Q. How did you start horse breeding?

Silke: “As a little girl I got a pony, then a mare and the first competition successes came along. I myself have show jumped successfully up to 1.40m. In 1980, with my Confirmation money, my father and I bought the mare Marotte [Sacramento Song – Korenbleem, mareline 18A2]. Most of our broodmares go back to this line.”

Q. Your father Klaus Gehrts was the Holstein Breeder of the Year in 2005. Can you tell us more about Gitania, the mare who won this award for him?

“Gitania [Capitol – Liberia, by Sacramento Song, mareline 2383] was born in 1992. At the age of three she passed an excellent mare performance test with a score of 10 for free jumping and a 9 for rideability. She was also awarded the state premium.

“Before Gitania went into sport, she had two foals; Lupo, a colt by Locato, who was internationally successful at 1.60m and a filly, My Conny [Concerto II]. She was successful up to 1.30m before she was bred from. We have two broodmares from My Conny, one by Casall and one by Clinton I.

“Gitania was sold to the American rider Ellen van Dyke in November 2001, after she had already achieved international success [including being placed in the Hamburg Grand Prix and Helsinki Nations Cup].

“Ellen moved to Germany after marrying Ansgar Holtgers, and was placed in several international competitions with Gitania until her pregnancy. Gitania then went to Marcus Ehning in 2004. She was particularly successful with him and won big prizes at Stockholm, Olympia, Las Vegas, Bordeaux, s’-Hertogenbosch, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Munich, Aachen Nations Cup, Lucerne, Barcelona and European team champions in San Patrignano.

“Gitania’s lifetime winnings are over €680,000. In 2008, Gitania left the sport in good health and bred six foals for the Holtgers family.”

Q. Both Gitania’s mother Liberia and your first broodmare Marotte were by the Irish thoroughbred Sacramento Song, brought to Germany by the Witt family and famous for the Sandro line. Are thoroughbred stallions still used much by Holsteiner breeders?

“The Holsteiner Verband offers its breeders two thoroughbred stallions; Fragonard (Dashing Blade x Acatenango) and Interior Minister (Masterstroke x Lando).

In recent decades, the Holsteiner mares had a lot of thoroughbred influences, such as Ladykiller xx, Cottage Son xx, Sacramento Song xx and Heraldik xx or were paired with French stallions like Cor de la Bryere.

“The Holsteiner horses have become much more modern and thoroughbreds are currently rather less used.”

Q. With 10 foals due this year, which stallions did you choose?

“Our first two foals have already been born this year; a colt by Million Dollar and a colt by Uriko. We expect three foals by Clarimo, successful at 1.60m; two foals by Casall, also successful at 1.60m; one foal by Diamant de Plaisir, successful at 1.45m, as well as one foal each from the young stallions United Way and Crack.”

Q. Casall ASK and Million Dollar seem to be very popular stallion choices each year for your breeding programme. How do you decide which stallion to pick?

“We mostly use a mixture of internationally successful stallions and promising young stallions from successful dam lines. There are stallions that we would like to use. Then we consider which of our mares would be a good match for this stallion.”

Q. “The line of the stallion is irrelevant, only the line of the mare is important” – you mentioned this on the Teagasc visit in 2017. Why do you think so?

“Many good horses come from a good line. It’s a bit like humans, two intelligent people mostly have intelligent children. If the parents and grandparents were also intelligent, now the chances increase that the majority of the children are also intelligent.

“The result of a normal damline with a great stallion is often not a top sport horse. The chances increase when I have a successful damline with as many successful horses as possible from these mothers, grandmothers, etc. There are several lines in Holstein that have produced many good sport horses.”

Members of the Teagac group tour the traditional cattle barn. \ Susan Finnerty

Q. Four years ago, several breeders we met on the tour said that the average price for a colt foal (usually sold off the farm) was between €10,000 and € 12,000. How did 2020 prices compare?

“The prices haven’t changed much. The special foal with the good damline from an interesting/successful stallion still costs the same money, sometimes more. Foals from normal dam lines are also sold for significantly less.”

Q. How is your farm and time split between horses, cattle and potatoes?

“We cultivate 150 hectares of arable land and 75 hectares of grassland with two permanent workers and four temporary workers.

