MARE´S BLOODLINES

In Trakehner breeding, tribute is paid to the importance and origin of maternal descent with a special tradition: the name of the horse always starts with the same letter as the mother's name. This ritual has existed since the days of Trakehnen and East Prussia. Apart from Trakehners, the only other breeds where names are chosen in accordance with that systematic are thoroughbreds and Arabians, where great value is attached to the mare's bloodline as an esteemed source of spirit and body. A family consists of a minimum of three breeding horses with direct family ties. As regards systematisation of mares' families, the Bobinski index has been in use since 1998. This method has been tried and tested in English thoroughbred breeding and differentiates between bloodline mare, foundation mare and line foundress. The bloodline mare is the oldest, that is to say, first, mare of a given bloodline that is known by name and registered in the Stud Books. The founder mare is a bloodline mare's female offspring from the same family who has founded a new family dynasty after the Second World War. Within this family dynasty, so-called line foundresses exist, who, thanks to their outstanding hereditary characteristics, have developed a separate family branch.


Because of the different origins of bloodline mares, it was necessary to divide mare families into five different groups:

Trakehner families (T-families)
East Prussian families (O (for the German Ostpreußen) - families)
Other families (S (for the German sonstige) - families)
English thoroughbred-families (E-families)
Arabian families (A-families)

Taking the above-mentioned definition as a basis, a new family key for Trakehner breeding was developed, in analogy to the Bobinski index. The family key consists of several parts and is composed of letters and numbers. The major advantage is that new families can be added at any time and that this key also allows for family relations in international Trakehner breeding to be represented.

Every family key starts wit a letter. The letters T (Trakehnen), O (East Prussia), S (Others), E (English thoroughbred) and A (Arabian) indicate family group and origin of the bloodline mare. Within these letter groups, bloodline mares are ranked in line with their age, i.e. the oldest identified bloodline mare in each letter group will be registered as number 1, with the other mares numbered consecutively in line with decreasing dates of birth. An example from the East Prussian ( or O-) family would be bloodline mare Bertha, born in 1894, who bears the identification code O18, as she ranks 18th in the age sequence of bloodline mares from East Prussia. By definition, every bloodline mare has at least one foundation mare, although having more than one foundation mare is no exception. Taking Bertha, who originated from the Dohna-Schlobitten Stud, as an example, the foundation mares would be Rita - a broodmare at Andreas Igor-Meyerhoeffer's Hunnesrück stud - and Bea, owned by the Count of Dohna-Schlobitten, with her well-known family. In order to - again - represent the age sequence, Rita, being the elder of the two mares, is identified as O18A, while Bea's identification code is O18B.

Bea's family belongs to the most widely ramified East Prussian families in Western Germany, which was divided into several line foundresses as a result: Blitzlicht (O18B1), born in 1952, a particularly successful broodmare at Haus Baumgart in Verden, Betty (O18B2), born in 1955, of the no longer existing Böttcher stable in Isernhagen, and lastly Bambina (O18B4), born in 1959, also a broodmare at Benno Baumgart in Verden.

Many mares have the name of the breeder or owner as well as a breeding site or country added to their name. In most cases, these additional data were retained. For some mares, the code was supplemented by additional data, for example „Mack-Althof Ragnit“.