Part I: Back to the roots - East Prussia before 1732 and the foundation of Trakehnen

East Prussia's history spans back to about 2000 BC. The original people of East Prussia were called "Pruzzen" and early travel reports into this land between North Poland and Russia date back to the 10th century. From the very beginning, East Prussia was known as a horse country, famous for its local horses. The country's history is tightly circled around the spreading of Christianity in these regions and it was actually the importance of the German Knight Order, its protection of the local lords, and the four major bishop towns that shaped most of the country. East Prussia heralded some of the biggest names in culture and science, e.g. the great philosopher Imanuel Kant, the artist Käthe Kollwitz or the famous astronomer Nikolaus Kopernikus had their home in East Prussia. Like much of Germany, World War II in the 20th century swept away literally centuries worth of culture and prosperity.

Long before WWII, horse breeding was a common source of income for the royalties and church officials. In fact, many of the original Knight's Order stud farms were still in existence when in 1618, East Prussia became a part of Brandenburg. Despite the size of the breeding "industry", the East Prussian "King of Soldiers" Friedrich Wilhelm I (picctured left) acquired the majority of his war remounts from studs in Hungary and the Ukraine. Obviously this had two major disadvantages: it was very expensive to buy horses, and made the State depending on other Nations in a time of turmoil and war in Europe. Count Leopold von Sachsen-Anhalt finally advised the king to breed his remounts himself, and buy a large property in Lithuania to combine all his separate breeding operations under one roof. Not an easy feat!

As foundation, the King bought land close to the small village with almost no independent farmers. The name of the village was "Trakischken", which means as much as "clearance". And indeed clearance it needed. This was not the vast farmland that we know from looking at historic photographs of Trakehnen. Trakischken and its surrounding lands between Szikupönen and Sanzkehmen were a huge swamp heavily occupied by birch trees, alders, and reeds, almost impenetrable for humans and horses. The rivers Pissa and Rodupp passed through here. The "black death", the pest, had carried off the majority of the people in Gumbinnen, the county's major city, so that under the King's command, 600 soldiers started the effort to reclaim this land. The beginning was a drainage system with the Pissa river, soon followed by uprooting of the forests. Trakischken had no buildings that would suit a stud farm, so everything was build from scratch. It took 6 years of effort and about 35.000 gold thaler (a sum unheard of these days) from the King's treasury to get the new stud set up. On July 11th 1731 a statement was issued that ordered the official opening of the "Royal Stud Trakehnen" for May 1732. And indeed, this order was met to the month. At that time, Trakehnen already consisted of its main compound and the upstream studs, the "Vorwerke" of Bajohrgallen, Jonasthal, Gurdzen, Kalpakin, Guddin, Jodzlauken and Birkenwalde with a total of 1101 horses, of which 513 were brood mares.

However, the overall quality of these horses was not what you would expect when thinking "Trakehnen". No trace of uniformity here! Only a small fraction of these horses were Knight's horses, the vast majority of the horses were made up of the local breed called "Schweike", a pony-like small horse that was used for the daily work in fields, but was clearly lighter and more refined than the typical German draft horses of the time. The Scheike was popular for its stamina, speed and endurance and was good for daily work, transportation and also riding. It was the Schweike that was the foundation stock of horses in Trakehnen.

The first years of the newly founded stud were no lucky ones. The King had hoped for quick gratification in form of sales of young stock, but the horses greatly varied in quality. In addition, epidemic episodes of sickness swept through the farm killing off animals due to high density in stocks, and the fertility of the soil, which had been created from the original swamp lands, was low. The King finally donated Trakehnen to the crown prince, Friedrich the Great. He had more luck. During the time of his ruling (1740-1786), the fam produced many excellent horses for his royal stud. Speed, even back then, was of greatest importance. It is reported that harness teams of Mecklenburg, Russian or Anlgosaxon breedings needed about 2 hours to travel the heavy sands and tough terrain between Berlin and the King's castle in Potsdam, while the famous black Trakehner teams of the time made the trip in a little under 1.5 hours. A big advantage in the King's eyes! Trakehners were also the choice of the time for courier services when Friedrich the Great discovered that mail sent out from Berlin arrived a day earlier in Königsberg when Trakehners were used. He even ordered courier riders from then on to ride Trakehners.

The general and and great reformer of the cavalry, Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (pictured right), rode Trakehners himself, which was seen as the biggest appreciation. With all the glory in the field, the general approach to breeding horses however was not high up on the King's list of interests. Personal gratification and high financial yield were more important to him. As a result, some of the finest stallions and breeding stocks ended up as gifts to generals and friends, or as highly priced sales horses. Up to 12.000 gold thaler were earned in Trakehnen each year, money that went straight to the King's treasury. Obviously this had some negative side effects. Annalists report that the quality of the breed after the first 50 years was barely mediocre.

The fact that this new stud farm was still able to generate such success was mostly due to one person: Johann Friedrich von Domhardt. He took over the position of breed director in 1742 and was the person to the one right thing in 1748 when it became apparent that the stud was in trouble: he rigorously halved the head count to a total of 783 horses, and also got rid of many brood mares. Besides stallions from the own breeding program, several oriental stallions and English Anglobloods were used with overwhelming success. The annals show that a persian grey stallion, Perser, his grand son, Spinola, and an "English prize racer", Pitt from the Darley Arabian branch can be called the true founding fathers of the old Trakehner breed.
Von Domhardt also always fantasized about starting his own stallion depot. And indeed, in 1779 and against the King's liking, he offered 11 stallions for the rural breeders in East Prussia. The acceptance among the local farmers was tremendous, and only a year later, 20 stallions were made available at public breeding stations, the early version of the "State Stud farm". Without knowing it, von Domhardt had built the foundation for a methodical warmblood breed and remount production.