The Knabstrupper Connection

Brands, Approvals, foal inspections, gradings, and all that

Germany is divided into various breed regions, which have their own brands and papers.

Most people are familiar with the "standard" German WBs such as Hannoverians and Oldenburgers, but the less well known regions breed horses of similar or equal quality, just the quantity is far smaller.

Many of these breed regions have, under their overall control and umbrella, specific books for "Special breeds" - in other words for horses other than the original Warmbloods. Such "special breeds" studbooks would for example include Riding Pony (mini Warmbloods in all but size) , The Andalucians, Russian breeds such as the Achal Tekke, gaited horses such as Icelandics, and of course the Knabstruppers.

This is why we find purebred Knabstruppers with, for example, a Bavarian brand and papers, or a Sachsen brand and papers. These are entered into the Knabstrupper books and registered as Knabstruppers within the specific region.

All regions which carry a Knabstrupper section accept  any Knabstrupper which was properly registered and branded and inspected from all the other books - ie a Knabstrupper graded and performance tested in the Bavarian Knabstrupper registry is just as acceptable to the other books as one with equivalent Danish (for example) credentials and vice versa. The criteria are uniform across all the regions.

Then there is the ZfDP, which is a society for all German bred horses, which also accepts any horse which would be acceptable to any of the other books, in their Knabstrupper section.

Now we come to the foal inspections : When a foal is branded and first registered it is first inpected, the pedigree and the paperwork of the parents is checked, and the foal is given a premium rating if the quality is good enough.

It is then branded with the brand of his or her particular region, or, in the case of the ZfDP which is international, with the ZfDP brand - regardless of which regional brand the parents carry (provided they are properly registered and approved for breeding as required)

So you could have a foal who's sire is approved and graded and registered as a Knabstrupper in Denmark, out of a mare regiistered and aprroved in Bavaria - getting a brand which is ZfDP for example. The only deciding factors are sufficient and approved pedigree and proper approval of the sire.

The ZfDP will travel abroad and approve, brand and register foals, mares, and stallions, provided there are a reasonable number - the cost of the trip is charged to the owners of the foals, but only from the German border onwards - registration and membership are both cheap.

Various outcrosses are allowed within the Knabstrupper boooks, for example all properly registered and fully papered WBs with the required credentials (ie 4 generations of approved and fully tested parents, full Grading and 100 day performance tested stallions etc) are acceptable, so a foal out of a Knabstrupper mare by a fully approved and performance tested WB stallion would get full Knabstrupper papers.

Other outcrosses which are allowed to improve the quality are fully approved and performance tested TB stallions. or acceptable quality TB mares, same with Arab.

For the baroque type some Andalucian or Lippizaner blood can be added by special permission, or the above. The ponies accept outcrosses with properly approved Welsh or similar UK Native blood, as well as German Riding ponies, to improve paces and athletic ability whilst still keeping "to type".

Foals with insufficient parentage details (for example out of unregistered mares or mares of unknown parentage) will still get a brand and papers, but are registered in a "pre-studbook" .

For those foals it is more difficult to attain approved stallion status for example, but not impossible, for example one of the most highly regarded Knabstrupper stallions in the WB-Sporthorse section , Xanthos, does not have a full set of approved pedigree as his dam has unregistered parentage.

Mares with insufficient or missing pedigree can be approved to the mare book if they are of the desired type and have the paces and conformation considered correct and desirable for their particular type, or are approved and registered into an accepted studbook - which CAN for example mean Appaloosas of the required type can produce Knabstrupper foals which will be fully registerable and branded.

The only ban is on greys, no foals by any grey stallion or out of any grey mare may be registered as Knabstruppers !

It would go too far to explain the details of all the different mare books, any specific questions, just ask !

Stallions are entered into one of two books, and it is extremely important to understand the distinction between the two.

We have "Hengstbuch I" and "Hengstbuch II" (stallion book One and Stallion book Two)

Any stallion entered into a Knabstrupper section Hengstbuch I is fully approved for breeding and has been through the whole approval and grading process. This means his offspring are automatically eligible for full papers and brand and studbook entry (out of properly acceptable mares of course) in any Knabstrupper registry.

ALL other male entire Knabstrupper horses are entered into Hengstbuch II - which means it means nothing other than that the stallion is a Knabstrupper and an entire. This book includes stallions who have never been presented for approval (which isn't necessarily a sign of lacking quality) or stallions that have failed their approvals or were for other reasons unacceptable to the breed comissions. This means their foals can still get papers, but not of the same "status" - and any future plans to have such a foal approved for breeding would have to be made with possible difficulties in mind.

Please ask if you are not sure. It is irrelevant in the case of a gelding, not of enourmous importance in the case of a mare, but a colt by a Hengstbook II stallion would need careful consideration as his chances of attaining fully approved breeding status would be somewhat curtailed at least.

We will ALWAYS advise on such matters, so any prospective buyer knows and understands what it says on their prospective new horse's papers

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