Dr Ludwig Christmann was the person who introduced me to the world of warmblood breeding. The Hanoverian Verband has been the leader in so many ways – in the style of horse bred, and in marketing that product, but it has also led the field when it came to public relations – which is how we found ourselves touring Lower Saxony as part of an English language study group led by Ludwig back in 1991.

It was a fabulous tour through the countryside of Lower Saxony, going to the local mare shows, visiting the local Breeding Stations – Deckstations –  with their two or three stallions, and being entertained by the local – male – breeding community, seems the women were out back in the kitchens then.

At that time, the head of the State Stud Celle had godlike powers, and he allocated the stallions to the different breeding areas, and the local breeders mostly accepted his choice. It was well before the days of chilled semen, let alone frozen, so breeders  had no real alternative.

The influential stallion at the time, Wagner was trotted down the main village street for us while the cars waited…

It meant that the mare populations of the various districts were extremely concentrated, with the likelihood that if a stallion clicked with one mare, he was likely to click with most.

Shows were a serious business with breeders taking notes…

The mare shows were a bit of a shock. Whereas in Australia, our horse shows had at least half an eye on entertaining an audience, these local shows followed a strict and unchanging formula: classes for two, three, four-year- olds, plus a combined five and six-year-old class, and finally a family class, sometimes three sisters, sometimes a mother and two daughters or grandmother, mother and daughter.

Everyone was deadly serious and at the end, even if there were forty mares in the class, they would all be re-arranged and ranked from best to worst on the circle, and each and every mare was critically evaluated by a member of the Commission in front of the audience.  Even more amazing to my Aussie eyes, was that over a whole series of shows, only one mare owner registered dissent.

An elderly Warrant who was well known for giving good movement to his progeny

Each area had its own character, its own distinct line of horse, and the locals were fiercely proud of their stallions, their best products. It was an experience I will never forget.

Wenzel was shown to us on the road out the front…

At the time, the Weltmeyer star had just appeared on the horizon, while Hanover tried to ignore the other dressage star, the Oldenburg one, Donnerhall.

In the thirty years since then, Ludwig has remained a friend and a patient respondent to my myriad of questions. Now he has decided to retire, and thanks to whatsapp, I recorded this interview with him.

Looking back over your time at the Hanoverian Verband, what have been the major changes in horse breeding?

“One major change has been AI. Another major change has been the start of the internet, the way we now communicate is amazing. Another very big impact came from the financial crisis, ten years ago. Now there is much more competition between the all breeding associations all over Germany, and the private stallion owners, there’s not so much State influence in Germany any more. The result has been more competition between the studbooks and more internationalisation.”

The most striking thing for me, is when I think back to that first study group I attended, that you led, when everything was very very local. Everything in the area centred around the Deckstation, where there were one, two, three stallions, a hotel, meeting room, and the community was centred around that – that has disappeared, now the stallions are in larger groups at bigger stations – or the breeders are using semen from stallions all over Europe…

“It is actually still there, but this is also one of the effects of AI, breeders are not looking any more for the closest stallion, now the top stallions from all over the world are available, but we still have the structure of the breeding clubs and they function. But the breeding station is not so much at the centre of the breeding club as it used to be. I think it is important that we still have the structure of the local clubs.”

There is also not the same loyalty to the Verband that there was, once breeders really cared if the stallion was one of theirs, now they will happily breed to stallions from other books, other countries…

“That is another change. When I first started work with the Verband, the Holsteiner, for example, was not an approved breed. Hanover started to accept Holsteiner genetics in the 80’s, this is another result of AI and internationalisation. There is also much more competition between the studbooks, when I started working, every studbook had a monopoly in their own area. The animal breeding law in Germany said you have to define your area and the States in Germany were responsible for horse breeding, so the Hanoveraner Verband was accepted for Lower Saxony, and in Bavaria it was the Bavarian breeding society. So when a Hanoverian mare was sold to Bavaria, in foal to a Hanoverian stallion, the resulting foal was not a Hanoverian, it was a Bavarian. This has all changed now, all the big studbooks in Germany are working nationally, or internationally – so now the breeder is a customer and you have to persuade this customer of your worth.”

Is it not a problem, that in the old days when the stallions were local, it meant that stallions that were not immediately attractive, could be given a chance, stallions like Grande, Gotthard, whereas today, those stallions would have no chance of breeding enough mares to make an impact…

“Maybe, but on the other hand, I would say that while more stallions were needed, many of those stallions were of lesser quality than the average of the stallions today, so more stallions of average quality were used. But on the other hand you are right, more stallions were given the chance to make an impact.”

“Today, the sport dictates the horse that we have to breed. Now we are not breeding a Hanoverian type, or a Holsteiner type, the riders want to have the best jumping horse, or the most talented dressage horse, and that is what we have to breed.”

That is also a change, when I first visited you, people were still talking about the all-round horse, and they were suspicious of specialisation – that was something the Dutch did – but that has totally changed…

“That was a big change, now breeders are breeding for the discipline, and the dressage horse is a different horse from the jumping horse. This is a big change.”

