Haflinger History

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This web page is devoted to archives of old articles from past Haflinger publications. 

Our Haflinger Heritage

Not long ago a discussion took place on the Haflinger Friends internet list between Kerstin Dreborg, Haflinger registrar in Sweden, June Gillis of Great Britain, and Ingeliese Thorsen of Denmark about early Haflinger bloodlines and color history and some very interesting information was provided by these three Haflinger historians, all thought provoking and fascinating. Their discussion is summarized in this article, reviewing the history as theyve learned it in their research of the available books and documents of early Haflinger history.

In the book "Haflinger in Europa - Liebe ohne Grenzen" by Winfried Paul, Germany, there is a picture of a very dark, perhaps black Haflinger from the 1920s.

In a book written by Captain M Horace Hayes, first published in 1893, entitled, "Points of the Horse" there is a drawing of a black Haflinger named "Martl". He was 13-3. The book states that "Martl, which was ridden in the mountains as a shooting pony by the Emperor of Austria, is a typical specimen of this Tyrolese breed." He further states that they were used for draught and riding in the mountains. He says that they are slow, but safe and are best ridden without reins because they carry their heads low to the ground when climbing the mountains and make "admirable mounted infantry cobs for hilly country because they are as sure footed with 18 stone on their back as they are with 10."

In the book "Stammbuch der Haflinger-Pferderasse" by Claudia Nocker, published in 1931 are a number of photos of historical interest.

In the book "Der Haflinger und seine Zuchtgebiete" by Dr. Karl Thurner there are 92 stallions listed, born in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Of these 23 are brown, 1 is black, 1 is "black-brown" and one is said to have been "flecked chestnut, later chestnut roan".

In that same book there are mares listed
* 2/I Asta-Nora, born in 1917 was "black-brown".
* 5/I Baba-Mira, born in 1922 was brown.
* 6/I Asta-Fanny, born in 1918 was black.
* 13/I Ada-Ella, born in 1916 was cream. 1 of her foals was black,
another one was chestnut roan.
* 14/I Aspia-Mitzl, born in 1915 was brown.
* 16/I Carmen-Katl, born in 1921 was brown.
? 201/II Bianca-Katl, born in 1922 was brown.

The so-called "black Haflinger" was completely black in mane and tail. But in the Haflinger literature the color is not referred to as "schwarz" (black). The colour was called "rappe" in German. In the book "Original-Haflinger" (from the South Tyrol, Italy) there is a drawing of a black Haflinger.

In 1931 the Italians made their first so-called studbook (the first studbook in the North Tyrol dates back to 1926). About 1000 horses were inspected, and of these were 40 stallions and 330 mares accepted for breeding purposes. If you list the various colors, you'll find:


STALLIONS:
2 brown
- and the rest were of various chestnut colors

MARES:
3 'Rappen' (black)
4 'Falben' (grey/yellow)
1 Isabella-colored with dark mane and tail
40 brown
- the rest were chestnut

At that time the chestnuts were already preferred. As far as to how many of them had white or flaxen mane and tail is not documented, but the Italians say most of them had. Old photos of for instance stallions like Mandl I-8 and Rudi 2 show clearly white manes and tails. They also say that from the beginning of the forties only the chestnuts were found in the population.

In other early sources, Haflingers were described as follows:
* Dr. L. v. Pretz in "Die Haflinger Pferdezucht" (Schlern-Schriften)
from 1925:
- 71.5% chestnuts
- 21.2% bays
- 4.2% black
and the rest were dun, roan or palomino.
* ÖR. F. K. Rigele in "Die Entstehung der Haflingerrasse in der 2.
Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts" says the early North tyrolean mares he has
studied (150 north tyrolean mares born 1915-1930)
- 0.68% bay
- 1.36% dark bay
- 0.68% brown
- 0.68% white (roan? the german word is simply "Schimmel"!)
- 1.36% dun
- 0.68% black
- 94.66% chestnut
These mares had blood from the following breeds or "types": south tyrolean haflingers (the majority), "unknown", Belgian (Mastoc), Wind (Norican horse), "Norican horses from the Sarn Valley", Gidran XXI, 183 Gidran, Tajar (arab and arab cross), and of course the Folie "branch" (also the majority). So there were many breeds that influenced the early Haflinger breeding.

