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Information provided courtesy of The Oldenburg Registry North America

OLDENBURG

The Oldenburg horse in Germany is bred in the far northern part of Germany, in the relatively small breeding area of the former kingdom of Oldenburg. The Oldenburg horse belongs to one of Europe's oldest warmblood breeds. The development of the Oldenburg horse was attributed to the work of Herzog Anton Günther von Oldenburg. He developed the breed in the 16th century, using mares of the Frisian breed as well as selected stallions from Spain and Italy. His purpose was to develop a grand coach horse. From the 16th through the 18th centuries Oldenburg horses were mainly bred on private sovereign stud farms and owned by Europe's nobility for use as elegant carriage horse.

In the 20th century, with the introduction of modern transportation, the demand for elegant carriage horses dropped. In the early 1960's the German Oldenburg breeding associations made the decision to produce a modern riding horse and embarked on an extensive crossbreeding program. The purpose of the program and the new breeding goal was to produce an outstanding sport horse. Unlike other breeds in Germany where the breeding programs were completely under Government direction at that time, the Oldenburg breeding has been, since the 1600's, in the hand of private breeders and stallion owners.

Today the German Oldenburger Verband with nearly 8000 registered mares is one of the large breeding associations in Germany (Hanover has approx. 15.000 mares, Westphalia approx. 10.000). Half of these Oldenburg registered mares live in the Oldenburg area in the Northwest of Lower Saxony. Oldenburg never had a state stud or stallions owned by the association. Everything was always based on private stallion owners and the competition between them is probably one secret of the great success of the Oldenburg breed.

Another important aspect for Oldenburg's success is the breeding philosophy: Take the best stallions and mares which can be found and include them into the breed. At a first step of the new breeding program Oldenburg mares were bred to top European thoroughbred stallions for refinement. Later on the resulting mares were bred to Europe's finest riding horse bloodlines as Trakehner, Anglo-Normans and Anglo-Arabs but also Hanoverians, Holsteiner and Westphalian and Dutch stallions. The result is that the Oldenburg sport horse is nowadays one of the most modern and successful riding horse of the world.

The information contained on this page is provided courtesy of The Oldenburg Registry North America.