Bavarian Warmblood Sport Horse Breed

The Bavarian Warmblood is a horse breed of southern Germany that was bred using the old Bavarian "Rottaler" breed, English Thoroughbreds, and Trakehner stallions. The Bavarian Warmblood was registered as a separate breed since 1963.

The Bavarian Warmblood is an elegant and large warmblood horse, and is similar to the Hanoverian. It has a well set neck, a heavy chest, long sloping shoulders, high withers, a well muscled, long back, and strong legs with big hocks. It stands at 15.2-16.2 hands high, and come mainly in bay or chestnut. It is used as a multi-purpose sport horse with good character and large, flat strides.

The Bavarian Warmblood is used for riding, light draft, and carriage work, and is not a fast horse. It is also an excellent show jumping and dressage horse.

Exterior: Elegant large warmblood horse, similar to the Hanoverian. Well set large neck, heavy chest, long sloping shoulder and high withers. Well muscled, long back, strong legs with massive hocks. Size: Up to 170 cm Colour: Mainly bay and chestnut Usage: Multi-purpose sport horse with good character and large, flat strides.

The Bavarian warmblood has its home in the state to Bavaria. The breeding goal is a riding horse for sport and pleasure purposes. Bavaria is one of the oldest horse breeding regions in Germany and was known in the past for the local Rottal horse. Already at the times of the crusades the 'Rottal chestnuts" were praised as good riding horses. At the end of the 18th century Holstein stallions with Neapolitan and Andalusian bloodlines and in the 1st half of the 19th century half-breds of Norfolk, Zweibruecken and Normandy blood were mixed in. As the breed aimed mainly at military usage, the horses became too light for farming use.

The desired strong calibre horse breed was achieved by using Normandy and Oldenburg stallions. The Rottal heavy warmblood horse for carriage and field use was very much in demand until the second world war. However, todays Bavarian warmbloods are mainly based on Hanoverian and Westphalian blood, which dominates their appearance. Small doses of Thoroughbred and Trakehner blood were also used for refinement. After the abandoning of the Landshut state stud the stud at Schwaiganger ("Haupt- und Landgestuet") became the centre of the Bavarian breeding.