Introduction


Modina
champion of South-Holland 1975

The best horse of the world is the Gelderlander versatile horse, with an excellent suitability for recreation and international topsports too. And this as well to dressage as to showjumping as to driving.

Dutch horses have a good character, but even in The Netherlands the Gelderlander is famous for it. Also in over 100 years this horse is selected also for good soundness and usage up to high age.



Sinaeda Pref.

The Gelderlander horse has its remarkable qualities obtained by strict selection in the agricultural labour. When the horsepower no longer was necessary in the agriculture, the direction of KWPN (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands) developed a breedingprogram, by which the Gelderlander blood has been replaced by foreign blood.

However, these modern KWPN-horses are less good than horses with much Gelderlander blood. The direction of KWPN doesn't want to acknowledge the mistakes made and has tried for years to let disappear the Gelderlander horse. First publicly by exclusion Gelderlanders from the KWPN-shows; and later – because the foundation of separate studbook threatened – in a less striking manor. E.g.

  1. The pre-potency for international sport results by horses with Gelderlander blood is concealed from the KWPN-breeders (e.g. Zoöloog, Patrick) or is presented as a result of the modern KWPN-breedingprogram (e.g. Aktion, Nimmerdor).
  2. In the breeding of ridinghorses and harnesshorses the Gelderlander blood is discriminated as "old-fashioned". Breeding-indexes are composed in such a way that horses with a Gelderlander pedigree don't have a high sport-index (even Zarona isn't in the ranking of the 250 best KWPN-mares for breeding showjumpers).
  3. In the breeding of Gelderlanders is stimulated the use of non-Gelderlander blood. Under the pretext of being remained too little Gelderlander bloodlines the direction of KWPN in 1998 changed the requirements for studbook-registration as Gelderlander in such a way that each KWPN-horse with at most 12,5% thoroughbred-blood satisfies the requirements for Gelderlander horse (even if it has 0% Gelderlander blood).

This is totally the opposite of the breedingprogram of the original Sgldt (Studbook Gelderlander Type), that existed until the merger in KWPN in 1970.
So, the KWPN-registration as Gelderlander horse has become unreliable.

For the survival of the Gelderlander it is therefore necessary:

  1. To restore again the pedigree-requirements of the original Sgldt.
  2. No longer to accept the obscuration of the very positive influence of the Gelderlander blood at international sportresults
  3. To achieve an international coordination of efforts and of all Gelderlander bloodlines, irrespective of the studbook in which horses are registered. (The passing on of qualities takes place via the genes of the ancestors and not via the studbook administration, doesn't it.)

Therefore the files of all still living pure Gelderlander stallions and mares in the whole world are put on Internet here. In accordance with the studbook-rules of the original Sgldt the half-Gelderlander horses can give again a Gelderlander horse (with at least 75% Gelderlander blood) by making a good combination of bloodlines and thus they are very valuable.

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