KNABSTRUPPERHISTORY

A short history of the Knabstrupper breed

The Knabstrupper horse originates from the estate ‘Knabstrup Hovedgård’ on Zealand in Denmark, were the owner, Major Lunn, in the beginning of the 19^th century bred strong, fast and noble horses. He used mares that had proved themselves durable and capable through hard work. One of those was the ‘Fläbe mare’, who had an incredible stamina. She had a very strange colour and was described as “a noble and beautiful horse, zobelfuch with white mane and tail, interspered with small white dots around the body, but mostly on the hind quarters, where there were also reddish brown dots”. The mare was ridden by a Spanish officer, who became imprisoned in Denmark and therefore had to sell her to a butcher in Fläbe, who later sold her to Major Lunn. Through her nobleness, she differed from the rest of the breeding stock of Major Lunn. Her son, the ‘Fläbestallion’, was an excellent trotter who won many races for his owner, and he was used frequently for breeding. This stallion and one of his sons, ‘Mikkel’, who also were a successful racehorse, have both been very important for the spread of the Knabstrupper. A grandson of the ‘Fläbestallion’, ‘Thor’, became the first ancestor stallion on Knabstrup.

At Knabstrup, breeding was not focussed on the colour of the horses, even though it became a characteristic of the Knabstrupper horse. Therefore, around the 1870’s, there were no tigered horses left at Knabstrup, even though it was the same pedigree of mares.

In 1891 the breed at Knabstrup nearly came to an end, when lightning hit the stables and 22 horses were burnt to death. They continued the breed on the surviving horses, and used stallions with descent from Knabstrup, and to great surprise, a tigered filly foal were born in 1897. She became the mother of a good browntigered stallion, who was used for breeding. Once again, there were tigered horses at Knabstrup. The last important stallion at Knabstrup was ‘Mikkel’, who was used in the first part of the 1920’s.

Other stud farms also bred horses with Knabstrupperblood in their veins, but in the 1920’s and 30’s the bloodline became too weak, and no tigered stallions that were good enough were born. But there were still some good mares and in 1945 the stud farm ‘Egemosegård’, at ‘Tuse Näs’, was grounded to try to re-establish the breed. The stallions ‘Silverking II’ and ‘Max Bodisker’ were bought for the farm.

The mechanization of agriculture in the 1950’s and 60’s, led to a decrease in demand for horses. There were still some smaller stud farms which bred the Knabstrupper, but there was no longer any goal or plan with the breeding.

In 1970, a bunch of enthusiasts gathered all the Knabstrupper interested people in Denmark and held a prize awarding (premiering) exhibition for Knabstrupper horses. The year after, 1971, ‘The Association for Knabstrupper Horses in Denmark’ was founded. Since then, the goal has been to breed the Knabstrupper so it fulfils the modern expectations for a riding horse. To reach this goal, crossbreeding with other breeds with the proper qualities are allowed.

Knowledge of the heritage of the colour has expanded, and now it is understood why there are foals born who are more or less white or self-coloured, even though both the parents have the most beautiful dotted skin.

In 1986, at the 15^th aniversary, there were already some individuals of the requested type. During the following 15 years, more and more Danish half-bloods were used in the crossbreed, and those individuals often got the highest mark, and naturally the interest for crossbreeding increased. Some groups wondered whether tigered Danish half-bloods now were bred instead of Knabstrupper.

Trying to preserve a vigorous gene reserve, they started to use the old bloodlines in breeding, and today the so called ‘pure breed’ Knabstrupper is awarded prizes (premiering) separately from the crossbreed Knabstrupper.

After the time with “illegal” breed for the colour, tigered ponies in different sizes also exist. Even though there originally were no Knabstrupper ponies, they have been welcomed in the association, and so has the miniature ponies.

Therefore there are different interests in the same association, and it is possible to find a Knabstrupper for all needs and all ages.

The Knabstrupper in Sweden

Knabstruppers were early exported to Sweden, and here they were used in an uncontrolled breeding for the tigered colour. Even today, horse-dealers buy horses in Denmark for their beautiful skin, and sell them in Sweden, with or without papers, this gives the final owners problems with tracking the origin and descent of their horse.

There were enough interested to start a breeding association, and in 1990 ‘The Swedish Association of Knabstrupper Horses’ was founded. It became a member of ‘The Swedish Horse breeding federation’ and was given breed code 15. Today ‘The Swedish Association of Knabstrupper Horses’ is keeper of the register and studbook for all tigered horses, with both the studbook and the crossbreed register.

Already from the beginning the paper ‘Knabstrupper’n’ informs the members about everything concerning the Knabstrupper.

Stallions and mares were imported from Denmark to be able to breed with the same goals as the mother association. The first approved stallions were all Danish born, but in 2001 the first Swedish born stallions were approved for breeding.

Today, eight approved stallions are used for breeding, and around 20-30 foals are born each year.

The association allows crossbreed with approved stallions and mares from following breeding associations:

Swedish half-blood including Arabic and English full blood and other half-blood breeds, who are approved for the half-bloodbreed, Angloarabic full blood, Frederiksborger horse, New Forestpony, Welsh Mountain, Connemara, Russ ponny, Dartmoorpony and Shetlandspony.

For self-coloured crossbreed, the most wanted colours are bay in different shades, brown, dark brown or black. It is inappropriate to use bristled horses or horses with pale colours and it is not accepted to use roaned, piebald, albinos, half albinos, Isabella, or yellowish coloured horses. This is to prevent the tiger colour to disappear in the breed.