft and fluffy and his little mane and the tiny tail are all curls! And he's a really good foal - perfectly built, nothing wrong on him and already showing that he's to get great lines. The neck is perfect, the shoulder shows already greatness, the back line will become great.
As I was admiring him, our equerry came to me and smiled: "What do you think about a journey in August? The foals championat at the Birkhof is on August, 2 - and you've got a winner here! You should show him. Besides the boss thinks you should get him your brand."
Actually I have already thought about that. My man's horses normally get the Westphalian brand and Filia is in the stud book for Westphalians. But she's also in the stud book for Baden-Wuerttemberg and ... well, in my opinion that suits her better. She's more Wuerttemberg as 75 % of the horses who get the Wuerttemberg brand nowadays.
Nevertheless I couldn't help grinning inwardly as the equerry told me about getting the boy a Wuerttemberg brand. As I married Bernd 18 years before, he thought it almost "embarassing" that he got two mares with the Wuerttemberg brand in his stables. At this time most people were convinced that horses from Southern Germany couldn't cope with what the Westphalians and Northern Germany breeding clubs were breeding. At this time it was really so that horses with our brand automatically costed less as horses with one of the "big" German brands like Holstein, Hannover, Oldenburg and Westphalian. Yet that has really changed - and I think it's mostly the merit of the Birkhof. The Birkhof was the first stud in Southern Germany which won the Bundeschampionat (the German national championship for breeders - and winning that means a lot because the German breeders are worldwide leading with their sport horses) - and Lettina, the mare who did so, wasn't only in name a Wuerttembergian warmblood. Of course, her father was Lanthano,a stallion out of a famous Hannover line (Lanthan - Lombard - Lugano II - Der Loewe). But her mother was the Birkhof mare Koriolistin whose pedigree showed four generations of Birkhof mares, going back to the first Birkhof mare Solistin.
Lettina was the start - and since then the Birkhof has presented good horses at every Bundeschampionat. By now eve my stubborn Westphalian husband has got: The Wuerttemberg brand is worth its money - and actually: When it comes with certain lines or from the Birkhof, it's nowadays rather expansive.
Back to my boy. I didn't want to disturb his mommy and him for too long. They're just starting to "bond" - and in this phase (it needs around 14 days until a foal is bonded to its mother) one shouldn't mess around too much with the baby. It's stress for the mother and though Filia is very trustful against humans, she's a great mother and very anxiously watching over her babies. So I went out of the stall, but sat down on a hayball in front of it. Filia liked that and nibbled playfully at my hand while the little one had another nap.
After a while I got company: The apprentice was back from lunch and had still half one hour off. She sat down next to me and asked me: "The doctor mentioned that the boy's pedigree is really interesting and that you could tell me more about. Would you?" I love talking about pedigrees - and baby boy's is really great. So i started to tell her about his ancestors on both sides - and as I came to his mother's line the equerry and the rider had come too and sat down beside me. And then hubby came in, waved at his people and sat down too. I actually didn't want to keep his people away from working, so I tried to shorten my story - only for the hubby saying: "Isn't there more about his great-grandfather? Julmond was legend, wasn't he? The only stallion who ever got a grave at your states' stud - and whenever I was there, he'd got flowers on it."
I know the most riders don't care about the parentage of their horses (except of bragging about). And it's true: One doesn't ride the papers, but the horse - and I know more than one horse with a great pedigree which isn't really good. On the other hand I don't know many really great horses who don't have a good paper. And I'm a breeder. I see certain family traits in horses and I'vek nown a lot of horses, so there's often a kind of "connection" when I look at a pedigree. And in the case of the boy it's a rather stronge one. His lineage connects the two phases of my life as a rider. On his father's side is Robin - as I've already mentioned: The boy's father Royaldik is a son of Robin's half brother Royal Diamond. But there's a connection to Royaldik's maternal side too: I know his mother Herka xx. She's a breeding mare on the Birkhof and a full sister of the famous thoroughbred stallion Heraldik.
Thinking of Heraldik makes me always smile. I remember how I heard first about him: It was at the big riding event in Stuttgart. I lived at this time 500 km away from home and hadn't been on the Birkhof for a rather long time. So meeting my Uncle Alfred at the event was especially nice and after the usual hug and kisses he beamed at me: "My girl, you must come for a visit! I've bought the most beautiful stallion you've ever seen!"
