By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: FEI/Richard Juilliart; Peter Llewellyn; FEI/Leanjo de Koster

The mare line of United Touch S is based on the never-to-be-forgotten Olympic winner Classic Touch (Caletto II - Sevada x Landgraf I, Stamm 4025, breeder: Hans-Werner Ritters). Ludger Beerbaum’s ride with the Caletto II daughter in Barcelona 1992, gave him his only individual Olympic gold medal, and a memory that will live on in history.

The mare Ol Brun was registered in 1890, bred by Johannes Möller, which marked the origins of Stamm 4025, founded by the mare Feldtor (1947: Lothar - Habsburg x Lorenz, breeder: Hans Albers). She was used on the farm for agricultural purposes; it was pre tractor days. She was a good work horse, but grew up during a period when mechanization started to impact the use of horses in work.

Thies Piening

In fewer than 20 years the Holsteiner horse population dropped from 12,000 to 1,200 mares. Feldtor was one of the lucky mares who remained for breeding, even if it was at several places.
In 1965 Feldtor became the mother to Bambina (Aldato). As a seven-year-old this mare was sold to Thies Piening (84) who recalls: “I took over the farm from my father in 1959 and I had also work horses in that time, but none of them was good enough for breeding. My father also used to breed horses. During the war when he was away from home he wrote us letters about what stallions we needed to use for the mares. I also wanted to start breeding so went looking around farms in my area with my friend, Heinz Magens.
“We heard that Rolf Meyburg wanted to sell some horses, but I didn’t really like he showed us. But I noticed other horses in a different field and asked to see them At first Meyburg didn’t want us to see these horses, but in this field was Bambina, already a champion as a two-year-old of all Holsteiner mares in Elmshorn
“In the past there had already been an approval for two-year-old mares, and I was especially looking for one who had a good character because some lines didn’t have such characters. Bambina had a lot of power, but our children could walk underneath her. She never kicked or anything and she has passed this through to her offspring. She was a top class mare and had very good movement. Her sire Aldato was also a good stallion.
“I purchased her in foal to Sable Skinflint xx, out of state premium mare Hexe, a beautiful mare, although her character wasn’t suitable for me. However her other offspring inherited her good character.”
One year before Hexe was born Bambina gave birth to a full brother, Sabamo. This gelding competed at advanced level eventing under the saddle of Theodore Leuchten.
The genetics of Bambina have also spread to Australia with her son Monopol (Moltke I) born in 1972. He was imported into Australia in 1975 by the German migrant Gerhard Quast who had emigrated from the area of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. Monopol was going to be the first horse that he imported to Australia and he became very influential in the Australian Warmblood breeding.

In 1974 her first Roman (Ramzes AA - Dorette x Monarch, Stamm 18B1, Breeder: Martin Thormählen) offspring was going to be born; the first of five. According to Thies Piening; “Roman was not such a well-known stallion back then. He belonged to Herman Blohm. In the summer, he stood in Ditmarschen on the Eider, which is where I usually went with my mare. In winter he was here in Brokreihe. I thought something good of the stallion while many others did not. Maas. J. Hell, for example, didn’t think much of Roman. He had a bit of a ram’s head, but my horses never had that. That the Roman blood is so good in the dam line was not known at that time.”
Las Vegas, a mare, was the first of Roman’s five offspring. Piening continued by adding; “She was the best offspring of Roman and Bambina.” But more later about Las Vegas... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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