Royal Württemberg Stud in Weil
The Royal private stud Weil (1817- 1932 ) was the first stud farm with a herd of pure-bred Arabs outside of the Orient and was founded by King William I founded by Württemberg.
Breeding goal
The initial breeding of Crown Prince Wilhelm (from 1816 King Wilhelm I) continued without a specific breeding goal until around 1816. It was only his own experience in various campaigns in which Wilhelm rode Arabian horses that convinced him of the properties of the desert Arabs of the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula and made him the breeding goal of riding and light carriage horses based on oriental blood, which the desert Arabs in size and Should exceed bone strength without neglecting the other, positive characteristics such as motivation, endurance, regenerative ability, dryness and beauty.
The concept was supplemented at an early stage to the effect that pure breeding is essential to achieve this goal .
Because under Wilhelm I.
As early as 1810, Crown Prince Wilhelm founded a stud at the Crown Prince's summer residence in Scharnhausen, with a base of five oriental mares. The stock quickly increased to 19 mares in 1816, which is why the stud was expanded to include the Kleinhohenheim and Weil domains on May 29, 1817 . The Weil and Scharnhausen locations were only separated from each other by a street, whereas Kleinhohenheim was several kilometers away.
The purpose of the individual locations, which later changed several times, was originally set up as follows:
| Location | surface | Intended use |
|---|---|---|
| Scharnhausen | 107.2 ha | Rearing of mares and fillies |
| Because | 180 ha | Rearing of mares and filly foals During the slaughtering period, stallions are shown |
| Kleinhohenheim | 113.7 ha | Raising the colts |
Baron Philipp Albrecht von Gemmingen , who held this position from 1817 to 1852, was named as head of the stud with the title of stud director .
When Weil was founded, only six mares were taken over from the original breeding base in Scharnhausen, and they were soon discarded. The reason for this is a quote from Julius Freiherr von Hügel, the first vice head stable master and stable master von Weil:
- "Since the king had tried the Arabian horse in the campaigns and got to know its extraordinary performance and properties, he made every effort to create a tribe of the noblest races of the Orient."
The first imports, which were decisive for the development of the breed, were bought by Baron von Fechting, who had good contacts in Damascus , whom he had in his service. Von Fechting, himself a breeder of Arab horses with a stud in Hungary on the Styrian border, is known as a great Arab connoisseur .
These first imports of the noblest descent are listed below:
| Surname | colour | Year of birth | Year of purchase |
|---|---|---|---|
| emir | Dark brown | 1814 | |
| Murana I | Mould | 1808 | 1816 |
| Bairaktar | Mould | 1813 | 1817 |
| Tajar | Golden brown | 1817 |
By marrying King Wilhelm with the Russian Grand Duchess Katharina Pawlovna , he succeeded in getting in touch with the Polish Count Waclaw Rzewusky through her mediation . Count Rzewusky, who himself ran an Arab stud in eastern Galicia , was persuaded to buy horses for Weil on one of his next trips to the Orient . Count Rzewusky began his journey to Arabia via Greece and Turkey in 1817 . He fought there in the ranks of Mehemed Ali against the Wahhabis and even achieved the title of an emir and the nickname Tage el Taher (Arabic: palm of victory). In the course of the fighting he crossed large parts of Arabia and acquired a large number of desert Arabs - mostly as spoils of war. Two years after his departure, in 1819, Rzewusky returned to his Polish homeland. From his acquisitions in Arabia he delivered eight stallions, ten mares and two fillies to Weil, which were handed over to von Hügel in Livorno . The remaining horses of the war booty - one speaks of a total of 89 stallions and 33 mares - were brought via Marseille to Slavuta , the ancestral home of the Rzewuskys. In the history of horse transport from Arabia to Europe , this is probably the largest batch that has taken place up to then.
In 1824 all Arab mother mares were brought to Scharnhausen after they had had good experiences with the acclimatization of the original Arabs there.
In addition to the pure-bred Arabs, Arab half-bloods were also bred. Due to the large number of original Arabian stallions, which were made through the tireless purchases of King Wilhelm, who spared no expense for this, there were enough stallions available.
King Wilhelm's original plan to improve the size and bone strength of the desert Arab without neglecting the other properties seemed to work, as there was already a tendency in this direction in the first generation of the home-bred population. The top sires of this era were the stallion Bairaktar OA (= original Arab), who mated for Weil from 1817 to 1838 , the stallion Goumousch-Bournou OA , who held office from 1819 to 1824 and the Bairaktar son Amurath out of Saady III , born in 1829 , who was in service at the stud from 1833 to 1857 . The sons of Amurath (1829) are the main sires of the pure breed in the next generation.
