WELCOME TO
Der Haflingerhof
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Welcome to Der Haflingerhof. Our farm is located in beautiful Ashland County Ohio, just 3 miles north of Loudonville, halfway between Cleveland and Columbus, 15 miles from I-71. Our experience with Haflingers started in 1994 with the purchase of a registered mare named Caitydee, whom we bought from Steve Schwartzwalter of Polk, Ohio. Although this initial purchase was the shorter, drafty “old type” Haflinger, we were not involved with the breed very long until we realized the enormous potential of the breed. Here was a breed of horse with a sweet, kind, willing disposition and the ability to excel in many different disciplines. In 1996 we bought a 1/3 share of a Haflinger stallion named Waldeck Wulf. Waldeck was an Austrian bred, imported son of Winterstein. It was from this horse that we first realized the ability of the Haflinger as a riding horse. In 1998 we decided to get into breeding Haflingers. When we went to select potential broodmares, our goal was to select mares that were versatile enough to excel at both riding and driving. But at this time, (1998) it appeared to us that the breed was starting to “evolve” into 2 separate types; one a draftier, heavier workhorse type and the lighter, pleasure type, which to us appeared to be more versatile. First and foremost, we realized to create a successful breeding program we needed to select not only exceptional individual mares, but also needed to select mares from mare families that were producing top quality horses in succeeding generations. Our first selections in 1998 were two fillies we bought from Waldeck U Lesa farm in Canada. We bought the weanling filly, Demeter Wulf, and a yearling full sister to her, Deza Wulf. Both of these fillies were sired by Mistral and out of the exceptional producing mare, Dukata. In 1999 we added a full sister to the above mares, Damita Wulf. While Deza has since been sold, Demeter and Damita are still on our farm and are two of our favorite mares. Our next selections were also acquired from Waldeck U Lesa Farm. These two fillies were bought as yearlings. They are both Austrian imports sired by the extremely athletic Folenhof stallion, Nordtirol. The first filly, Rina Wulf is out of the mare Rosita. Rosita is a full sister to Aristocrat tof, Rimalda (1995 World Champion mare), and Rijana (European Grand Champion mare.) This is probably the top producing mare family in Europe. The other filly, Anne Wulf, also by Nordtirol is out of the mare Alumina. This is another great Austrian mare family as both Anne’s dam and grand dam are classified GOLD. We have since also acquired the mares Fontana TOF, an Amadeus daughter bred by the Brambock family and Assita TOF, a Winterstein daughter bred by the Fohlanhof Ebbs and from the same mare family as Anne Wulf .Assita has produced 2 SILVER classified offspring here in the US including the 2005 National Grand Champion stallion, Avanti of Cedar Lane. Another purchase was Hofina NTF , also a Winterstein daughter. This mare has produced a number of very high quality offspring here in the US. In May of 2007, Susan Van Horn was hired as the farm manager. The addition of Susan enabled us to market our horses more efficiently to the growing number of prospective buyers who are located in areas of the country who do not have easy access to Haflinger sales or auctions. Susan’s love for horses and her extensive background in 4-H and Pony Club circles made her a very good fit for our farm. Susan was also fastidious about teaching horses proper ground manners and getting horses started correctly under saddle. She has since semi-retired and is currently marketing the horses from DerHaflingerhof. THE FUTURE: Our vision of the future of this great breed is to continue to produce versatile horses with correct conformation, outstanding movement and good minds. With this in mind we have become very active in the American Haflinger Registry Inspection and Classification program. We believe there is no better tool available to help continually improve the breed than this program. Now we have a program called “AHR Disposition and Trainability Assessment.” The purpose of this program is to ensure that we continue to focus on two of the most important features that distinguish the Haflinger from most other breeds; disposition and versatility. Our goal is to create a means of measuring these traits and reward those horses that exhibit these desirable traits with favorable ratings. As always, visitors are
always welcome at Der Haflingerhof (except on Sunday.) We enjoy meeting Haflinger
enthusiasts from around the world. Robert Eicher- Farm
Owner
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LAST UPDATED 10-4-2011
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