Knabstrupper USA

Take a look at these foals, all of them are by Ecuador Skødstrup out of various warmblood mares.

CCs Gandalf, Ecuador Skrødstrup /Antique (Hann by Antibes)

Gandalf born in 2007 currently lives in Montana with Andria Manecke.

Then in 2009 we had CCS Theoden by Ecuador Skrødstrup out of Anatasia Bonita (Rosie) an Oldenburg by Rosenthau.

Theoden was the Best in Show at his inspection in 2009, he is currently owned by Maureane Hoffman of Durham NC.

Then in 2010 we get

Effet de Neige by Ecuador out of a SWANA registered mare named BeeBe by Briar.

Owner/Breeder: Nicole Davison.

If you can breed a foal of this quality here in the USA, just by leasing or borrowing a good quality warmblood mare and using frozen semen from Ecuador,(or one of the other FS stallions we have available here), why on earth would someone wanting to breed sport type Knabstruppers be doing anything else.
Why use Appaloosa or Draft cross mares, and have all the angst of not having a main stud book foal, when you could so easily be producing superior quality riding horses, with good color and eligible for main stud book. With the current recession there are plenty of good quality warmblood mares available for lease or at very reasonable prices, why continue breeding with undesirable mares

It’s understandable why in the past this was done. At the beginning there was only one stallion, Apollon, who was a leopard spot. Liz Hall who brought him in, did the right thing, she bred him to good quality warmblood mares, but the problem is that he had a lot of solid colored babies. Particularly out of solid colored warmblood mares. So to counteract that people bred him to appaloosa mares to get the color genes.
The KNN (mother registry of the Knabstrupper) heard about this and objected, they did not want Apploosa genes mixed in, so they said no Appaloosa mares were allowed. There was some bad feeling about this, as some folks (including me) had invested in Appaloosa mares in order to start a breeding program. The KNN have since compromised and established an Appendix registry for horses by Knabstrupper stallions out of undesirable mares. Horses with one registered and approved Knabstrupper parent can be inspected and scored, and if they score high enough they can be accepted into this Appendix registry. (But they do have to be inspected and scored first). The offspring of these appendix horses by approved sires can also be registered as Knabstuppers and after 3 generations of approved breeding the progeny can be put into the main stud book.

Now that we understand more about the inheritance of color the high percentage of solid offspring is also understandable. The nose-to-toes leopard color is the product of not one but two (or more) genes, one of which, LP has to be the heterozygote (LP/lp) and other(s) PATN1 and PATN(2-5) can be either homozygote or heterozygote.

The analogy that Sheila Archer uses is the PATN genes are like a white cat in the dark, the LP gene is the flashlight that allows you to see the white cat. If you have a white cat but no flashlight, you can’t see the cat. If you have a flashlight but no cat then you still can’t see the cat, you have to have both present.
Furthermore, the white cat can be large (PATN1) and give you nose-to-toes color, or it can be small (PATN2-5) and give you varying degrees of color from a small patchy blanket to a large blanket looking almost like a full PATN1 leopard. If the horse has the homozygote LP/LP then it is ‘white born’ and you can’t tell what kind of ‘cat’ it has. If it has lp/lp then it is solid colored (no flashlight) and you still can’t tell what kind of cat it has BUT if you breed the solid offpring of two leopards (likely to have inherited PATN since both parents have it) to a Few Spot ( LP/LP) then you will get LP/lp (enough flashlight but not too much) and then the PATN genes can be seen.

Thus we know that Apollon was LP/lp (since he was leopard spotted) and it appears that he carries PATN1/patn1 since 50% of his offspring did not inherit PATN1. This I know because I have a daughter of Apollon from a solid (lp/lp) mare, who is LP/lp but who does not have PATN1, as in, she shows LP characteristics but no spots. Hence Apollon was only going to throw LP 50% of the time and PATN1 50% of the time and the chances of getting LP and PATN1 in the same offspring was 50% of 50% or 25%, which is pretty much what he threw out of solid colored mares.

So what we needed was LP/LP PATN1/PATN1 stallions around to breed those Apollon daughters to, to get spotted foals. At first there weren’t any, so people used mares with LP/PATN in them to maximize the chances. But that has changed now, there are now 5 few spot/white born stallions available in the USA and shortly there will be a 6th, so the need for using mares of Appaloosa parentage in order to get the LP /PATN genes is no longer a valid argument. Of these 5 few spot stallions, at least 2 of which appear to have PATN1/PATN1 ( high number of full leopard foals out of solid mares). By using one of these several FS stallions we now have available on good quality warmblood mares we can get the spotting pattern as well as good movement and conformation.
Once you have that cross, any daughters can be bred back to a leopard spotted stallion, of which there are now several, and thus we can keep the quality without losing the white color.
For the record the FS (LP/LP) stallions we have available here are:

Ecuador Skrødstrup (may well be PATN1 homozygous as well).
Ravaldi (may also be PATN1 as well PATN2-5)
Pegasus (unclear about his PATN status at this point but he is certainly heterozygous for it).
Halifax Middelsom (no foals yet so to early to tell).
Hussar of Independance (also unclear with regard to PATN)

Xhogun Middelsom (is for sure heterozygous for PATN1 but only 1 foal here so far), but very limited semen availability.

Yours
Melyni

Born to Linda; Sire; Apollon, is CCS Lobelia, a chestnut filly.

