Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltungs GmbH intends to link sport and breeding even more closely in future. The concept, presented at the delegates’ meeting in June 2026, focuses on specifically introducing selected stallions into top-level international sport, marketing their sporting rights and, following a successful career, making them available to Holsteiner breeding again wherever possible. The chairpersons of the licensing districts unanimously and fully support this strategy.
At the heart of this is a clear principle: sporting success should become the driving force behind the long-term use of Holsteiner horses in breeding and the preservation of Holsteiner genetics. To this end, partnerships with internationally successful show jumpers are being established and expanded. The stallions are to be developed under the best possible sporting conditions – with the aim, ideally, of taking them all the way to championships and the Global Champions Tour.
“Our aim is to make targeted use of our stallions’ sporting careers to showcase the capabilities of Holsteiner breeding on the international stage,” explains Felix Flinzer, Managing Director of Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltungs GmbH.
Sporting success creates visibility
International successes are not only intended to increase the value and profile of individual stallions. They are also intended to showcase the performance capabilities of Holsteiner breeding on the international stage and to strengthen the confidence of breeders and clients in Holsteiner genetics. Furthermore, it has been shown that sporting successes achieved by sires have often increased the market demand for their offspring.
Crack HV and Zuccero HV are prime examples of this approach. Both stallions are currently enjoying international success in sport and will be able to return to Elmshorn once their sporting careers are over.
However, an international sporting career does not mean that the stallions are lost to breeding. Positive experiences have already been gained with the ‘TG wie frisch’ scheme. This model is to be further expanded in future. This will enable selected sport stallions to remain available to breeders even during their active careers – and not exclusively via deep-frozen semen.
Sporting rights instead of permanent transfer
A key component of the concept is the separation of sporting and breeding rights. If only the sporting rights are sold, Stutengärtner GmbH can retain a stake in the breeding use whilst simultaneously securing the financial conditions necessary for attractive membership terms.
The model is also intended to create financial leeway. This is because the horse breeding industry worldwide is facing the challenge of declining covering figures. For Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltungs GmbH, this is therefore about more than just marketing individual stallions: it is about securing the organisation’s long-term economic and breeding capabilities.
Capital back into the population and the stud
The funds generated from the sale of sport rights are to be specifically reinvested in breeding. In particular, plans include the purchase of foals from breeders’ stables and the acquisition of young stallions with promising breeding prospects.
Furthermore, the model opens up the possibility of bringing valuable Holsteiner genetics, which have previously found their way into other breeding regions, back to Holstein. This creates a cycle: Holsteiner stallions enter the international sporting arena; their successes increase the visibility of the breeding programme; the resulting economic opportunities flow back into the population – and successful sport stallions can subsequently be made available to Holsteiner breeding once more.
Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltungs GmbH regards this as a key component of a sustainable stallion management programme. The aim is to remain economically viable even under changing market conditions, to capitalise on international sporting successes for the Holsteiner brand, and at the same time to secure the breed’s own genetics for breeders in the long term.