On Weil mainly horses of the Saqlawi type and preferably those of the Saqlawi-Jidran family (also Djedran or Gidran) were used, as these were classified as the most noble. But other families were also used, such as As of 1847 acquired by Baron Hill in Galicia gray stallion Dzelaby OA , who belonged to the family Koheil and formerly owned by the Pasha of Medina was.
In 1852 Freiherr von Hügel replaced Philipp Freiherr von Gemmingen, who had been in office until then, as the stud manager. During his tenure, von Gemmingen ensured an excellent breeding base, he carried out husbandry and feeding experiments and realized that Scharnhausen offered better pastures and rearing conditions for the Arab mares. He thus created a solid foundation for further expansion of the breed.
After the inventory increased through further purchases, u. a. also by Freiherr von Hügel personally - who was sent to Egypt by King Wilhelm after the death of the Egyptian viceroy El Hami Pascha in order to acquire good horses from the remaining stocks of the most important stud in Egypt at an auction. a. transferred the stallion Gadir OA to Weil - the size and bone strength of the breeding animals also increased, which was mainly due to the careful selection of the breeding animals, but also to the better feeding and keeping conditions compared to the area of origin.
The relevant successes in the establishment and expansion of breeding under King Wilhelm I are essentially due to the constant efforts to refresh the breeding material again and again without fear of costs with original imports and to adhere to the principle of pure blood breeding. Up to the death of Wilhelm I ( 1864 ) around 45 stallions and 40 mares were introduced. Not all were suitable for use in pure blood breeding and were therefore used in the royal stables for half blood breeding. After the death of Wilhelm I, the stud passed to his son King Karl .
Because under Karl von Württemberg
The previous strategy of hamlet breeding, which was pursued for half a century under Wilhelm I, had to undergo a reform under King Karl. A change in taste and the changing need for horses for cultivation led to a negative attitude towards light and noble horses. In 1873 , the stud management was therefore forced to downsize the stud and to part with the Kleinhohenheim domain, the previous colt rearing business. The choice for Kleinhohenheim was favored by the remote location of the domain from the remaining parts of the stud and the recurring losses there due to Borna disease . The lack of space caused by the closure of Kleinhohenheim led to the first reduction in the herd of mares, which was then transferred from Scharnhausen to Weil.
Breeding successes were achieved during this time and a. with the gray stallion Amurath 1881 , who was bred to Bairaktar and who later received the honorable surname Amurath Weil due to the recognition of his breeding achievements in Eastern Europe .
After years of inbreeding, blood was refreshed for the first time in 1876 by the two original Arab stallions Djerid and Sheik , who came to Weil as a gift from Sever Pascha from his stud in Egypt. Djerid left very good mares on Weil, whereas Sheik could not establish himself in breeding.
In the second half of the 19th century , Weil had the reputation of being the most important Arabian stud on the continent, which was also reflected in the sale of breeding products, which were often sold as foals.
1891 was followed by King William II. To the throne and thus took over the stud conducted by Weil.
Because under Wilhelm II.
Once again, the sale of Arabian pure-bred horses became more difficult as the market demand demanded a horse of caliber and size. This and the preference of the new stud owner for the English thoroughbred led to a further reduction in the stocks of Arabian thoroughbreds.
The breeding principle of only breeding with original Arabs or self-bred stallions was broken for the first time in 1914 after the stud's almost one hundred year history . With the brown stallion Dardziling , bred in Slavuta , who came to Weil in exchange for the brown stallion Sonntag (born 1908 ) in 1913 from the Gudvallen State Stud , foreign blood was introduced for the first time to refresh blood. Mr. von Pentz, the son of the then Land Oberstallmeister von Weil, commented on this as follows:
- “Dardziling was inherited thin, narrow and flat in Weil, and also gave bad ankles and thus only damaged them. ... "
Since Dardziling was not a pureblood oriental, his use in Asil breeding seriously endangered them. Due to ignorance, this step caused severe damage to the pure blood breeding in Weil in just a few years.
In the course of the First World War , the thoroughbred Arabs from Weil demonstrated their qualities in toughness, perseverance and loyalty as service horses. Although they had grown up without breathing desert air for generations , they had not lost the praised qualities of the original Arab. Some of them, e.g. B. Soldateska ( 1911 ) came back to Weil after completing their service and proved to be good and fertile broodmares. The stallion Dynamit (1902), which was bred in Weil and was a gift from King Wilhelm II to his grandson, Prince Hermann zu Wied, was again employed as the main stallion in Weil from 1918 to 1930 after he returned from the Russian campaign under Prince zu Wied. The stallion died of old age at the age of 33 in 1935 and was buried with a memorial stone in the castle gardens of Wied.