AS big and stout a filly as anyone could wish for.

MIss Lobelia, came a few days late, but in good form. However she forgot her spots. But she is a lovely mover and a quick learner. Even without any wild colors she is going to be a great asset to the Knabstrupper breed since she will no doubt be as nice a riding horse as her Dam.
MIss Lobelia’s older sister Silinde is growing like a weed, she is almost as big the warmblood fillies who are a year older, so if Lobelia follows in her sisters footsteps she will also be a big solid girl.

That’s all our foals for 2010 folks, we have quite the trio, Raina, Legolas and Lobelia. We would love it if you came to see them and any of our other Knabstruppers.

We have quite the selection these days. We love to show our Knabstrupper babies to people so please do come and see them.

Hope everyone is well.
Melyni

Congratulations to Pat and Diane,
Their warmblood mare Nadia has had a really lovely filly by Pegasus. Named Patriot, this one is quite the looker. Her coloring is reminiscent of Cita Normarks. She is going to be very attractive.
Well done Nadia! lets hope Pat and Diane can now get some sleep.

Also in the news but sadly no picture, is Halifax Middelsom’s first venture into the world of show jumping.
He and Cita Normark went to the House Mountain Show at the VHC, and did the baby jumpers. Halifax was quite amazed at all the activity, he was a bit distracted in his first round and pulled a rail, but in his second class he got idea and focused in on his job and jumped a beautiful stylish clear round.

Miss Cita was of course excellent, she jumped around nicely but was a bit put off by the bright flashing numbers on the timer and the buzzer, snd so didn’t have the confidence to really gallop on. But it was a fun outing.
Congrats to Halifax and April on their first time out over fences.

SO we have finally recovered from the Horse World Expo in PA. We took the lovely Cita and X-man (Xavoy) as representatives of the Knabstrupper breed.  The lovely Cita was, of course, a fantastic hit, with so many people falling for her elegant good looks, She posed for many many pics with little girls (and few bigger ones)!

X-man was amazingly well behaved and managed not to bite anyone, though he lipped a few!   In the arena Cita was a bit nervous at first, but settled down to put on a really good show. X was pretty good and did most everything Hilery asked for though in his own inimitable style, of course.

Matt McLaughlin used both horses in his Teaching Piaffe and Passage demo, with Cita showing her talent for piaffe, by ‘getting it’ right from the get go.  Xavoy  did excellently as well, showing the intermediate stage of training.

In the booth we soon found out that it was essential to have a horse in the stall at all times. And people loved to see them.

Cita in the Knabstrupper booth

Ena came all the way from Denmark to help us in the booth and a fantastic support she was.  We were crazy busy, the first two days were slowish, but the Saturday was unbelievable. By 4 pm we were out of everything, all the brochures, all business cards, and most of the flyers.

Ena had brought from Denmark a selection of pictures of Knabstruppers from the past, a wonderful historical display. Much though I begged, she would not leave me with them, theough she did promise to get copies of some of them for me.  It was really neat seeing all these old pics of Knabstruppers from the past.

Ena arranged the booth space we had so that one wall was Knabstruppers in the past- old historical pictures, and one wall was Knabstruppers of the present- current horses competing and in training. On the 3rd wall was  Knabstruppers of the future- Pics of youngsters and of stallions available for breeding.

It was a very long and exhausting 4 days.  Many many thanks to April Shultz and Hilery Williams, who looked after the horses, and rode them in the breed demos.  Thanks to Matt McLaughlin who helped April and Hilery during the riding demos and in the warm ups. Also to Ena for her tireless explanations of “Just what was a Knabstrupper”.  Having her there added so much to the level of information, she has an encylopedic knowledge of the breed and it’s past.

We had a great time, and I think we introduced Knabstruppers to a lot of people.

MW

Miss Cita has come home from Florida!  Yes, our little beauty queen is no longer cruising around in the land of the hunters.  She had been with Mark and Michelle Stopford for about a year and she has done really well, being the Knabstrupper ambassador to the world of show hunters. But time and money ran out, and so we brought her home.

She looks fantastic, Mark and Michelle have taken superb care of her.  Fat, slick and shiny, poor girl she came home from the 60 degrees of Florida right into one of the worst winters we have ever had in Virginia. Snow, Ice and below freezing temps!   But being a Knabbie Miss Cita has adapted fast.

I had forgotten just how lovely she is, so light on her feet and so compliant and willing. She and April look so in harmony together.    She hasn’t forgotten any of her dressage training either, she has come back better if anything. Stronger, more relaxed and forward. Her changes are light, even and  through.

So next year we will show her in dressage again, what level remains to be seen.

Once we get some better weather I can take pictures or even a video, but in the mean time here’s one from when she showed with Mark last winter in Ocala.

Mark and Cita at the HITS showgrounds in Ocala in Jan 2009.

My only regret about the whole Hunter exercise is that due to her being in Florida in Oct, she missed the KNN visit and a chance to do her ridden test. But no biggie, she’s home now and we can do it if they come this Fall or next Fall.

If you are planning on going to the Horse World Expo, Feb 24-26th in Harrisburg PA, you will have a chance to see her. I plan to take her along to show off at the Expo.  If you are there come by and say Hi!

MW

Just for grins and giggles here’s Miss Cita when I showed her in 2007/8

Melyni and Cita Normark at the BLMs in 2007