Trakehner Gestüt Webelsgrund

Webelsgrund is one of Germany's most beautiful stud farms and has a long history of breeding Trakehner horses. It can be considered most important in producing outstanding sires as well as preserving great old mare families and turning out international competitors in dressage, show jumping and eventing. Here is the story of a farm with worldwide influence:

The history

In 1954, Fritz Bähre founded Webelsgrund in the state of Lower Saxony close to the little village of Springe. Already in these early days, the beautiful farm house, spacy stalls with long paddocks and location right on the rim of the famous forrest "Saupark" made Webelsgrund a unique place to breed horses in Germany. Fritz Bähre's most important action was the acquisition of a bay colt from its breeder Franz Scharfetter, the very same colt later revolutionized the Trakehner breed worldwide. His name was Impuls. People who saw him as a young colt knew he would be outstanding. He was described as a "stallion" from the early days on. Fritz Bähre bought him in 1953, one year before Webelsgrund was founded, and after his successful approval in 1955, he lived all his life in this wonderful horse paradise. All mare families that found a home in Webelsgrund could be traced back 200 years in Trakehner history to the main stud in East Prussia. All but one, Atlanta by Hanskapitän. Famous lines included Alwina by Hyperion, Hymne by Sporn, Kassandra by Sporn, Schwalbe by Totilas, Kand Tanagra by Bussard. Together with Impuls, these mares produced outstanding Trakehners for many years, approved stallions, champions and winning show mares.

The mare families

Family of Kassandra:

Readers of the Performance Issue of The American Trakehner may remember the Kassette mare line article. Kassandra was Kassette's most famous daughter and produced three approved sons in Webelsgrund, all sired by Impuls: Kapitän, Karneol and Kassius. Especially Kassius was able to produce a great number of excellent sport horses for any discipline, while Karneol was stationed in Tchecheslovacia where he gained a huge influence on the local warmblood breed. Additionally, the combination of Kassandra and Impuls brought the Olympic performer Kassim and several outstandingly important brood mares like the DLG winner Kasseiopeia and Kassia (dam of the approved Kassio and Kaspar). Kasseiopeia and Kaprice became foundation brood mares of Otto Langel's famous Hämelschenburg stud, where Kasseiopeia broduced Kassiber and Kastillo, both by another recognized Webelsgrund sire: Ibikus (by Hertilas out of Isolda by Impuls).

Modern and popular stallions from this line are the champion stallion Kostolany (by Enrico Caruso, out of Kapstadt by Falke), the ATA approved Kaspareit (by Mozart out of Kapriziose by Ibikus), Kadre Noir (by Upan la Jarthe AA out of Kleopatra by Ibikus), Kapriolan (by Exclusiv out of Kassuben by Enrico Caruso) or the stunning 2001 champion stallion in NMS, K2 (by Stradivari out of Kateja by Inschallah AA).

Family of Hymne:

The small mare Hymne was exclusivly bred to Impuls. She produced the state stud sire Hydros for the Württemberg Marbach. And Hurrican, Grand Prix dressage star under Karin Rehbein. Further, this family produced Hyppi by Himilaja out of Hyperia, winning grand Prix show jumper under German team member Elmar Gundel, the approved Heuriger by Herzbube out of Heublume, leading Trakehner dressage horse in the 90s worldwide and reserve world champion with the Dutch team in 1994. Heuriger's dam also produced the approved Hornist and Husar (both by Herzbube) and with Polargeist, the champion stallion Holunder. From the same close relationship comes the approved Hyalit (by Herzbube), sire of the 1997 Trakehner sporthorse of the year, the CCI*** competitor Windspiel (out of Wundermädel xx by Madruzzo xx). Today, this line is represented by Heublume II (by elite stallion Tenor), whose first foal was the premium stallin Humanus (by elite stallion Maizuber), today living in Italy and on his way to an international showjumper career. Hymne later moved on to Gestüt Hämelschenburg, where she produced the mare Hämelschenburg by Ibikus. She later produced the mare Habiana by the Grand Prix dressage stallion Fabian, a 3/4 brother to Abdullah. Habiana is a well respected mare in the breed and produced the very good dressage sire Handryk by EH Van Deyk, who stands at stud in East Germany and is very successful as a dressage sire with his offspring competing at Grand Prix dressage and CIC** eventing. The family very recently came back into the spotlight, winning the National Family Championships at the National Mare Show in Neustadt/Dosse in July 2004.

Family of Alwina:

Alwina was the last daughter of the legendary Hyperion and reached the West on uncertain routes. This family produced the approved stallions Arminius, Auftakt and Arthus, the latter being a recognized dressage sire in Germany and Denmark, his grandson Harley (by Induc) was the Austrian champion stallion in 1998. Lately, this line got some attention because of outstanding mares like Alpenrose and Amazonia (both by Polargeist), owned by the farm's former stud master Peter Oellrich. Amazonia's son Amarant (by Maizauber) was approved in 1994 and another famous relative is the impressive grey elite mare Arabica (by Marduc), who produced the approved Arc De Triomphe (by Mandant) and was herself an international driving horse. She is now living at Valhallah farms, with a daughter being a brood mare for Eileen Poole's Meadowview Farm in Canada. The same family also produced the Inter I successful FEI stallion Artistic-Rock by EH Rockefeller, a premium of his approval and one of the best movers of the breed today.


Family of Isola Madre:

Isola Madre was the most important daughter of Pythagoras that reached the West. Her dam, Isola Longa, traced back to the main stud Trakehnen. It was mainly Isolda by Impuls and her offspring that became world famous. Two of Isolda's sons were on the one hand the international show jumper Infant (by Hessenstein) and of course, Ibikus (by Hertilus), who like no other stallion influenced the Trakehner breed after the war. His sons and daughters are spread all over the world, from America over Europe to Australia and back.

Indus, another Isolda-son (by Valentin) was stationed at Fritz-Henning Bähre's stud farm in Canada. And also Isolda's daughters were successful stallion producers. Indiana and Osterglanz xx (who was also bred in Webelsgrund) produced Illuster, very important as sire of the former National champion and Grand Prix dressage mare Corna and her half brother, the approved Cornus. Irka, a daughter of the highly acclaimed Cardinal xx produced together with Tenor the 1984 champion stallion Itaxerxes, today elite stallion and sire of several approved sons. Instanz by Etong, and again Tenor produced the 1985 premium stallion Iglesias.

Family of Schwarze Schwalbe:

Although no representatives of this line are left in Webelsgrund, the mare family of Schwarze Schwalbe was very important for the Trakehner breed. Schwarze Schwalbe, the most famous daughter of the elite mare Schwalbe (by Totilas) was sired by Traumgeist xx and came in trade for Auftakt. She was exclusively bred to Impuls, with great success. Three full brothers were approved, Schwalbenflug, Schwalbenfreund, the champion stallion and Schwalbenzug, who was considered the best of the brothers, but who left Germany for Canada. The dams of the stallions Schwalbenherbst, Schelhdorn, and Shannon were all daughters of Schwarze Schwalbe. More about this family can be found in our portrait of Gestüt Hämelschenburg!