TheEquine |

TheEquine |: "The Trakehner horse is the most important and outstanding of all warmblood breeds, renowned for their grace, power, magnificent movement, outstanding beauty, great ability to perform, they are naturally balanced and free. Best of all, they have an ideal temperament - keen and alert, yet level-headed and able to take intense work. They have a willingness to work and due to their intelligence they learn extremely quickly. The Trakehner, is the warmblood closest to the British ideal of the modern competition and riding horse, whose upgrading influence of bloodlines is evident in most of the continental sports breeds today. The popularity of this breed in Britain is growing at an astounding rate. The breed height ranges from a minimum of 15.2hh but the average is between 16hh and 17hh. They are usually solid colours, chestnut, bay, black or grey.
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'.
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. In fact Trakehner stallions were and still are widely used to improve and refine all the regional breeds."