“Table potatoes, wheat, barley, oats and rapeseed are grown in the fields. Our grain goes to the local land trade and potatoes are grown, stored, sorted and packed in 2.5kg bags on our farm. We deliver most of the potatoes directly to the EDEKA supermarket chain.

“In the summer, 25-30 suckler cows graze on the pastures with their calves and we also produce hay for the cattle and horses ourselves.

Q. The North Sea climate, Baltic marshlands and rich soil are a selling point for your brand of Küsten Knollen potatoes grown on the farm. How does the north German winter affect the production of horses, cattle and crops?

“The North Sea climate is very good for our potatoes. Since we have most of the wind from the west, there are hardly any problems with insects so we don’t have to fight them chemically so much. Our horses and cattle spend the winter in the stable. Farm building roofs are covered with solar energy panels. Cattle are kept in large boxes on straw. Since the cows only have to raise their own calf, which is born in spring, we feed our waste potatoes, hay, straw and minerals. They do not need concentrated feed.

“The young horses are also stabled, with straw bedding, but are given daily exercise in paddocks. The exercise paddocks are covered with drainage mats and there is also a paddock with a sand surface.

“The in-foal mares are stabled in individual boxes and several mares go to the paddock together every day and, as soon as the weather permits, out to pasture. From the end of April to the beginning of November, all horses that are not ridden are out on pasture all day.”

Q. You have sold youngstock to buyers in Finland, Belgium and Brazil. How do you market and promote your horses for sale?

“There are customers who see successful horses from our breeding at competitions and call us. Then there are customers who have been coming to us for many years and in 2019, for example, we sold a foal to Ireland via the Holstein foal auction. We maintain our website and are also active on Facebook.”

Q. Are there financial awards for Holstein horse breeders?

“The Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltung GmbH has awarded breeders of the most successful offspring of the association’s own stallions with awards every year since 2018.

“This applies to the most successful jumping offspring of stallions in the following categories: five-year-olds, six-year-olds and international competitions (seven-year-olds and over), from €1,000 [first], €750 [second] and €500 [third].”

Q. How has Covid-19 affected your farm/Holsteiner Verband events?

“COVID-19 has had less of a direct impact on our farm. By and large, we can continue to work well.

“Since we sell our potatoes directly to the end consumer, via the supermarket and do not deliver to restaurants, which are closed, sales are still good. Only for the large, oversized potatoes, there is no sale.

Most of the Holsteiner Verband auctions were carried out as online auctions. The Holsteiner Verband foal sales went well but it was more difficult for the riding horses auctions because the preparation for foreign customers was hardly possible.”

History of Holsteiner horses

Holsteiners and Irish Sport Horses have similar beginnings: a light draught breed refined by crossing with thoroughbred to produce sport horses. The breed’s ancestors developed a reputation for hardiness from working the heavy soil in the marshland region between the river Elbe and the North Sea.

The first recorded history of the Holsteiner horse traces back to 1225. The original Holsteiner Verband was founded in 1883. The same year, noted breeder Georg Ahsbahs produced the first studbook, meticulously recording the mare families (or ‘stamm’ lines), which are the basis of many breeder’s approach today.

A number of imported thoroughbreds, such as Ladykiller, Cottage Son and Sacramento Song, left their stamp on Holsteiner bloodlines. A statue of the famous Ladykiller son Landgraf stands outside Elmshorn and these foundation stallions of the modern Holsteiner have left a trail of world-famous C-line and L-line performers in their wake.

Think of Olympic, World and European medal-winning horses such as Calvaro, Classic Touch, Clinton, Corradino, Cumano, Dobel’s Cento and Fein Cera. Chacco-Blue, the all-conquering show jumping sire, is by Chambertin, a Holsteiner stallion sold to the Mecklenburg region in south Germany, and out of a Contender dam. One of the striking features of the 2017 tour, led by Teagasc’s Wendy Conlon, was the shared heritage of Holsteiner and Irish breeders between a history of horses on the farm, generations of knowledge, the pride and knowledge of their horses’ bloodlines and hospitality.

Their family-run farm on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, where horses, cattle and crops are reared and grown, makes the Zuba family a particularly interesting story that will strike a chord with many fellow Irish farmer-breeders.