Sunday, October 14, 2012

A visit to the Schockemoehle Stud was the thing that most people who participated in our tours wanted to do. The internationally famous private stallion station and riding center is very interesting. In addition to the approximately forty stallions always stationed there, the station has an intensive riding and training center. There are several barns of horses in training, each with its own head trainer, riders and grooms. The place is a veritable factory, turning out semen and horses at an incredible rate. Mr. Schockemoehle is a successful business man who owns 14 companies. Driving into the small town of Muehlen-Steinfeld, one passes his transportation company. Each company, including the horse business, runs like a well oiled machine; it's almost like a small town in itself. Efficiency and production is emphasized. In the morning there are several indoor and outdoor riding rings full of horses in training and stallions being exercised. The stallions are brought out of their stalls three times per day to prevent boredom and bad behavior. Once to be ridden under saddle, once to spend about 20 minutes on the treadmill and once to walk in the walking machine. Two full time shoers are kept busy all day. Tractors groom arenas and move mountains of hay, straw and manure. The stud farm employs hundreds of people, from truck drivers to hay farmers to shoers, grooms, riders and trainers. Most of the employees are local and the stud farm is an important economic force in the region. Paul Schockemoehle has changed the face of German horse breeding with his methods. The state run/government studs (landgestuets) cannot compete with him financially, and he usually purchases the best stallions available at the sales and stallion approvals/auctions, leaving the landgestuets to search for bargains amongst the lesser priced stallions. It will be interesting to see how the Schockemoehle influence plays out over time.

No comments:

Post a Comment