arefield keeps a number of horses at Hof Clasen in Hiddestorf, about 10 minutes from Verden. Our association with the Clasen family began with the purchase of a filly from their breeding program in 1990. We were eager to add a representative of their famous motherline to our breeding herd and we were honored to meet Juergen Clasen, the breeder of Argentan and Western Star.
The following year, son Joerg spent four months as a working student at Marefield. In 1991, we also purchased the 3-year-old Bounty and were faced with a dilemma when she earned her SPA later that year. We needed to find a place in Germany for her to stay and give birth in order to fulfill the final requirement for full state's premium status. We were invited to board her with the Clasen mares and what was to have been a short stay for one horse evolved into a long-term association that extends to six mares now boarded at Hof Clasen.
Joerg’s brother, Harm, handled horses for Marefield at Devon in 1991; in 1993, Joerg presented some of our young horses at the same show. The result was memorable: Joerg took the yearling Wintersong to the grand championship title, and so began the tradition of Joerg’s annual Devon visits. Wintersong was sent to Hof Clasen in 1994. Joerg handled her at the 1995 Verden Mare Show where she earned her SPA. Fabia was purchased in late 1993 and also went to Hof Clasen in 1994. In 1995, Allegra and Priscilla joined the other three, and Bounty’s 1996 filly Ranis was left in Germany for breeding. In the relatively short time that we have had a breeding band at Hof Clasen, three fully-licensed stallions–Rienzi, Winterlight and Dauphin–have been produced there.
While the Marefield horse population in Germany was growing so was the Clasen family. Joerg married Isabel in 1994. Son Frederik was born in 1996 and he was joined by a sister, Florentine, in 2000. The entire family is engaged in work with the horses and on the farm–which also produces crops and pigs. Joerg’s parents, Juergen and Beate, are actively involved grandparents for Frederik and Florentine and are very much in evidence on the farm and at horse events. Joerg has continued his “winning ways” when showing Marefield’s horses and his own. He guided Ranis to a class win at the 1999 Louis-Wiegels-Schau, and has built an outstanding record with the Clasens’ own SPS Fenjala, winning three Verden Mare Shows, a reserve championship at the Louis-Wiegels-Schau and, most recently, the overall championship of the 4- to 6-year olds at the 2002 Ratje Niebuhr-Schau. Isabel rides the horses primarily for the pleasure but does find time to do some competing, too–most successfully. In 1994, she guided Fabia to a final score of 7.33 at her MPT. Even the children are eagerly involved whenever the horses are on display for farm visitors.
Barbara Dzaack’s farm is in Hechthausen, near Stade–the traditional stallion-rearing region in the north of the Hanoverian breeding area. We met Barbara through the purchase of a filly in 1993 and went back to buy December a year later. In 1997, Barbara helped us acquire a full sister to the renowned SPS Malve from fellow breeding club members Rudolf and Reinhard Boesch. Marefield boards this coal black Matcho AA daughter, Melisande, with Barbara's mares. In winter they stay in her beautifully-crafted stable and have regular turnout in the surrounding paddocks. In summer, the horses roam the far-flung flat pastures scored by the wide drainage ditches, so typical of the lowlands near the sea.
With 22 years' experience as a breeder, Barbara still considers herself a neophyte and is overly modest about her accomplishments. In those little more than two decades she has established two major motherlines from her foundation mares Ginette and Polly, producing the stallion Raphanus, successful competitors in both dressage and jumping, and horses for Verden foal and Elite Auctions. She is a constant student of the breed, always studying and learning more, and she has been invaluable as an advisor to Marefield. Barbara also is quick to give credit for the early help and good guidance she received when she was starting as a breeder to her close neighbors, the Papes, from whom she purchased her foundation mares. They have continued to work closely over the years.
This spirit of cooperation among breeders in the area is formalized through a very active breeding club and exists on the informal daily level as well. Barbara has boarded weanlings for good friend and neighbor Horst Quast–breeder of Le Premier and owner of the Young Horse Champion at the 2002 Ratje Niebuhr-Schau–and he looks after her horses on the pastures in return. Barbara frequently accompanies another close friend, Dr. Christiane Schlichting–breeder of Baroncelli and Davignport–on excursions to horse events where Barbara continues her study of the horses by training her eye and exchanging information with other breeders.
The product of the region is exceptional, as citing the horses from just the few breeders mentioned reveals. We think it is in no small part due to the cooperation and sharing among the breeders and the avid study by these dedicated supporters of the Hanoverian horse. It has provided a model to emulate and, quite possibly, a recipe for success.
Photo of statue, Dieta and Foal, in logo header at top of the page by Poynter
