“Haflinger – the Golden Horse with the Golden Heart“ is not only a title, it also describes the character of the breed. Haflinger horses, with their chestnut colour and white mane, are known and coveted worldwide. But their success is based upon their good character and even temperament. This book is meant to give an insight into the origin of the breed, its worldwide distribution, its training and the Haflinger Breeders’ Association of Tyrol and the Association stud farm, the Fohlenhof Ebbs. It is meant to document the development and the current state of the breed and mediate all that is worth knowing about it. An international stallion genealogy table should enable the tracing back of every purebred Haflinger to the emergence of the breed in 1874.

The Haflinger, dated to its origin 1874, was distributed up to 1945 in the region of the central Alps. It has since developed into a worldwide breed and is bred today in over sixty countries. This book not only describes the horse’s origin – it should help one to understand and come to love the Haflinger and its unique character.

A broad scope of information is given concerning the worldwide state of breeding and development in the world’s most important Haflinger stud farms. The Haflinger Breeders’ Association of Tyrol, and the worldwide centre for the breed, the Fohlenhof Ebbs, are naturally both a focus. Without the pioneering spirit and the endurance of the Tyrolean Association, the Haflinger would not be a worldwide breed today. Adherence to the principle of pure breeding, and thus consolidation to a fully independent breed, is documented in this standard work. 

For training it is not only a matter of mediating to the reader the correct sequence, from the foal to a recreation companion, but also to offer advice in feeding, stable construction and health. Maternal strains and international stallion lines complete this new standard work about the Haflinger horse.

The author, Johannes Schweisgut, has a lifetime of experience with this horse and has been the breeding director of the Haflinger Breeders’ Association of Tyrol for over twenty years, and thus not only shares decisive responsibility for the qualitative upswing in previous years, but through directing the Association’s own Fohlenhof stud farm has not only gained the theoretic knowledge, but has also handled the horse in daily practice. The Fohlenhof is not only a breeding centre, it is also the training centre of the Tyrolean Association and offers the opportunity for one to experience the effect of breeding guidelines and breeding measures in practice. This book thus mediates the experiences of a breeding director, as well as the experience gained with a breeding and riding operation with a great many more than 100 horses.

The international stallion genealogy table includes almost all of the purebred stallions worldwide. One can thus trace practically every horse, from the stallion to the origin of the breed.

The Author

Johannes Schweisgut M.P., was born in 1960 and has been closely connected through his family since his childhood to breeding Haflinger horses. His father, Eng. Otto Schweisgut, was the first breeding director after the Second World War in the Tyrolean Association and also the first president of the World Haflinger Federation. The author gathered breeding experience with the Haflinger horse during his youth and with the Haflinger Breeders’ Association of Tyrol after leaving school in 1978. In 1985 he was appointed breeding director and manager, as direct successor to his father. In the course of several years, Johannes Schweisgut was also the manager of ARGE Haflinger Österreich and the central cooperative.

From 1990 to 2000 the author was the general secretary of the World Haflinger Federation, and since 2000 has acted as president in this organization. Since 1988 Johannes Schweisgut has published the international specialist magazine, "Haflinger Pferde", which appears four times each year. Together with his activities as breeding director and manager of the Tyrolean Association, and stud manager at the Fohlenhof Ebbs, he is  an Austrian member of parliament since 1999.