I could have kissed him again. Just imagine: The man was at this time around 40 years in the profession, one of the most successful horse breeders in Germany - and he still was able to swoon over a horse like that! Of course I visited him for seeing "the most beautiful stallion ever". And I remember that I arrived there as Uncle was standing at the yard - and he immediately stopped me: "No, don't go into the stables. A horse like him you can't only see in its stall. I get him for you. Just you wait here!"
Three minutes later he was back - and my jaw dropped and I almost forgot to breathe. He hadn't promised me too much. Heraldik was the most beautiful horse I'd ever seen! Everything about him was simply perfect, included his character. He was calm, collected, intelligent, sensitive, a bit reserved, but kind and well-mannered and very cuddly with people close to him. I understood why my Uncle loved him this much - and I think he was right about Heraldik being a real great stallion. He died two years ago, but he left back 12 sons who're proceeding his line. Besides he was one of the most sucessful sires in eventing in the last years. Perhaps we'll see two sons of him at the next Olympic Games.
Here you get Butts Abraxxas with Ingrid Klimke - one of the best German eventers.
And here is his brother Butts Leon with Andreas Dibowski.
So much about my boy's paternal family. Yet the maternal isn't bad either.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of his mother Filia (as soon as the sun will shine I'll get one) and I couldn't find one of her father Abendruf either. Yet I remember him very well: A very imposing black stallion with great gaits who looked rather proud, but was known as a real darling and a very eager horse. His bad luck was that he'd been born too early. He was one of the last stallions out of an old Wuerttemberg line - and at this time the so called "Alt-Wuerttemberger" were totally "out". Everyone wanted a horse with a Northern lineage and the few who still believed in our old lines where laughed at. I never understood that - didn't they see what a great dressage horse Abendruf was? Didn't they see how he could move? Didn't they see how easy he made it for his riders, how eagerly he worked and how imposing he looked? Obviously they didn't - while stinkers like the Anglo-Norman "French Kiss" (by my Uncle rechristined to the "French sickness") and "Star de France" (he was a stag - including the wrong muscled neck and the ugly butt) got hundreds of mares to cover, Abendruf could be glad when he got around 20 - 30 a year. And so the line died out with him - he simply have enough offspring for one of them making it as a stallion. Besides no breeder would probably have invested in getting an Abendruf through the expansive procedure of becoming a breeding stallion, knowing how "out" the line was and that an Abendruf-son wouldn't get more mares as his father.
However, times have changed - by now we have even a stud book for Old Wuerttemberg again and a few breeders try to get the lines "pure" again. They've gotten that we need the gen potential of these lines too - and that especially the mares out of these old lines are great for breeding. They're almost all amazingly fertile, they're all good mothers, they're giving their calibre, their decent characters and calmness to their offspring and they're long living.
Luckily I got once the opportunity to ride Abendruf - and it was great and I remember him fondly. That was one of the reasons why I bought Filia.
The other was her maternal line - and that's one I'm really connected to. Filia's mother was a white mare from the stallion Jod out of a mare from Himalaya.
Let's start at the back: My connection to Himalaya, a Trakehner stallion with a half-blood mother, was very close. My Halali was a daughter of him - and besides of her my Uncle had five Himalaya mares in his stable. I learned riding on them, I was familiar with all of them and I loved them. And out of this line was a horse I was very fond of: Taenzer (=Dancer).
Taenzer was a very sucessfull jumper - and besides he was such a wonderful, kind and loveable horse!
One of my uncle's Himalaya mares was Himalistin, a beautiful, but rather stubborn and cheeky lady. She had the daughter Jolistin from Jod - and Jolistin was the horse who taught me jumping and besides one of the best breeding mares at the Birkhof. From her and the thoroughbred Pageno we got our first self-breed stallion and she was the mother of the beautiful mare Koriolistin who became mother of the second Birkhof stallion and the German championesse Lettina. And here you get the lady at the day of her great triumph:
She's now a breeding mare at the Birkhof and in the moment she's with a son who's got written "Champion" all over: He hasn't got only a champion for a mother, but for a father too: His sire is last years German champion Birkhof's Denario.
