Polydor - the Perfect Horse @museum.de

M: You're looking at a real superstar! This is Polydor.

F: He was neither the handsomest of horses, nor the most successful in sporting terms. What made Polydor special were his genes! This Westphalian riding horse has more than a thousand registered offspring. He twice topped the world ranking of show jumping sires and held the title "Sire of the World". In Germany alone, the lifetime earnings of this breeding stallion came to 2.3 million Euros. A really outstanding achievement in horse breeding. When Polydor died at the age of 28 in April 2000, obituaries appeared all over the world.

M: But who or what decides whether a stallion is suitable for breeding?

F: It all begins with an inspection. Even to be pre-selected, a stallion must meet certain requirements. These include physical appearance as well as state of health. During the inspection itself, a panel, the licensing commission, decides whether the stallion meets the criteria laid down in the breed standard. If the answer is yes, he's considered to be licensed! This is followed by a stallion performance test.

This is where, along with rideability, movement and jumping ability, the "inner" characteristics of a horse are assessed, such as character and temperament. If the stallion passes all these tests, he’s approved as a breeding stallion.

M: Horse breeding takes its cue from what is currently in demand. Horses are "adapted" to the respective requirements by selective breeding. – In Westphalia, the breeding goal at the moment is as follows:

F: "(...) a noble, long-lined, correct riding horse with swinging, ground-covering, flexible movements, which, thanks to its temperament, character and rideability, is suitable for riding purposes of all kinds."

M: Yet over the course of history, breeding goals have regularly changed. The painting on the wall shows a dapple grey called "Kranich" – the favourite horse of a certain Count Anton Günther von Oldenburg. In the 17th century, Kranich was one of the most famous horses of his day. He’s an example of the breeding goals laid down by the nobility back then: The horse's mane was more than six and a half feet long, the tail measured more than nine feet. In his own time, "Kranich" was the ideal horse.

F: Next to the picture of Kranich, you can see two examples from the late 18th century. The picture on the left shows the ideal "well-built horse". By contrast, the one on the right depicts a "misshapen horse" with all its external defects. Striking images like these were mainly intended to improve rural breeding efforts. Even as recently as the 1960s, horses were primarily used as working animals in agriculture, in industry and in the military. These days, horses are mainly used for sport and leisure – which is why the demands on breeding are completely different now.