GERMANY (by Adriana van Tilburg) The quality of mare lines cannot be judged by their quantity. The largest stamm we know in Holstein is 776, in the Netherlands/Belgium the mare line of Darco (Nomana-stam, Merrielijn 2, fokfamilie 8) is one of the biggest. In these two mare lines you will find branches that are not producing the quality you might have hoped for. The opposite is true of the mare lines that are very small, maybe fewer than one percent of the size of the aforementioned lines. For many breeders, these are also not well known mare lines – one being the example of stamm 2294!
I spent some years of my childhood daily visiting a farm with mainly Dutch Warmbloods. One mare was special to me, a black mare with the name Josiane (Tin Rocco - Neigung x Laertes, bred by Heike Mohr). I am talking about more than 25 years ago. Then, I had no knowledge of bloodlines whatsoever. My path and Josiane’s crossed again in the year 2000.
This wonderful mare had lived through some horrible years when, as a five-year-old, she spent 120 days in a Dutch university clinic hovering between life and death. The ignorance of caregivers had made her ‘dangerous’, she was being ridden even though the clinic had sent a letter to the owner stating that she could never be ridden again!
In 2000 Josiane came into my care without knowing her history. She subsequently gave birth to the most amazing filly by Flemmingh (La-capo), Tharesia. Josiane allowed me to brush her once a week. If I tried more often, her body language made it quite clear that she wanted to be left alone. However, her big soft eyes made me want to spend more time with her. Once Tharesia was weaned, she wanted attention, so that was the start of our journey...
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