The Trakehner is the “Thoroughbred” of warmblood breeds, it is more closely related to the Thoroughbred than other German breeds having had major influence in the stud book from the English Thoroughbred and to a lesser degree the Arab and Anglo Arab. Due to selective breeding the Trakehner has retained the best thoroughbred qualities while keeping its own special character and “type”. The “Lloyds Bank Black Horse” is a Black Trakehner Stallion!

Before German unification in 1871, Germany was made up of a number of different states and locally organised breeding areas. As a result horses bred in the area of Hanover became known as “Hanoverian” and a horse born in Westphalia became a “Westphalian”. However the Trakehner is the exception to this breed naming rule, as they are known as Trakehners wherever they are born, the stud book is governed solely by bloodlines. Infact Trakehner stallions were and still are widely used to improve and refine all the regional breeds.

History was to deal the Trakehner a nearly fatal blow. The breed had easily recovered from the population being halved during World War I, but in October 1944, as World War II was in its final stages and the Soviets were closing in on the lush and beautiful area around Trakehnen, orders came to evacuate the horses from the Trakehnen Stud. About 800 of the best horses were hastily transferred both by rail and by foot but unfortunately they did not go far enough west. Most of them, together with all their documentation, eventually fell into the hands of the Russian occupation forces and were shipped to Russia. The private breeders and their horses, however, were determined to save their valuable horses. What followed was a horror story that went down in history as “The Trek”. Hitching their precious breeding stock to wagons laden with personal possessions and all the feed they could carry, these proud East Prussians fled, some 800 horses strong. They were mostly women, children and elderly people and they were leaving their whole lives, bringing along only what their wagons could hold. It was the dead of winter. Snow was deep on the ground, and the broodmares were heavy with foal. Many horses were left behind to be claimed by the advancing Soviets and many were lost or let loose along the way to be eventually taken in by the conquering troops or to die.

The East Prussians headed west, literally running for their lives. They could not stop when mares lost their foals or horses went lame or became ill. Their feed ran out and the horses had to live on what they could scavenge along the way. For two and a half months and 600 miles the nightmare continued, while the refugees were constantly pursued by Soviet troops. At one time it looked like the East Prussians had reached the end. The Soviets had them surrounded on the shores of the frozen Baltic Sea. The only escape was across the treacherous expanse of ice, so across they went - at times knee deep in water covering the ice - galloping to stay ahead of the ice breaking behind them. If any dared to stop or attempt to dodge the fire of the Russian planes overhead, they were doomed to sink helplessly into the freezing water. Many did not make it across.

At last the survivors limped into West Germany, the once proud and beautiful 800 horses reduced to less than 100 pitiful skeletons, carrying wounds from shrapnel. Only the hardiest had survived. The next decade was spent re-establishing the breed in the West. In October 1947, the West German Association of Breeders and Friends of the Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin, today know as the “Trakehner Verband” was formed, replacing the East Prussian Stud Book Society. Horses that had fled to the west were spread all over Germany and only a few hundred Trakehner horses of the original 80,000 in East Prussia were available by the time the rebuilding process began, for though between the Trek and various other evacuation attempts, almost 1000 horses had actually reached the safety of West Germany, most of them were eventually lost to the breed. However these horses became the founders of today’s Trakehner horse. A very hardy breed.

The record of Trakehners in competition is impressive. The Trakehners won every medal for the German Olympic team in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. In recent years horses such as Abdullah who carried Conrad Homfeld to win a team Gold and individual silver medal for USA at the 1984 Olympics and Goldkorn by Istanbul winner of the Danish Show Jumping Derby in 1989 under Hugo Simon.

The famous dressage rider, the late Dr. Reiner Klimke has ridden many Trakehners to Grand Prix level including the famous Fabian and more recently Biotop. Peron achieved 4th place at the Atlanta Olympics, and Waitaki, partnered by Holger Hetzel is presently competing on the World Cup ind International Circuit. And there are numerous successful Partbred horses with Trakehner blood including the famous show jumper Milton. And also this years World Cup Winner Tinka’s Boy ridden by Marcus Fuchs, even though by the Dutch Stallion Amor, is going back in his ancestry to the Trakehners Heristal and Hyperion.

Trakehners today have won Olympic medals for all disciplines Dressage, Eventing and Showjumping as well as winning Long Distance Riding and Driving events. Trakehners show more stamina than other warmbloods and have done well in the Eventing world (particularly when crossed with the Thoroughbred). The British Trakehner Stallion Fleetwater Opposition by Muschamp Danube (Standing in the UK) was Junior European Three-Day-Event Champion before retiring to stud. Utopian Opposition is competing Grade A showjumping and Summersong is an Olympic Eventer. The Individual Gold medal for Eventing at the Barcelona Olympics was won by a Trakehner. Karen Bassett is the World’s leading lady team driver with her team of Trakehner horses. The famous mare Corna by Illuster (who until his death in 2000 was standing in the UK) was the Champion Riding Horse of all breeds in West Germany in 1985. Recent Olympic Dressage stars include TCN Partout ridden by Anky van Grunsven and Merlin TSF under Caroline Hatlapa.