Dülmen horse
| Dülmen horse | |
|---|---|
Dülmen horses in the Merfelder Bruch |
|
| Important data | |
| Origin: | Germany |
| Main breeding area: | Germany |
| Distribution: | Germany |
| Stick measure : | 125-135 cm |
| Colors : | mostly duns in all variations, badges are not welcome |
| Main application area: | Riding, driving, distance |
The Dülmen horse , also Dülmen wild horse , is a pony breed that lives mainly in Dülmen in Westphalia in the Merfelder Bruch , a nature reserve of around 350 hectares. In the fenced-in area, also known as the wild horse track , around 300 to 400 horses live largely unaffected by humans. Horses living outside the site are not referred to as Dülmen wild horses , but as Dülmen horses . The horses, which are one of the oldest German horse breeds and were originally called Dülmener Brücher , have been on the GEH's Red List of Endangered Livestock Breeds since February 1994 and are classified in hazard category I, i.e. as extremely endangered. The Dülmen horse was declared "Endangered Livestock Breed of the Year" 2014 by the Society for the Preservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Breeds (GEH).
From a biological point of view, the Dülmen wild horse is not a wild horse . The naming refers to the semi-wild way of life.
Background information on horse evaluation and breeding can be found under: Exterior , interior and horse breeding .
Exterior
The Dülmen wild horse is an original-looking horse breed, mostly brown or gray-hued in color, which has the eel line typical of wild horses from the mane to the tail. There are pinks in all shades, but occasionally other colors apart from mold. Foxes are very rare. Due to the previous breeding, however, gray dun and brown dun animals with an eel line and rarely a shoulder cross dominate . There may be dark stripes on the legs that are reminiscent of a zebra. The so-called zebra crossings are also wild drawings, they also often appear in fjord horses and other black horse breeds. White badges are undesirable.
The height of the Dülmen horse is between 125 and 135 cm, the body is rectangular with little pronounced withers and the shoulder is sloping. The neck should not be too long and slightly curved, although there may be a slight lower neck. The head with a broad forehead is medium in size, the ears are small and the bridge of the nose is straight or slightly concave. The hindquarters are muscular and well developed, the hooves should be as small, hard and rounded as possible and the pasterns should not be too pronounced. The people of Dülmen and their descendants have pronounced hangings on their fetters. Mane and tail hair is also very pronounced.
interior
The animals are considered to be extremely robust and resilient, good-natured, friendly and, with appropriate treatment, extremely capable of learning. They are very frugal and good feed converters.
Breeding history
The first written mention of the Dülmen horses comes from the year 1316 , when Herrman de Merfeld and Johannes de Lette secured the right to hunt, fish and wild horses.
The progressive agricultural intensification of previously rarely used areas in the 19th century , for example by draining fens and floodplains, restricted the habitat for wild horses more and more. Probably the Dülmen horses would not have been preserved if Alfred von Croÿ had not had twenty wild horses caught in 1847 and taken care of their preservation on the 132 acres (about 33 hectares) area of the wild horse track in the Merfelder Bruch. In addition, there was the entire remaining stock of 200 Emscherbruch horses, which were caught after the dissolution of the local wilderness along the Emscher between Waltrop and Bottrop and brought to Dülmen. The rapid increase in the number of horses gradually expanded the area to its current level of around 350 hectares.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Dülmen horses were less uniform and came in different colors and with different markings. In order to minimize the consequences of possible inbreeding with this originally very small population and with the intention of preserving the breed as a small horse breed according to the breeding goal, the inbreeding of other pony breeds was started. Initially, Welsh ponies were used , later ponies from Mongolia and Exmoor as well as Hutsuls and, especially from 1957, Polish Koniks . Different colors were still common in the late 1960s. White markings also appeared occasionally. Since only gray-colored stallions have been crossed since 1984, this color has increased significantly in the population.
Way of life and attitude
The Dülmen horses live - largely unaffected by humans - relatively freely and all year round in the Merfelder Bruch. Only in severe winters are they additionally provided with feed made from hay, straw and possibly grass silage.
The breeding is strictly regulated in order to keep this breed as unchanged and stable as possible. This includes that on the last Saturday in May each year, the young stallions are caught by hand at a well-attended event and auctioned off. The stallions only live with the herd from May to September to control the foals' birth dates. The herd itself is divided into family groups consisting of related mares and their foals, each led by a lead mare.
Outside of the wild, Dülmener are valued as diverse small horses, whereby the use as riding horse for children predominates. They can live in open stalls all year round and do not need valuable grazing land. While the small horses were often used underground as pit ponies in the past centuries , the people of Dülmen are now popular as riding and family horses .
Since the Dülmener live protected from all potential predators, i.e. old and weak animals are not killed by hunters, the most common cause of death is starvation, because old animals can hardly eat any more due to their heavily worn teeth.
Trivia
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A photo of a Dülmen mare with her foal, which the photographer Peter Thomann took rather accidentally during his student days on the Wildpferdebahn in 1963, was awarded the World Press Photo Award in 1964 ( Features category and audience award). It shows a light-colored foal at its mother's side, which is dark behind him. In 1996, the picture was listed as the most copied photograph in the world in the Guinness Book of Records . Until 2001, the photo was the model for depicting two stylized horses on the license plates of the US state of Kentucky .
See also
literature
- Ursula Bruns : The wild horses of Dülmen. 1 year observations in the wild. With photos by Karl-Heinz Klubescheidt. Hörnemann, Bielefeld 1990, ISBN 3-87384-157-6 .
- Cordula Marx, Agnes Sternschulte (ed.): "... so free, so strong ..." Westphalian wild horses (= writings of the Westphalian Open Air Museum Detmold - State Museum for Folklore. Vol. 21). Klartext, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-082-9 .
- Erik Potthoff, Dietmar Rabich: Dülmen - yesterday and today . 1st edition. Laumann-Verlag, Dülmen 2013, ISBN 978-3-89960-397-2 , Umland, Wildpferde, p. 246 f .
Web links
- Duke of Croÿ'sche administration: wild horses in the Merfelder Bruch
- Homepage: Interest group of the Dülmener Wildpferdes Germany eV
- Photo series: Wildpferdefang Dülmen from 1958
- Philipp Scholz: Westphalia regional: wild horses in the Merfelder Bruch (Westphalia regional, regional association Westphalia-Lippe)
- City of Dülmen: wild horses in the Merfelder Bruch
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Viehweger : Der Emscherbrücher Dickkopp , accessed on June 12, 2017
- ↑ ders .: Walk in the oak forest ...: Mansions in the Emscherland , Herne: Society for local history Wanne-Eickel, 2001
- ↑ Margret Bunzel-Drüke, Carsten Böhm, Peter Finck, Gerd Kämmer, Rainer Luick, Edgar Reisinger, Uwe Riecken, Johannes Riedl, Matthias Scharf, Olaf Zimball: "Wilde Weiden". Practical guide for year-round grazing in nature conservation and landscape development. 2nd Edition. Working group for biological environmental protection in the Soest district, Bad Sassendorf-Lohne 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-024385-1 .
- ↑ Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv: Die Zeit unter der Lupe 1010/1969 , 03.06.1969, 3:58 - 5:25, accessed on June 21, 2017
- ↑ Uta Over: My horse is getting old. Müller Rüschlikon, Cham 1996, ISBN 3-275-01194-4 .
- ↑ PageWizz: Horse picture holds Guinness record: The most frequently copied photography in the world
- ^ Homepage of Peter Thomann: History of a photo
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