Who have been the important stallions in your time?

“There are quite a few, stallions that everybody knows. When I started there was still a big influence of Grande and Gotthard, and Absatz was very influential, then later on Weltmeyer. Overall the most influential dressage stallion in my time was Donnerhall, at the moment, Sandro Hit  has a big impact. When you look on the jumping side, then we still see Grande and Gotthard. Cor de la Bryère has had a big impact. Another stallion that has been so influential overall is Furioso II. So we are now not just looking at Hanover, but at the international sport horse, and then Furioso II has had the biggest impact of all the stallions.”

“Now it would seem Diamant de Sémilly has become very influential in showjumping. When you look at Belgium, Darco who is half Hanoverian, is the foundation stallion for jumping horse breeding.”

Weltmeyer, a very popular stallion at the time

When we did that first study tour, it was all Weltmeyer, which led Celle to miss out on some of the really good Donnerhalls.  At the 1995 stallion licensing, it was thought that De Niro would go to Celle, a disappointment to private stallion owner Burchard Wahler who wanted to buy him, here’s what Burchard  said at the time:

“At that time, Celle could choose ten stallions for a certain price and it was not possible for private breeders to buy those stallions. When I looked at the stallions, there was only one I wanted to buy, that was De Niro. Then I asked Mr Jahncke, the President of the Hanoverian Association, do you think the state stud will take him? The answer was – Yes. Probably he goes to Celle.”

One of our visits was to the then President of the Hanoverian Association at the Jancke family stud, he showed us one of his young colts and some of his mares…

(The practice of giving the State Stud first choice on ten young stallions only came to an end in 2001.)

“It’s always the same weekend with two stallion licensings – Verden has the Hanoverians, Neumünster has the Trakehners. So I left Verden and went to Neumünster. I rang Mr Jahncke the next day after the freejumping – is De Niro going to Celle? No. They thought Dr Bade, Celle Head at the time – didn’t take him because he is by Donnerhall, and Donnerhall was a private stallion, and he didn’t want to make private stallions popular. In this time they took Weltmeyer, Weltmeyer, Weltmeyer….

De Niro went on to become a successful competitor, and sire for Klosterhof Medigen, and the Hanoverian breed…

Every year twelve Weltmeyer stallions. So then I rang my partner, Tönne Böckmann from the Böckmann stallion station, and I said, I am here in Neumünster, you go and buy that stallion…”

Don Frederico, one of the first Donnerhall sons…

Indeed it wasn’t until 2001 that two Donnerhall sons were inducted into Celle, Don Vino (Donnerhall / Consul / Wenzel II) and Don Frederico (Donnerhall / Consul / Gardeulan I). Don Vino was a respectable sire, but Don Frederico was a star, producing 1150 competitors who between them earned €1,722,029. Luckily it was only late in their careers that they were both found to be WFFS carriers.

Does it surprise you that Weltmeyer, who was such a huge influence when I first visited you, seems to have disappeared without a trace, for the past two years, when you look at the topliste of dressage stallions in the Hanoverian Stallion Book, there is no stallion whose name begins with a W?

“Yes, I think this has been a surprise, that a line has lost so much importance. You still see sometimes the Weltmeyer influence on the dam side so it has not totally disappeared, but you are right, it was not possible to continue this line in a big way.”

If we are looking at type, can you describe the major differences in the type of horse that is being bred today?

“As I said, the sport dictates the type. Today the horses are more leggy, overall, taller, but already when I started working with the Verband, there was already an elegant horse. But today the type is much more consistent, we are more and more producing this modern type, but the most important thing is that the conformation follows the function of a sport horse. The sport dictates the conformation we need, and what is very important is the soundness aspect, so maybe in the future we need to look a bit more carefully at correctness. With the horses getting more elegant, more ‘typey’, maybe there were some compromises on correctness. When we breed sport horses we have to consider that a dressage horse peaks at the age of thirteen to fifteen whereas if you look at racing, the peak is between the age of three and five. Our horses have to stay sound for a long time. Riders are prepared to pay a lot of money for a talented horse, but the horses are also expected to stay sound.”

Do you sometimes feel a bit nostalgic that we now have a more or less universal horse, especially in jumping, when I look at a pedigree I can’t tell if the horse comes from Hanover, or Belgium or even France…

“This is the development, and the rider does not say I want to buy a Hanoverian or a Holsteiner, they want to buy the best jumping horses.”

But are you ever nostalgic for the days when it was all more concentrated, more local, more defined?

“I’m not the person who believes thirty years ago everything was better. I think that thinking is a little bit dangerous. This is the way things have developed, and it is a result of new breeding technology, and I think we have to accept this and try to be as competitive as we can.”

And for yourself Ludwig, what is the future?

“I still feel good and I have hopefully more time for family. I met many wonderful people all around the world and I hope to stay in touch with them. I don’t have big plans…”

But you are going to keep on writing…

“Yes, I guess.”

Thank you Ludwig, I hope when this dreadful pandemic ends, I can get to Germany and we can meet up again in person…