The German 'braun' translates as bay while schwarzbraun is what we would call brown. Falbe is dun, Rappe is the German term for a black horse. El Bedavi, the father of 249 Folie, who is considered to be the first Haflinger stallion, was gold bay
with a dorsal stripe. Folie's dam was a chestnut mare, the product of the mating of a Gidran stallion with a local mare (Gidrans are a heavy Hungarian Arabian half-bred, always chestnut in color.) El Bedavi's family were predominantly chestnut but he carried chestnut on his mother's side. Folie was gold chestnut with a small irregular star, dorsal stripe and white markings on all four legs. Very few of Folie's progeny were bay and in such cases it was probably due to Norican blood on the dam's side. The rest were chestnut according to Stang and Wirth, writing in 1926. It is interesting to note, that in 1934, according to Otto Schweisgut, of the 92 stallions bred to mares in the South Tyrol, 25 were bay and 16 were purebred or halfbred Arabians.

In Otto Schweisgut's Haflinger Pferde book, published in 1995, is a photo of the stallion Haflinger taken at the First World Haflinger Show at Innsbruck in 1965.  He clearly has a dorsal stripe and dark color in his mane and tail.

El Bedavi had an fourth generation ancestor who was the imported Arabian stallion El Bedavi, born in 1817 and originally used in the Hungarian State Stud of Babolna.(The Austro-Hungarian Empire was one entity till the First World War). In response to the need for good cavalry horses to meet the constant threat of war, the Austrian Emperor Josef II founded the state studs of Mezohegyes and Babolna. Hungary is famous for its superb Arab horses and Babolna became the center for their breeding.
After 1816 the Babolna stud concentrated on the production of purebred 'desert' Arabs and on half-breds and the progeny of purebred stallions crossed with mares of very oriental appearance that carried the strains of Spanish, Hungarian and Thoroughbred blood. By the end of the 19th century Hungary had a horse population of over 2 million and sold cavalry remounts throughout Europe. In 1816, under military orders, all the available mares were crossed with oriental stallions. The native Hungarian horse had evolved from the Tarpan and Mongolian horse and was a hard, primitive breed, late maturing and with great powers of endurance. The Hungarian farm horse stems from these origins and it was from this type of native stock that Hungarian horses were largely developed. Breeds developed in the 19th century were named after their foundation sire and, following tradition, the stallions of a breed all have the same name with the addition of a Roman numeral denoting their generation. Examples that have survived to this day are the Shagya Arabian and the Gidran( Arab race or half-breds). Folie's father was the great-great grandson of the original imported Arab stallion El Bedavi. Folie's father was 133 El Bedavi XXII
who was purchased by the Stadl-Paura stallion depot in 1872 and mated with the mares of the Salten-Moelten plateau of the South Tyrol producing, among others, 249 Folie.

We still see the dorsal stripe in a lot of Haflingers and even the striping on the legs. By the way, of the original 300 mares in the South Tyrol Original Studbook, most of them were described as having some roaning in their coat.

In the "Köhler'she Stammtafel" it's said that 249 Folies sire 133 El' Bedavi XXII was born in 1868 and bred in Radauz, out of 361 Dahabi (born in 1849) by Dahabi (oriental thoroughbred) out of 248 Gidran 5, a chestnut by Gidran 59. 133 El' Bedavi XXII's sire was El' Bedavi XXII (born in 1852) out of Siglavi 33/18 (born in 1843). The name Siglavi is found in Lippizan pedigrees. Now, El' Bedavi XXII's sire was El' Bedavi I (born in 1837) in Babolna out of Samhan 77 (breed unknown). El' Bedavi I was sired by El' Bedavi II who was born in Babolna and out of an original arab mare. El' Bedavi II's sire was the original arab stallion El' Bedavi who came from the El' Bedu line.

There was a variety of bloodlines mixed to perfection to create the Haflinger as we know it today. It is surprising to see that less than 80 years ago there was still considerable non-chestnut color genetics in Haflingers, so occasional odd color should not be unexpected. The trend toward a very bleached out blonde chestnut color is unhappily the result of breeders' efforts to leave the black and brown genetics out of the gene pool.

Is the current genetic pool of Haflingers sufficient to carry our breed into the future? It is a worthy discussion among Haflinger breeders worldwide.


Following are articles from the "Haflinger Review", published 1984-1986 in the U.S.
but some of the references are from the 1960s. Please be patient while this page downloads.