Warmblood Breeding in Western Australia by Dolly van Zaane To get an understanding of the situation today we best start with a short geographic and a little history lesson. Australia is a huge country with a small population (19 million) who are concentrated on the East Coast. Western Australia is the largest state (2.5 million sq.km), taking up about one third of the whole island nation with a total population of just over 1.8 million, most of who live mainly in the capital Perth. There is a thriving horse industry mostly near Perth covering all facets of equine sports. As the weather plays a dominant part, and summers can be hot, most equestrian pursuits hibernate during the hot summer months from about Christmas to early February. On the whole distance has never posed a barrier for Western Australians and anyone serious about their chosen sport has no qualms in travelling to the eastern States for national - and other big competitions, invariably returning home victorious or close to the top! Their success does not come as a surprise to the westerners, only to the rest of the country! WA boasts some of the best coaches and trainers and many national and internationals are brought into the west for clinics. One of their most famous residents is Mr Harry Boldt the former German Dressage Coach. Warmblood breeding is quite active with several established studs and with new people doing their thing on a smaller scale. Some of the stallions have been imported or brought over from the eastern states. Now with the popularity of frozen semen, and some excellent veterinary experts, AI is very common. Some studs: Barrabadeen -- WA is known as entrepreneurial and the place where just about everything is possible and the first person to bring warmbloods into the West did it on a grand scale, typical for the state. In 1975 Mr. André van Helvoort imported two Holsteiner stallions and nine mares, two of which were in foal, which were also fillies. This in an era when warmbloods were something alien and when people were importing horses, they were mainly stallions (Flaneur, Granada, Kilof McOhl, Monopol, Falkland etc.) Van Helvoorts foundation stock for his Barrabadeen Stud had such notable lines as: Lord, Cor de la Bryere (before he was famous), Moltke I, Marlon xx, Farnese, Laertes, Wahnfried and Calypso I. The two stallions were Talisman (Tumbled xx X Marder) and Wildfeuer (Waterman x Ganeff). Wildfeuer was the Holsteiner selection champion of his year. With such a strong foundation it is no wonder Barrabadeen Stud has been able to produce top quality sport horses at all three disciplines. In Jumping: White Dimple, Hattrick, Maximus, Rembrandt, Wildfang, Supa Nova (ex Triumph), Trinity, Wild Flame. In dressage the Barrabadeen prefix was carried by: Troubadour, Fortune, Fairness, Bundaberg (exp. Germany), Kadett, Telstar, The Moose, Trés Bien, Analee etc. which continues to this date. In 2002 all the original mares have passed on and their daughters have taken their place, the two stallions replaced with their sons: BBD Warrigal (Wildfeuer x Emily imp. Œ CordelaBryere); BBD Tycoon (Talisman x Little Red Œ Wildfeuer x Grey Melanie imp.) and the Grand Prix dressage stallion BBD Troubadour (Talisman x Fama imp. Œ Farnese). Troubadour™s full brother BBD Fortune has been exported to the USA. In its heyday Barrabadeen Stud was one the largest Holsteiner horse studs in the world with some 100 full Holsteiner horses. Now it has scaled down its operation making it more manageable and putting a great effort in marketing under the management of Jackie and Greg Moon. Many Barrabadeen mares have found a home at other studs right throughout the country and there is no doubt that the vision of André van Helvoort - who was 25 years ahead of his time Œ is still a cornerstone in Western Australian sport horse breeding, if not Australia. Nobelwood Park -- The other Holsteiner stud is a relative young one: Nobelwood Park Stud owned by Perth businessman Tony Trevisan began ten years ago with the importation of the stallion Jadalco (Fabio I x Landgraf I)) and several mares to compliment some mares purchased from Barrabadeen Stud. Jadalco was campaigned with great success by Kate Pither of Oakdale Farm Jumping stables, and later with Vicky Roycroft, to be sold to the USA. Trevisan replaced Jadalco with the dark brown stallion Collins Calando I x