Foundation Sire: Absatz

We're starting a new feature for Warmblood Stallions of North America: Foundation Fridays! Each Friday we will be featuring a foundation sire - one who has been influential in the development of warmblood breeds. It's something we did for years in the WSNA print magazine. As with most of those articles, we pull from the incredible archive of The Horse Magazine, published by Chris Hector of Australia. Thank you, Chris, for permission to draw on your expertise!

Absatz

1960 166 cm

Breeder: Wilhelm Brunkhorst

Abglanz’s influence in Hanover was most felt through his son Absatz, who was out of the Hanoverian mare Landmoor, who on her sire’s side traces to the famous English Thoroughbred, Perfectionist xx, and on her dam’s side from the Shagya stallion Shagya XVII-12, who came to Trakehnen in 1925. Absatz was the sire of stallions such as Argentan, Arsenik, Akzent I and II, Admiral I and II, Aktuell and Aderla. All told, Absatz sired 40 Approved sons, 605 competition horses and 142 Verden auction horses.

Thanks to the magic of frozen semen, he continued to sire foals long after his death, and it is rumored that a vintage cache of Absatz semen is still "cellared" at Celle. Absatz’s modern influence is perhaps most strongly felt through Weltmeyer, who is out of Anka by Absatz.

When asked in an interview in 2000 about the most influential stallions in his time at Celle – which stretches from 1973 to 1979 as assistant to Dr. von Stenglin, and from 1979 to 2007 as the director of the stud – Dr Burchard Bade paid tribute to the refugees from the East:

“We must say that there has been a very big influence of the Trakehner horses. That, and the selection of our broodmares. Our broodmares went from 34,000 in 1947, to 1960 when we had 4,000 broodmares. That is a big opportunity for selection, to get rid of the old types. And during that time we had the very good chance to use the Trakehner stallion Abglanz and his son, Absatz, and the grandsons, and great-grandsons. They had a very big influence on the ‘type’ of the Hanoverian horse, and in riding quality as well – although in Hanover, I think we had good quality in riding horses before then, but to better the type, the Trakehner horses were very important. In Celle in 1949, there arrived 39 Trakehnen stallions from eastern Prussia.”

To read this article as it was published on The Horse Magazine website - along with full pedigree of Absatz, click here. The publisher and creator of this incredible resource, Christopher Hector, is the author of The Making of the Warmblood Horse.

There are several stallion descendants of Absatz in North America. Click on the following links to read about each of the ones on WarmbloodStallionsNA.com:

Allerbester

Apiro

ES Donavan

Rosall

Shine (Alesi)