But back to Jod, the grandfather of my boy. Through him the little one is connected to a real legend in Southern Germany: Jod was a son of Julmond.
And his story is really worth telling: Julmond was born 1938 in East Prussia - a Trakehner out of a good, but not too famous line. Three years old he became a breeding stallion though his rating wasn't too great. The shoulder a bit too steep, the back short, the fore legs not entirely correct, besides he was with around 165 cm a bit small and as a youngster he really didn't look imposing. He was seen as a rather mediocre stallion and was therefore put at one of the not so important outposts of the Trakehnen stud.
He didn't get many mares there and his foals were nothing to write home about. Probably one would have never heard of him if not the war had arrived in East-Prussia. In Winter 1944 the Trakehnen stud was evacuated - and Julmond, already known as a very hard-working and though horse, was chosen by one of the stud masters as his riding horse for leading a herd with around 150 mares and 50 foals to the West. It was a very long way from Trakehnen to West Germany - and it was a very, very hard winter. The horses even had to cross a part of the sea over ice and were for weeks in snow storms. Half of the mares and the foals died on this long way, but Julmond - though he'd done the entire way under the saddle, often enough going forward and backward for keeping the herd together - arrived 1945 in Warendorf, the Westphalian states' stud. And because he'd proven his thoughtness on the long treck, the Westphalian states' stud decided to use him as stallion.
Only Julmond and the Westphalian mares didn't suit each other well. After three years no breeder wanted him anymore, so Julmond came back to Warendorf to serve as a school horse. However, the states' stud didn't have much money then and so, around 1960, it was decided that they would get rid off all horses not earning their oat as stallions. Julmond was on the list of horses to get rid off - and he would probably have gone to the butcher if not the employees of the states' stud would have collected money for him. They loved him so much that they decided to pay for him - and I think that says a lot about his character, considered that these people had a lot of other horses around.
1958 Julmond's fate changed again. The Count of Kniep-Oeynhausen came to Warendorf and saw him. He was owner of a little Trakehner stud and he was impressed by Julmond's character and thoughness. So he bought the stallion and put him out of the meadow with his mares.
1961 Dr. Georg Wenzler, director of the Baden-Wuerttemberg states' stud in Marbach and famous for what he'd done with the famous Arabians in our country (he was the one who persuaded the director of the Egyptian states' stud El Zaahra to let him the stallion Hadban Enzahi who became one of the most Arabians in Europe. Besides Hadban Enzahi was the father of two mares the Sheik of Dubay bought for his stud - and actually we here find it still rather funny when Arabian horse breeders buy Arabian horses from our states' stud). Besides of breeding Arabians Dr. Wenzler's job was the big change in our breeding: he had to "re-breed" our heavy Old-Wuerttembergs who were actually breed for working on farms to modern riding horses. That meant purifying - something which was done in a lot of breedings in Germany around this time, mostly with using thoroughbred stallions. Only Dr. Wenzler didn't believe in thoroughbreds doing the job well. He knew that the Old Wuerttembergs were already having enough temper and that crossing thoroughbreds in would perhaps make the next generation too hot. So he was searching for a stallion who would purify his mares, but with a nice, calm character.
Julmond had done rather well with the mares he'd gotten at the Count's stud. Dr. Wenzler saw him and he saw his two sons out of his first year at the stud: Amor and Lothar. Wenzler bought the trio and got them to Marbach. Julmond was already 23 as he came there, but in the next five years he fathered around 200 foals - and among them seven breeding stallions, among them Jod out of a mother from the Trakehner Pregel (another Trakehner Dr. Wenzler had bought and who became important for our breed).
1965 died Julmond in Marbach - and he became the first and only stallion who got a grave. It's next to the meadow where he lived under a few old trees - a very lovely place. And as my man mentioned: Even today Julmond always has a few flowers on his grave. Often it's a bunch of wild flowers - Julmond is still fondly remembered by some of the old workers at the stud because he was such a wonderful, decent horse. But a lot of flowers he gets from people who didn't know him personally, but are riding Julmond offspring. I can't count how many of them I met during my rider's life, but I can't remember ever meeting one who wasn't a decent, charming horse. And the famous Julmond-charm and intelligence one finds even in his great-grandchildren as well as the famous thoughness.