Because under Pauline Fürstin zu Wied
With the death of King Wilhelm II in 1921 , the property of the stud passed to the new head of the House of Württemberg, Duke Albrecht. To secure the future of the hamlet of horse breeding, however, the remaining domains Weil and Scharnhausen were leased to the Princess zu Wied family for twelve years with the aim of continuing royal breeding.
Pauline zu Wied was a great lover of the Arabian horse and dedicated herself to this task with great commitment and with the use of large funds. Even in times of economic hardship, thanks to her commitment, Weil found the courage to continue promoting Arabian pure-blood breeding. Although this courage was made possible by high demand and the resulting exports of Weiler horses - to a greater extent and a. for Polish studs - rewarded, but large parts of the Scharnhausen domain had to be given up to keep the stud.
The princess again stuck to the original breeding goal and arranged for the acquisition by exchanging or buying original Arabs and their offspring z. B. from the Hungarian national stud Bábolna or the Egyptian stud Manial . This enabled her to win such well-known sires for Weil as the stallions Kohailan IV and Jasir .
She became aware of the latter through a photograph in a publication by the well-known Arab expert Carl Raswan . In 1929 she commissioned Raswan with the acquisition of Jasir for the stud in Weil, which he succeeded in 1930 after months of negotiations and an audience with the Egyptian king . Jasir was an elite Arab, bred from the classic Kohailan and Saqlavi tribes and had a strong influence on the offspring in Weil.
As a result of the global economic crisis , Princess Pauline was forced to give up the stud in 1932. By testamentary disposition of the great-grandfather of the princess, the stud founder William I, said that the stud should never be dissolved, transferred Princess Pauline the existence of the Arab thoroughbreds in the country Wuerttemberg, where the horses to the Marbach stud were transferred to the Swabian Alb .
The contract between Princess Pauline and the State of Württemberg stipulated that the animals would remain the property of the Princess and that she would receive half of the proceeds if direct descendants of the transferred horses were sold.
The following horses left the stud farm in Weil on November 3, 1932, thus ending the history of the royal stud in Weil, but not the pure breeding of Arabian thoroughbreds, which was continued in Marbach from then on:
| gender | Surname | colour | Year of birth | origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stallions | Yes, sir | Mould | 1925 | Manial Stud, Egypt, Koheilan Jellabi family |
| Schaseman | brown | 1927 | Because, from Koheilan IV from the Sardoina | |
| Kurd | Mould | 1929 | Because, from dynamite from the Carmen | |
| Mares | Soldateska | Mould | 1911 | Because, from Souakim OA from Sylphide I |
| Carmen | brown | 1915 | Because, from dardziling from the sardine | |
| Doris | Mould | 1916 | Because, from dardziling from the sardine | |
| Sardoina | brown | 1923 | Because, from Demir Kaja from the sardine | |
| Caesarea | brown | 1927 | Because, from Koheilan IV from Carmen | |
| Water lilies | Mould | 1927 | Because, from Koheilan IV from the sardine | |
| Dinarsad | Mould | 1928 | Because, from dynamite from Doris | |
| Subeida | Mould | 1928 | Because, from Demir Kaja from Soldateska | |
| foal | Khasa | Mould | 1930 | Because, from dynamite from the Carmen |
| Glaucopis | Mould | 1931 | Because, from dynamite from Doris | |
| Dongola | Mould | 1931 | Because, from Jasir OA from Doris | |
| Ceska | Mould | 1932 | Because, from Jasir OA from Caesarea | |
| As well as a mare and a colt of Arabian breed (not asil). | ||||
Résumé
Shortly before the stud's dissolution in 1932, Seydel remarked:
- "It is immediately noticeable that the animals are relatively tall."
Seydel asserted on his measurements an average withers of 157 cm Height tight and stressed that it was noticeable in as large extent, the animals would have preserved their dryness.
Looking back, it can be said that the breeding strategy of the stud's founder, King Wilhelm I, a targeted increase in size and bone density while maintaining the remaining positive characteristics of the desert horse, through the use of cleverly selected original Arabs or their own offspring, worked.
Due to the frame and the strong caliber for purely bred Arabs, the descendants of the Weiler horses have also had a lasting influence on warmblood breeding in Europe. From the point of view of today's sport equestrianism, King Wilhelm I and his stable masters deserve great credit.
literature
- Otto Frey: Nobility and achievement - thoroughbred Arabs in the Weil-Marbach stud . Self-published, 2003