By Sally Reid
Photography: Courtesy Jutta Rosenblatt
One of New Zealand’s leading and most respected Hanoverian breeders, Berny Maubach, died recently following an illness. He is survived by his wife, Jutta Rosenblatt, who will now continue to run the stud on her own.
Berny was born in Münster, Germany, but lived from the age of five on a farm, ‘Gut Vollrath’, in the North Rhine-Westfalia region. For 16 years he worked as a police officer, reaching the role of Detective Chief Inspector of Anti-terrorism. It was a far cry from the life he subsequently made for himself in New Zealand, and brought him into contact with some internationally notorious ‘customers’ (as he called them), including the Baader-Meinhoff group.
Berny’s interest in horses began when he married New Zealander Debbie Smith and moved here with her in 1978. They bred some Cleveland Bay crosses on their land near Whanganui, and may have continued to do so had their neighbour Gaye Carrol, a foundation member of the NZ Hanoverian Society, not visited one day, asking Berny to translate some correspondence from the Verband in Germany. It was a turning-point in his life.
Vollrath Hanovoverian Stud
By 1982, he had founded Vollrath Hanoverian Stud, named after the farm on which he grew up. His breeding programme was carefully planned, using the imported stallions Witzbold (1976: Winnetou - Lady x Lugano II), Distelfink (1978: Diskus - Doreen x Dueker), and Genius (1980: Garibaldi I - Dreamy x Diskus), with Thoroughbred mares to create a broodmare band.
By the end of that decade, Berny wanted a German-bred stallion for Vollrath; his original choice was a horse called Erbherzog, but friend and Hanoverian breeder Holger Schmorl advised against this, instead recommending Dynamit (1981: Dynamo - Elfi x Eger II), a magnificent black son of the D-line. Schmorl, originally from Menninghausen in Germany, was the founder of Kinnordy Stud in Australia... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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