I actually think that the Julmond heritage can even make up for the famous Rubinstein laziness. On the other hand: I don't think my boy will become a typical Rubinstein in matters of "No, I don't want to work". We won't spoil him and besides - his father isn't lazy at all. In this account he comes after his thoroughbred mother.
In every case I'm very, very grateful to my sweet man for giving the baby to me and I'm looking forward to seeing my boy grown up. Only he needs a name now - and I still don't have an idea!
the weather is still lousy, therefore the horseys couldn't go out on the meadow today what means: I still couldn't take a photograph from my baby boy. But I nevertheless need to swoon about him ...
Actually my day didn't start too nice. Since Saturday I had toothache and yesterday it had become pretty bad. It were two front teeth in the upper jar which's roots obviously had become septic and they hurt like hell. Besides I look liked a hamster with my upper lip and the cheeks swollen.
So the first thing I did this morning was making an appointment with my dentist. He paid me the rather disputable compliment: "Whoa - I've rarely seen such a nice inflamation! And you needed only one weekend to breed it? Fascinating!" Admittedly I think his "delight" about went away as he had to set his first injection. I'm certainly no soft egg, but - well, I yelled rather loudly. It felt as if he'd plant a bomb in my jaw. Luckily my dentist is a nice and patient guy. He waited for a few minutes for the injection to work before he sat the second and third. Then he pulled the first tooth - and that wasn't too bad. In the contrast to my molars which had been hell to pull the front teeth went out rather easily. I started to relax - but only for a minute later almost jumping at the ceiling! The dentist had pulled the crown from the other front teeth - and I wouldn't have believed a teeth can hurt so much despite of the anaesthesia! My good doctor immediately gave me the fourth injection - it hurt. After two or three minutes he only touched the tooth. I almost jumped under the ceiling again. He started to look very worried. "Hmm - I think I should send you into the hospital. You probably need a general anaesthesia."
Oh no! I didn't want to wait. I wanted to get rid off the teeth as quickly as possible! So it was "My assistant will hold your head, you will hold to the chair and I'm pulling - it will hurt, but I try to make it as quick as possible!"
Luckily the teeth went out rather quick - but I was close to fainting. And as he told me he'd put the prothesis on the wound, I thought: "That's torture!" But he was right with doing so. In the moment my mouth actually feels okay. As long as I don't touch the gum with my tongue, it's fine.
Only problem is: I'm not done yet. In 14 days four teeth in the under jaw must become pulled ... and my only comfort is: They're front teeth too, so it will be a quick job. Besides the four teeth which have to go are the last of my teeth which still have roots. The remaining tooth are all treated, so I have good chances that after the next stunt I won't get so bad toothache anymore.
Back at home I first went into the stables. In the morning as I'd been there baby boy had been sleeping and I even couldn't see much of him because Filia stood in front of him. But now he was awake and darling Filia, though anxiously watching over him, didn't mind as I entered their stall and talked to him. He is - as most healthy foals - rather curious and even a bit cheeky. Other babies hide behind their moms, but not this one. He came forward to me and as I offered him my hand, he immediately started to suck at my finger. So I had an opportunity to study his face - and he's so sweet! As most very young foals there's such a "bump" on his forehead and it makes for the curl on it being rather wispy. And his face is, as his great-uncle Robin's, black and he's got this cute blaze which ends in a pink underlip.
Besides he really looks like a stuffed animal! His black brown coat is very soft and fluffy and his little mane and the tiny tail are all curls! And he's a really good foal - perfectly built, nothing wrong on him and already showing that he's to get great lines. The neck is perfect, the shoulder shows already greatness, the back line will become great.
As I was admiring him, our equerry came to me and smiled: "What do you think about a journey in August? The foals championat at the Birkhof is on August, 2 - and you've got a winner here! You should show him. Besides the boss thinks you should get him your brand."
Actually I have already thought about that. My man's horses normally get the Westphalian brand and Filia is in the stud book for Westphalians. But she's also in the stud book for Baden-Wuerttemberg and ... well, in my opinion that suits her better. She's more Wuerttemberg as 75 % of the horses who get the Wuerttemberg brand nowadays.