Caletto II) and some more mares of more modern bloodlines (Coriander, Calando I, Loutano, Cantus, Burggraaf, Caletto I, Voltaire) Some of the older horses were sold to studs around Australia and New Zealand. Well aware that it is one thing to be able to buy the best bloodlines, but to be able to show them in competition, Trevisan placed Collins and several mares at Argyle Showjumping stables of David and Linda Dobson with great success. The 2001 season ended with David and Collins earning a place on the National Talent squad, while the rest of the team was rarely out of a place. Currently this showjumping team are the leaders in Western Australia. Hanover Park -- Hanoverian horses are not forgotten and two studs are the main breeders of these primarily dressage type horses. Hanover Park Stud owned by Jackie Bouter has been breeding Hanoverians for some 20 years using mainly stallions already in Australia and purchased her original mares from Kinnordy stud in Queensland. Jackie managed over the years to attract stallions to stand at stud in the West, like Moselfischer imp.(Mozart) from Treehaven in Victoria. Jackie is an accomplished dressage rider and competes on her own breeding products with great success. Her friend Anne Taylor (one of Australia's National Selectors) and business partner also rides the Hanover Park horses. At Elementary level there is HP Sensation and HP Larrakin at Advanced we have HP Parzelle and FEI level HP Awesome and HP Fiasco. Sometimes a carefully bred dressage horse just is not suited at this exact sport and with HP Miss Dior an eventing career was much more exciting! Now ridden by Rob Vlasschaert and clearly relishing in this bit more speedy discipline. The other Hanoverian stud is Goldstar Enterprises of Thomas and Marion Schad with one of WA™s best known stallions Aramis imp. (Akzent II x Woehler). Aramis now 21 years old has dressage horses at all levels. The big chestnut Aristie ridden by Marion is an impressive horse (FEI level). Ariena at Novice level is an exciting prospect for the future. Margo Boldt of Konnica Park recently acquired Armego (Medium), bred by Kathleen Carrington. Muskateer with Pollyanne Huntington went right through to Prix St George. There are so many of them that is almost unfair to list any, suffice to say, that Aramis offspring are mostly nice trainable horses suitable for most riders. Goldstar's now has a son of Aramis, Aragon out of an imported Hanovarian mare. He is slightly old fashioned in type, however with mares higher in thoroughbred blood, he produces some stylish youngsters. One stud that produced nothing but thoroughbred cross horses purely for the sport, and whether that be dressage, jumping or eventing, has been Lisa Silvester's Joshua Brook with her stallion Stirling Lukas by the Oldenburger Ludendorf out of the Holsteiner mare Faleten (Falkland x Monopol). Some excellent dressage horses have been produced invariably tall elegant types with big elevated gaits. Unfortunately Stirling Lukas died in an paddock accident some 18 months ago. Lisa Silvester recently purchased another stallion NORTHERN KEIL (Falkland Victory x Northern Catherine (N. Congres) from Northern Warmblood stud in Victoria, a stud where many national champion dressage horses were born. Some others quietly breeding some nice stock are Spring Park Stud of Michelle Ainsworth, specialising in dressage horses; Wyunga Stud of Julie Isbister in Moora who with her two talented young daughters breeds some interesting horses for dressage and jumping. Doing it a little bit harder than most is Chris Lloyd of Esperance way down the Australian Bight. He manages only a couple of times a year to bring horses to Perth from his Cataby Stud by his stallion Moselking. Dolly van Zaane's DvZ Stud just north of Perth breeds athletic horses primarily with Dutch frozen semen over Holsteiner mares. DvZ Fuerst Figaro the studs stallion has just began his jumping career and a promising young dressage mare has gone to a top dressage stable just recently. The list goes on, but the ones mentioned here are the more serious breeders, who breed with purpose and have a vision of improving and modernising the warmblood and it appears they are succeeding in one of the more remote regions of this planet! Anyone interest in wanting to know more from Western Australia you can contact me on dollyvz@iinet.net.au.