Stallion pasture - High pasture rearing
The Tyrolean Haflinger stallion pasture
Since 1947, the Tyrolean Haflinger Breeding Association has reared all of its stallions together – around 50 young stallions from foals to three-year-olds – at the Fohlenhof in Ebbs and on its nearby pastures. This natural husbandry and a common Alpine pasturing of at least six months a year provides excellent rearing for Tyrolean stallions. The 25 best stallions from the entire association region are identified and selected in a number of selection stages, from young foals in May to the preview show in August and eventually at the stallion candidate selection in mid-October. These weanlings are then reared together until their selection at the age of 3, which is always on the first Saturday in February, just before their cover duty. In the winter months, three age groups are always in the pens, while two age groups are kept on the alpine pasture in summer, as the summer period lies between selection and weaning. These rearing conditions are not only especially animal-friendly and species-appropriate for the horse as a herd animal, but they are also the prerequisites for ensuring that the most exclusive stallions in the world maintain their natural characteristics. This excursion into the Tyrolean Alps, at a height of over 1,200 metres above sea level, is essential for the surefootedness, stamina, hardiness, resilience and strong health of the horses. Natural meadows with wild herbs, which have never been fertilised since the purchase of the pasture by the Tyrolean Haflinger Breeding Association 60 years ago, provide an ideal feeding basis. Rocks and high mountain woodland are also very original, with a great variety of different trees, and they ensure dexterity and surefootedness.
Large differences in temperature, from 30 degrees during the day and frost at night, guarantee a natural hardiness. There is also an onset of winter many times a year, when the herd often spends a number of days in the snow. Chamois can frequently be seen among the stallions on the meadow, which is located in an extremely high mountain region. The battles for hierarchy and the natural rearing in the herd are formative for the character. Haflinger stallions from Fohlenhof Ebbs are a trademark, as Tyrolean stallions. Not only is an optimal bloodline at selection essential, but also healthy rearing is a prerequisite for preserving this trademark. The edelweiss brand, based on the alpine flower of the high mountain region, is a registered trademark of the Tyrolean Haflinger Breeding Association, representing it as a symbol. This hard, yet natural rearing of course applies to all Tyrolean Haflinger horses and foals at auction, and guarantees well-balanced and healthy top-class horses.
Haflinger herds on Tyrolean mountain pastures
Fohlenhof Ebbs, with its more than 60-year tradition in breeding stallions in natural herds, not only for a few weeks or as a show for the media, but rather as species-appropriate rearing, has had a considerable influence on worldwide Haflinger breeding during this period, with more than 10 generations of Tyrolean stallions. There is no breeding region in the world in which the pedigree Tyrolean stallions from the Haflinger pastures do not appear. Just a few stallions can even change an entire breeding region.
Purebred Haflinger stallions from Tyrol are famous all over the world for their type, modernity, character, temperament, performance and above all their reliable prepotency, secured by quality controls over generations, and they are present in over 50 countries on all continents.