Nevertheless I couldn't help grinning inwardly as the equerry told me about getting the boy a Wuerttemberg brand. As I married Bernd 18 years before, he thought it almost "embarassing" that he got two mares with the Wuerttemberg brand in his stables. At this time most people were convinced that horses from Southern Germany couldn't cope with what the Westphalians and Northern Germany breeding clubs were breeding. At this time it was really so that horses with our brand automatically costed less as horses with one of the "big" German brands like Holstein, Hannover, Oldenburg and Westphalian. Yet that has really changed - and I think it's mostly the merit of the Birkhof. The Birkhof was the first stud in Southern Germany which won the Bundeschampionat (the German national championship for breeders - and winning that means a lot because the German breeders are worldwide leading with their sport horses) - and Lettina, the mare who did so, wasn't only in name a Wuerttembergian warmblood. Of course, her father was Lanthano,a stallion out of a famous Hannover line (Lanthan - Lombard - Lugano II - Der Loewe). But her mother was the Birkhof mare Koriolistin whose pedigree showed four generations of Birkhof mares, going back to the first Birkhof mare Solistin.
Lettina was the start - and since then the Birkhof has presented good horses at every Bundeschampionat. By now eve my stubborn Westphalian husband has got: The Wuerttemberg brand is worth its money - and actually: When it comes with certain lines or from the Birkhof, it's nowadays rather expansive.
Back to my boy. I didn't want to disturb his mommy and him for too long. They're just starting to "bond" - and in this phase (it needs around 14 days until a foal is bonded to its mother) one shouldn't mess around too much with the baby. It's stress for the mother and though Filia is very trustful against humans, she's a great mother and very anxiously watching over her babies. So I went out of the stall, but sat down on a hayball in front of it. Filia liked that and nibbled playfully at my hand while the little one had another nap.
After a while I got company: The apprentice was back from lunch and had still half one hour off. She sat down next to me and asked me: "The doctor mentioned that the boy's pedigree is really interesting and that you could tell me more about. Would you?" I love talking about pedigrees - and baby boy's is really great. So i started to tell her about his ancestors on both sides - and as I came to his mother's line the equerry and the rider had come too and sat down beside me. And then hubby came in, waved at his people and sat down too. I actually didn't want to keep his people away from working, so I tried to shorten my story - only for the hubby saying: "Isn't there more about his great-grandfather? Julmond was legend, wasn't he? The only stallion who ever got a grave at your states' stud - and whenever I was there, he'd got flowers on it."
I know the most riders don't care about the parentage of their horses (except of bragging about). And it's true: One doesn't ride the papers, but the horse - and I know more than one horse with a great pedigree which isn't really good. On the other hand I don't know many really great horses who don't have a good paper. And I'm a breeder. I see certain family traits in horses and I'vek nown a lot of horses, so there's often a kind of "connection" when I look at a pedigree. And in the case of the boy it's a rather stronge one. His lineage connects the two phases of my life as a rider. On his father's side is Robin - as I've already mentioned: The boy's father Royaldik is a son of Robin's half brother Royal Diamond. But there's a connection to Royaldik's maternal side too: I know his mother Herka xx. She's a breeding mare on the Birkhof and a full sister of the famous thoroughbred stallion Heraldik.
Thinking of Heraldik makes me always smile. I remember how I heard first about him: It was at the big riding event in Stuttgart. I lived at this time 500 km away from home and hadn't been on the Birkhof for a rather long time. So meeting my Uncle Alfred at the event was especially nice and after the usual hug and kisses he beamed at me: "My girl, you must come for a visit! I've bought the most beautiful stallion you've ever seen!"
I could have kissed him again. Just imagine: The man was at this time around 40 years in the profession, one of the most successful horse breeders in Germany - and he still was able to swoon over a horse like that! Of course I visited him for seeing "the most beautiful stallion ever". And I remember that I arrived there as Uncle was standing at the yard - and he immediately stopped me: "No, don't go into the stables. A horse like him you can't only see in its stall. I get him for you. Just you wait here!"
