On 13 June, the breeding districts’ delegates, the board and the Holsteiner Verband’s managing directors held their meeting at Neumünster. Certainly the most important topic of the long agenda has been the election of the new president and two advisors.
In addition to the elections, the reports of the managing directors and the financial report, the agenda also included numerous amendments to the articles of association.

Hinrich Romeike, who did not stand for re-election, welcomed the plenum and asked for a moment of silence to remember those members who passed away during the year. Hans-Helmuth Sievers was mentioned for all of them. Romeike continued with an accolade for the managing directors and their teams and announced that their positive work would show in the financial re- port later. He continued with the announcement of the city mayor‘s positive response regarding new plans for the Elmshorn facility on the condition of the Holsteiner themselves tearing down and removing the existing tribune. A workshop has been held already dealing with this topic. It has produced a lot of ideas so far which are now considered and evaluated. This project is under direction of board member Inken Gräfin von Platen-Hallermund right now. Trimming of the operation, furthering Holsteiner dressage horses and progressing digitalisation have been other topics the board has dealt with in recent months. In addition, he mentioned the IT-change away from LKV to VIT (Vereinigte Informationssysteme Tierhalter) of Verden.

Stephan Haarhoff, breeding manager
Stephan Haarhoff opened his report with some figures and facts given by the National Federation (FN). Registrations of warmblood foals went up by 3.6 percent. Holstein noticed a plus as well: 6.2 per cent so far. The number of starts at competitions is going up as well. However, it is still far from the pre-pandemic level. The Bundeschampionate make news as well. Several changes will be made to heighten their attractiveness, for instance more prize money, a grand prix in jumping for eight-year-old horses, a Bun- deschampionat for seven-year-old dressage horses and covered tribunes.
The breeding manager sees the future of mare registrations as an important subject. “We have to work on this concept to height- en attractiveness for breeders”. At the end, Haarhoff reported on the status quo of the guidelines for the horse‘s welfare. A targeted training like lungeing in age-appropriate self-carriage and loose jumping up to 1.30m remain permitted. The rule of taking horses in training only from the age of 30 months has reference to the date of the licensing not to the start of the training. “We are on the safe side with our new date in February. But we are under obser- vation and we should not overdo it”, Stephan Haarhoff warned strongly.

Sebastian Rohde, Holsteiner Verband Hengsthaltungs GmbH
It was the first delegates meeting for the new managing director,
Sebastian Rohde, in office in Elmshorn since 15 March. Rohde started his report with some figures. Currently 26 stallions are available with fresh and 39 with frozen semen. In a top ten-com- parison it is Crack who has covered the most mares (275) so far, followed by Charaktervoll (193) and Casall (192) and Clarimo (152). Among the three-year-olds, Nohoval (48) and Update (42) have been the most popular. Caracho and Lenair were sold. Adagio de Talma, Cancara, Conway and Cornetino are internationally leased. Regarding Clarksville Rohde reported that his development looks promising but a decision on his future will be made still in this year. Adjustment of covering fees from 2023 will be a topic the managing director wants to deal with for making membership in

the Holsteiner Verband even more attractive. The State foal cham- pionship of Bad Segeberg will be held this year on 14 August al- ready. It will have an additional offer for foals with dressage priority.

Roland Metz, Marketing and Auction
Roland Metz began with a short review of two foal auctions. “At Hamburg, the Derby auction did not work as expected, unfortu- nately. The bad weather probably had a large part in that“, said Metz. At the auction during the Horse Days it was different. More than 90 percent of the collection had been sold there for an average price of around 9,700 Euros. Furthermore, he said that the Ver- marktungs GmbH is well positioned for 2022 but at the same time it has to be kept in mind that due to the postponed licensing date there won’t be any stallion auction this year. He reminded breeders that auctions can be successful only if they continue to support the Verband by bringing their best horses to the auctions.

Finance report
The finance report was a pleasing topic on the agenda, telling of a rise in liquid funds by around 1.2 million Euro overall for all three companies. The Hengsthaltungs Gmbh achieved a significant improvement, mainly by better return in horse sales. For the first time marketing operates in the black, first and foremost through higher turn-overs at auctions and special effects. The result, however, would have been positive even without the special effects. The Verband’s department of Kiel notes a constantly positive fi- nancial performance. Following this reports, the delegates meeting gave unanimous approval to the actions of the board.

Elections
Before taking over the role of returning officer, the vice-president, Dr. Maximilian Slawinski gave thanks to Hinrich Romeike: “You donated much of your time, gave a lot of impulse and always tried to further develop the Holsteiner horse.” Ulrich Steuber contested for presidency at a three-year-term. The 66-year-old architect from Osdorf is no unknown. So far he has held the presidency of licensing district Rendsburg-Eckernförde, has been speaker of the licensing district’s president and advisor of good governance. Following his unanimous election by the delegates, he stepped down from these offices and gave thanks for the voters trust. “I want a cooperation in trust, respect and with reliability for the best of the Holsteiner horse“, Steuber said. Dieter Feddersen (Jol- delund) was re-elected as an advisor for three years and Jürgen Schaffner (Hohenaspe) is new in office as an advisor for one year. The new advisor for good governance is Hans-Joachim Ahsbahs (Bokel).

The most important statute changes

• A stallion’s registration in stallion book Holstein I is possible without attending a licensing event if the stallion is listed in the WBFSH-ran- king on position 1 to 50
• Stallions of foreign blood can be presented without recommendation from the breeding commission and approval of the board at a licensing event of Elmshorn
• The limit on coverings for stallions is dropped
• The issue of medication respecti- vely doping will be explained more detailed in the statutes:  1. Three months retention period until follow-up presentation, 2. Depending on the seriousness of the offence a fine of up to 50,000 Euros is due

Text and Photo: Carolin Tassius-Diederich