Knabstrupper

By Merete Norring
Composed at the request of the board of directors for the Knabstrupper Association to be used as a part of an answer to the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. Written in 2006.
    
The Knabstrup Estate
The Knabstrupper horses got their name from the Knabstrup Estate, which is situated between Kalundborg and Jyderup. Back in the 18th century and the early 19th century, the owner Chr.  Ditlev Lunn was keenly interested in horse breeding.  The estate was successful in breeding a uniform and solid type of horse.
Seen in a broader historic perspective, this was right after the Royal stud farm of Frederiksborg was closed down and the horses were auctioned off.  Two mares were bought for the Knabstrup Estate from one of these auctions.  
The early 19th century was marked by the wars in Europe (the Napoleon Wars) and Spanish assisting troops came to help the Danes.  Some of the troops were stationed in Zealand and the story goes that a butcher Flæbe from Holbæk purchased a mare from a Spanish adjutant.  
This mare was later bought for the Knabstrup Estate after Chr.  Ditlev Lunn had witnessed what this mare was able to do for the strict butcher Flæbe.
The mare was described as: Zobelfuchs with a white mane and tail, short stubbly hair with occasional white spots on the body, mainly on the loin area, which also had some red-brown spots.
This mare did not fit into the Estate’s existing line of horses, but having seen what she was capable of, she was introduced into the breeding programme and in 1813, she foaled for the first time with the foal Flæbehingsten (Flæbe stallion) named after the Frederiksborg stallion from the nearby Løvenborg Estate.  
The Flæbe mare turned out to be a great brood mare. She passed some fine qualities on to her offspring, including the colour, which, however, at that time was not deemed particularly attractive.  
The qualities that were seen as characteristic for this race were that they were very hardy and robust, they reached a high age, were hard-working and displayed a very personal temper, bordering on eccentricity.
Their colour was often red, black was more rare, short stubbly hair at the front, white at the back with large dark brownish spots, dark knees and hocks.  The white in their eyes was visible (referred to as human eyes) and they had flesh coloured muzzle and genitals with spots.  They often had thin mane and tale. Many of them were also uniform in colour without all the spots and other colours. This, however, did not mean that they were seen as being less of a Knapstrupper for that reason.  A lot of them did not change colour till around 3 or 4 years of age.  
The stallion Thor (also called Old  Thor) was born in 1847. He is often referred to as the actual founder of the race.  He was famous in his days and fathered a lot of offspring. He won a lot of prizes locally as well as nationally.  
The Knabstrup Stud Farm had its golden days around the Schleswig Wars, in particular the 3-year wars from 1848-50. The Knabstrup Estate registered horses for the war and among those were the stallion Mikkel and the mare Nathalia, which were  ridden by the famous General Schleppegrell and Colonel Læssøe.
In the years following the Schleswig Wars, the race witnessed a period of decline. A lot less Knapstruppers were now on display at the different shows and the decline in breeding at the Knapstrup Estate reached the bottom one summer night in 1891 when lightning struck the bone dry, thatched and partially mud-built timber framed stables, which very quickly went up in flames.  22 horses died in the fire and only a few from the old horse family survived.  
In March 1897, a black-spotted mare foal was born to the astonishment of everyone.  It had been nearly 30 years since a spotted foal had last been born at the Estate. This mare mothered a good stallion, which was introduced to the breeding programme and a lot of new spotted foals were now born at the Estate. It was, however, never the same as in the old days. It was as if the interest in breeding had declined considerably.  Maybe the fire was to blame or perhaps the generations after Chr. Ditlev Lunn simply were not as interested in horse breeding.  
 
Breeding Outside of the Knabstrup Estate
In the years following the decline, good animals were still bred, particularly in the area around the Knabstrup Estate. Up until 1892, we know that breeding of the Knabstruppers was very popular.  This meant that the Knabstruppers to a large extent were cross-bred with the local horses. To that effect, the Knabstruppers have been blamed for the extinction of the Odsherred breed.  
Generally speaking, breeding in those years was not very controlled and the stud books were often inadequately maintained or never saved. This has made it difficult to trace the horses back to Flæbehoppen in a historically appropriate way.  
 
Bornholm
In the 1930s, a new effort was made for the breed, this time on the island of Bornholm.  In the 1870s, 2 Knapstrupper mares were imported to the island.  One of the mares mothered Witta, born 1879. She became the first mother of a number of good Knabstruppers and the association was built up around this strain. The association was responsible for a lot of good breeding work, but was dissolved as the primary stallion Max died at an early age without any ancestors.  At the same time, a lot of good animals were sold off the island.  
Unfortunately, this association never gained any real importance, although it has been possible up till the mid 1990s to locate a few animals that can be traced back to the old strain.  
 
Egemosegård
Just when it looked as if the breeding work would stop completely, the stud farm Egemosegård near Holdbæk Fjord entered the stage.  In 1946, Herman Nielsen and his son Attorney C.N. Ledager bought Egemosegård. They were very enthusiastic and professional in their approach.  
A key factor was, of course, the animals and when asked about the Knabstrupper qualities, Herman Nielsen responded: ”… with good and solid breeding work, you can get a good horse with a lot of the original Knabstrupper blood and the old Knabstrupper qualities.” He also said: “… the distance in time from the palmy days of the Knabstrupper breed is so long that it is no longer possible to provide a breeding option with more than a touch of the old breed’s blood.”
The breeding work seen now was stable and the two primary stallions Silkerking II (from Zealand) and Max Bodilsker (from Bornholm) strongly influenced the breeding work.