Three minutes later he was back - and my jaw dropped and I almost forgot to breathe. He hadn't promised me too much. Heraldik was the most beautiful horse I'd ever seen! Everything about him was simply perfect, included his character. He was calm, collected, intelligent, sensitive, a bit reserved, but kind and well-mannered and very cuddly with people close to him. I understood why my Uncle loved him this much - and I think he was right about Heraldik being a real great stallion. He died two years ago, but he left back 12 sons who're proceeding his line. Besides he was one of the most sucessful sires in eventing in the last years. Perhaps we'll see two sons of him at the next Olympic Games.
Here you get Butts Abraxxas with Ingrid Klimke - one of the best German eventers.
And here is his brother Butts Leon with Andreas Dibowski.
So much about my boy's paternal family. Yet the maternal isn't bad either.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of his mother Filia (as soon as the sun will shine I'll get one) and I couldn't find one of her father Abendruf either. Yet I remember him very well: A very imposing black stallion with great gaits who looked rather proud, but was known as a real darling and a very eager horse. His bad luck was that he'd been born too early. He was one of the last stallions out of an old Wuerttemberg line - and at this time the so called "Alt-Wuerttemberger" were totally "out". Everyone wanted a horse with a Northern lineage and the few who still believed in our old lines where laughed at. I never understood that - didn't they see what a great dressage horse Abendruf was? Didn't they see how he could move? Didn't they see how easy he made it for his riders, how eagerly he worked and how imposing he looked? Obviously they didn't - while stinkers like the Anglo-Norman "French Kiss" (by my Uncle rechristined to the "French sickness") and "Star de France" (he was a stag - including the wrong muscled neck and the ugly butt) got hundreds of mares to cover, Abendruf could be glad when he got around 20 - 30 a year. And so the line died out with him - he simply have enough offspring for one of them making it as a stallion. Besides no breeder would probably have invested in getting an Abendruf through the expansive procedure of becoming a breeding stallion, knowing how "out" the line was and that an Abendruf-son wouldn't get more mares as his father.
However, times have changed - by now we have even a stud book for Old Wuerttemberg again and a few breeders try to get the lines "pure" again. They've gotten that we need the gen potential of these lines too - and that especially the mares out of these old lines are great for breeding. They're almost all amazingly fertile, they're all good mothers, they're giving their calibre, their decent characters and calmness to their offspring and they're long living.
Luckily I got once the opportunity to ride Abendruf - and it was great and I remember him fondly. That was one of the reasons why I bought Filia.
The other was her maternal line - and that's one I'm really connected to. Filia's mother was a white mare from the stallion Jod out of a mare from Himalaya.
Let's start at the back: My connection to Himalaya, a Trakehner stallion with a half-blood mother, was very close. My Halali was a daughter of him - and besides of her my Uncle had five Himalaya mares in his stable. I learned riding on them, I was familiar with all of them and I loved them. And out of this line was a horse I was very fond of: Taenzer (=Dancer).
Taenzer was a very sucessfull jumper - and besides he was such a wonderful, kind and loveable horse!
One of my uncle's Himalaya mares was Himalistin, a beautiful, but rather stubborn and cheeky lady. She had the daughter Jolistin from Jod - and Jolistin was the horse who taught me jumping and besides one of the best breeding mares at the Birkhof. From her and the thoroughbred Pageno we got our first self-breed stallion and she was the mother of the beautiful mare Koriolistin who became mother of the second Birkhof stallion and the German championesse Lettina. And here you get the lady at the day of her great triumph:
She's now a breeding mare at the Birkhof and in the moment she's with a son who's got written "Champion" all over: He hasn't got only a champion for a mother, but for a father too: His sire is last years German champion Birkhof's Denario.
But back to Jod, the grandfather of my boy. Through him the little one is connected to a real legend in Southern Germany: Jod was a son of Julmond.
And his story is really worth telling: Julmond was born 1938 in East Prussia - a Trakehner out of a good, but not too famous line. Three years old he became a breeding stallion though his rating wasn't too great. The shoulder a bit too steep, the back short, the fore legs not entirely correct, besides he was with around 165 cm a bit small and as a youngster he really didn't look imposing. He was seen as a rather mediocre stallion and was therefore put at one of the not so important outposts of the Trakehnen stud.
