The maternal dynasty

of the widely acclaimed champion stallion from the Trakehner Stallion Market of 2015 has always ranked among the fundamental pillars of the Trakehner Population – and that at the highest international level. The Pelargonie stock has its roots in the founding breeder farm of Halbmond von Bucephalus, which  in 1777 in the Trakehnen  main breeding farm provided the foundation for the rise of the Trakehner Main Breeding Family No. 8. A period of blossoming began which was to last for hundreds of years.

The most famous protagonist of the family was initially the chestnut stallion Parsival von Morgenstrahl,

whose mother, Posthalterei von Perfectionist xx represented the maternal family of Perpignan Noir in direct ancestry. Parsival was held to be one of the most important sires of the final  strengthened breeding phase of the main Trakehnen breeding farm under the state stable master Siegfried Graf von Lehndorff and was the main sire from 1925 – 1931. The majority of the female members of the family at that time were housed in Trakehnen’s outpost Kalpakin, home of the brown herd. All this changed as noble blood from the stocks of English thoroughbreds, Anglo-Arabs and Arabian thoroughbreds was introduced in quantity. From this point onwards, noble, athletic family members – also with Arab characteristics – often in grey, livened the image of the mixed-colour Bajohrgallen herd and later the so-called Arab herd in Taukenischken. Panna von Nana Sahib x, as well as her daughter, Perspektive von Tempelhüter and her daughter, Pergamon von Cancara originated from here. Maternal breeding farms, that already describe the next following generations of Perpignan Noir. The grey mare, Panna is ranked especially among Trakehnen’s prominent mares: “The best horse to have served me as hunting and riding horse. I have never ridden a horse that, like Panna, although fully untamed, performed like a completely trained horse, had no troubles and jumped magnificently” were the words of praise heaped upon her by Siegfried Graf von Lehndorff. From then onwards, Panna was also rated as a model ambassador for her great father, Nana Sahib x, who wrote tournament history as an outstanding performing sire. Cancara then, as maternal grandson of Nana Sahib x, introduced a close line-breeding to the legendary sports hero.

True to his slogan “pair like with like” and thus making his vision of a noble horse in his bloodlines,

and with all the characteristics necessary for his sporting and breeding become reality, the state stable master at Trakehnens, Dr. Ernst Ehlert, paired Pergamon, the highly noble daughter of Cancara with the Polish thoroughbred Arab, Fetysz ox and the daughter Perina with Lowelas ox, also originating from the famous Polish thoroughbred Arab breeding farm. Pelargonie was born in 1942. The trek led them in the Autumn and Winter of 1944 at first on foot from Trakehnen to the state breeding farm of Georgenburg, then on to Silesia, in December 1944 to Perlin in Mecklemburg and finally on the 30th June 1945 to Ratzeburg. Among the few mares of the main breeding farm of Trakehnen which were saved, she was seen as something special in view of her genetic make-up and it was considered fortunate that at least one representative of the tried and proven maternal pedigree was available during the build-up of the young Trakehner breeding stock in West Germany.

Pelargonie embodied the habitus of her noble genes to perfection:

Although mid-sized, she stood in a large framework, charmed with high nobility, distinction, dryness and impressed with expansive, energetic dynamism of movement. She was highly acclaimed at the DLG-Fair in Frankfurt a.M. in 1950. At this time she was already a member of the breeding herd of the East Prussian breeding farm of Hunnesrück, near Eibeck, which had been founded in 1946. In 17 years of breeding, she gave birth to 11 live foals, among them Perfekt von Hansakapitän, who was successful in numerous S-Dressage tournaments, as well as the Dillenburger state stud Peleus von Boris. Her second-oldest daughter, Pellerine von Hansakapitän, wrote breeding history by becoming a six-time stallion mother. Her last daughter, Pela von Stern xx, created the branch of the family to which Perpignan Noir belongs and bore Palma von Morgenglanz, his great-great grandmother. The large-framed grey mare ranked among the best mares of her time, above all due to her outstanding movements. As a three-year-old, she won the class victory at the Trakehner Landesschau (State Fair) of Lower-Saxony-Hanover, in 1975 she stood in the spotlight as class winner and reserve victor at the Trakehner Bundesschau (Federal Fair) in Verden, two years later as winning mare at the head of the Trakehner Landesschau in Schleswig-Holstein and finally as Ia prize-winner in her class in the limelight at the Landesschau of Northrein-Westphalia in 1978. Passarge von Insterruf was to become her most influential daughter – thus with Paquita von Turnus und Parade Go von Maizauber both Perpignan Noir’s grandmother and mother make an appearance. With them, not only his closest family ties are described but also the decade-long breeding concept which was responsible for the blossoming of his maternal pedigree is reinforced. Then the roots of the dynasty, characterised by the noble genes of the sporting horse breeding, were further supplied with noble blood through Mahagoni-Pasteur xx-Flaneur, the Arabic-moulded maternal family of Maizauber, through Zauberklag-Prince Condé-Prince Rouge xx and further Flaneur in the stock of Turnus. This was all entirely consistent with the thinking of great horsemen and breeding geniuses, who for decades and even centuries were responsible for the creation and further maintenance of the vintage stock.

The Pelargonie-Family ranks today among the documented high-performance stock of the world-wide Trakehner breeding stables:

Not only the Olympian Peron (Michelle Gibson), the international Grand-Prix star Partout (Anky van Grunsven) have emerged from here, but also the show-jumping heroes Piqueur and Prisma, whilst Plato, Priegnitz, Peron Junior, Pago Go have been able to succeed in S-Dressage tournaments and Phoenix, Poquelin, Paskar Go, Piccolo, Phaleb, Philomela, Prista, Pomeranze and Rex as M-Dressage horses. Through international networks, members of the Pelargonie family have been influential, both in breeding and in the sport. In the new world, especially through the stallion mother Palma Nigra von Habicht and the Koran-daughter Puszta, furthermore in Denmark, Austria, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

A mare family on its way through the centuries, a path which has been marked by great breeding and sporting success and which has decisively contributed to the distinguished reputation enjoyed by the whole of the Trakehner breed. The youngest offspring, Perpignan Noir thus also assumes the position of an extra special stallion, equipped with the aura of a charismatic personality.

“Erhard Schulte – November 2015”