By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: private collection and Peter Llewellyn

The title of this article is an often-heard quote from breeders who were motivated to start their business when the price of horses became an insurmountable obstacle to acquiring the best of the best... But it’s that motivation that often produces excellence.

This was certainly the case for Manuele Lachnit – the breeder of Diaron who descends from a very interesting performance line that traces back to pure Trotter. Is it this particular Trotter blood that’s responsible for the performance of this bloodline, and how was it built by Man uele. Born in 2012, Diaron OLD is by Holsteiner Diarado (Diamant de Semilly [SF]), out of Lenda-Cara (Oldbg), by Come On (Holst.)

Trotter blood brings performance

Diaron is the fifth generation that has been bred by Manuela Lachnit and her father Dieter Rippe – five generations that hold almost 60 years of breeding history. But the story begins with the 1960-born Trotter mare Lindauway (Waywise - Lindau x Epilog).
Manuela Lachnit recalls: “My father always wanted to have a trotter mare. The miracle mare Halla from Hans-Günther Winkler was by a Trotter stallion. My parents loved eventing, hunting, and of course jumping. Halla was their role model and, because of her, they searched for a long time to find a fitting Trotter mare. People who knew my father had a Trotter mare for sale, and that was Lindauway. She was not in foal when my parents purchased her, but my father had a horse by Agram – one that we all loved. So with the purchase of Lindauway my father had the chance to use a stallion with Agram blood. My parents drove to Bremervörde to use the much wanted Agram blood.
“Lindauway was going to be covered by the Hanoverian-bred stallion Efendi (Agram - Achsennelke x Achselschwang), who stood in Bremervörde. This was a back-and-forth trip back of 200 kilometres. My parents were so happy with the resulting filly that they decided to cover Lindauway again with Efendi. Lindauway was in heat, and with Linda as a foal at foot we drove through a snow storm again to Bremervörde. The manager of the stud was shaking with his head from disbelief.

“The blood of the Trotter damline is responsible for the success that we’ve had with this line. We didn’t realize this at the time, as we purchased Lindauway for our own use and so that we could breed a foal that we could ride. At one point I realized that I could not afford to buy the horses that I liked, so thought I should start breeding horses that match my criteria with the mare that we had, and so that I could ride those horses in sport. I was passionate about bloodlines and I tried to read everything about breeding. I had a weak spot for French bloodlines and especially for Almé. If you looked at the bloodlines of international jumping horses you saw Almé, Lavendel, or Domspatz... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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