He didn't get many mares there and his foals were nothing to write home about. Probably one would have never heard of him if not the war had arrived in East-Prussia. In Winter 1944 the Trakehnen stud was evacuated - and Julmond, already known as a very hard-working and though horse, was chosen by one of the stud masters as his riding horse for leading a herd with around 150 mares and 50 foals to the West. It was a very long way from Trakehnen to West Germany - and it was a very, very hard winter. The horses even had to cross a part of the sea over ice and were for weeks in snow storms. Half of the mares and the foals died on this long way, but Julmond - though he'd done the entire way under the saddle, often enough going forward and backward for keeping the herd together - arrived 1945 in Warendorf, the Westphalian states' stud. And because he'd proven his thoughtness on the long treck, the Westphalian states' stud decided to use him as stallion.
Only Julmond and the Westphalian mares didn't suit each other well. After three years no breeder wanted him anymore, so Julmond came back to Warendorf to serve as a school horse. However, the states' stud didn't have much money then and so, around 1960, it was decided that they would get rid off all horses not earning their oat as stallions. Julmond was on the list of horses to get rid off - and he would probably have gone to the butcher if not the employees of the states' stud would have collected money for him. They loved him so much that they decided to pay for him - and I think that says a lot about his character, considered that these people had a lot of other horses around.
1958 Julmond's fate changed again. The Count of Kniep-Oeynhausen came to Warendorf and saw him. He was owner of a little Trakehner stud and he was impressed by Julmond's character and thoughness. So he bought the stallion and put him out of the meadow with his mares.
1961 Dr. Georg Wenzler, director of the Baden-Wuerttemberg states' stud in Marbach and famous for what he'd done with the famous Arabians in our country (he was the one who persuaded the director of the Egyptian states' stud El Zaahra to let him the stallion Hadban Enzahi who became one of the most Arabians in Europe. Besides Hadban Enzahi was the father of two mares the Sheik of Dubay bought for his stud - and actually we here find it still rather funny when Arabian horse breeders buy Arabian horses from our states' stud). Besides of breeding Arabians Dr. Wenzler's job was the big change in our breeding: he had to "re-breed" our heavy Old-Wuerttembergs who were actually breed for working on farms to modern riding horses. That meant purifying - something which was done in a lot of breedings in Germany around this time, mostly with using thoroughbred stallions. Only Dr. Wenzler didn't believe in thoroughbreds doing the job well. He knew that the Old Wuerttembergs were already having enough temper and that crossing thoroughbreds in would perhaps make the next generation too hot. So he was searching for a stallion who would purify his mares, but with a nice, calm character.
Julmond had done rather well with the mares he'd gotten at the Count's stud. Dr. Wenzler saw him and he saw his two sons out of his first year at the stud: Amor and Lothar. Wenzler bought the trio and got them to Marbach. Julmond was already 23 as he came there, but in the next five years he fathered around 200 foals - and among them seven breeding stallions, among them Jod out of a mother from the Trakehner Pregel (another Trakehner Dr. Wenzler had bought and who became important for our breed).
1965 died Julmond in Marbach - and he became the first and only stallion who got a grave. It's next to the meadow where he lived under a few old trees - a very lovely place. And as my man mentioned: Even today Julmond always has a few flowers on his grave. Often it's a bunch of wild flowers - Julmond is still fondly remembered by some of the old workers at the stud because he was such a wonderful, decent horse. But a lot of flowers he gets from people who didn't know him personally, but are riding Julmond offspring. I can't count how many of them I met during my rider's life, but I can't remember ever meeting one who wasn't a decent, charming horse. And the famous Julmond-charm and intelligence one finds even in his great-grandchildren as well as the famous thoughness.
I actually think that the Julmond heritage can even make up for the famous Rubinstein laziness. On the other hand: I don't think my boy will become a typical Rubinstein in matters of "No, I don't want to work". We won't spoil him and besides - his father isn't lazy at all. In this account he comes after his thoroughbred mother.
In every case I'm very, very grateful to my sweet man for giving the baby to me and I'm looking forward to seeing my boy grown up. Only he needs a name now - and I still don't have an idea!