State Run Breeding Programs for Orlov Trotters

Tags: Orlov Trotter, Breeding

 

Across Central Europe, Russia, and many of the other Eastern countries there has been a concentrated effort by the government to produce a number of breeds of horses under very strictly controlled breeding programs. These programs are managed and run by the agricultural departments in the belief that the pooling of funds into central stud farms would ensure that the best quality of the stallions and mares, as well as the best professionals for training and horse husbandry could be centrally located to develop the best of the breed.

There is little doubt that with breeds such as the Orlov the state run breeding programs in Khrenovskoy, Dubroyski, Noyotomnikov, and Perm have allowed the breed to be enhanced and developed using the influence of other breeds while still keeping the general and substantial qualities of the breed. There are now 15 state stud farms that breed and raise purebred Orlov trotters, and several that also breed Russian Trotters, a cross between the Orlov and the American Standardbred. One of the major benefits of a state run breeding program as opposed to a group of private breeders is that the breeding is always done based on the same goals, at least as interpreted by the manager of the state run stud. In private breeding programs each individual breeder will have his or her own preferences, tending to lead to a much larger variation in the breed. In the case of the Orlov Trotter, each one of the state run studs has a slightly different type of Orlov, with some farms more directed to produce racing Orlovs while other working to produce the slightly larger mount preferred by the military and police work. The Khrenov stud, where the first Orlov was developed by A. G Orlov in 1784, is considered to produce the ideal Orlov that is a well conformed, all around horse capable of police, racing, farm, and even pleasure riding and light draft work.

State run breeding programs often bring in outside stallions that they can purchase with money earned through the sale for the foals, breeding and stud fees as well as government program money. Some of the breeds that have been brought in to improve the Orlov Trotter include diverse breeds such as the Mecklenburg, English Thoroughbred and Arabian, which were also part of the foundation stock for the breed. In addition several different mares of Danish breeding were also instrumental in adding size and gait to the breed and heavily influenced the first generations of Orlovs.

State studs do more than just breed horses. Many of the state studs have extensive training and horse husbandry programs and are considered to produce some of the best trained and most competitive horses. Professional trainers, equine specialists and riders work at the state studs to produce not only well conformed horses but also studs and mares that have proven performance and temperament. This allows for the consistency in the breed as well as allows the breed to be changed within certain parameters as the demand for different types and styles of horses changes.

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