February 1, 2005 Articles >> OUR TRIP TO DENMARK

Our Trip to Denmark

by Pat Wolfe   

My wife Jane and I just returned home from a shopping trip to Denmark.  There we purchased two gorgeous young fillies and a “conformation plus” six year old mare. As if this wasn’t enough, we enjoyed a horse experience money can’t buy.

From early morning until late at night we crisscrossed Denmark, seeing more of the countryside and its people than most visitors ever see, and more horses than you’d believe possible.

We were met at Arhus Airport by Birgit Mortensen, secretary of the Danish Fjord Association.  For the next four days, this knowledgeable woman and other members of the Danish Fjord Association treated us like royalty. Birgit, on her own time, translated for us and took us to farm after farm where we ate delicious Danish specialties including “real” Danish pastries, and drank incredible amounts of coffee.  And what we saw on all the farms impressed us no end. 

There are 50 licensed Fjord stallions in Denmark and we were privileged to visit 14 of them.  Two things about these Danish stallions really impressed me:  first how gentle they were, and second how well they moved at the trot.

These stallions acted like pussycats.  Not one of their owners used a stud shank. One of the best breeding stallions in the country, Orion, was shown to us by the owner’s mother.  He was led past mares with only a rope lead shank.  Another very good stallion, Abel, was led, again past mares, with one of the owner’s fingers through his halter ring.  We saw this gentleness repeated in all the stallions we visited.  They were housed right beside mares and geldings.  I personally agree that stallions need to be close to other horses, not necessarily nose to nose but within a few feet.  Stallions, like all horses, get very lonely and worried when out of sight of other horses.

And could these Danish stallions ever trot! There was one particular two year old called Fuzzy Stanstorp that could really fly.  I have never seen a Fjord move as well as this guy could.  Another stallion with a beautiful trot was Fjordens Marcus, not surprisingly the 2004 Fjord of the year in Denmark.  We had him in an arena for half an hour and he spent most of this time on his own just cruising around the rail at a wonderful extended trot.  What a site that was.

After Birgit picked us up at the airport, our first stop was historical Vilhelmsborg, one of the largest equestrian centres in Europe, a lovely estate with facilities of high international standard.  We were treated to lunch in the converted blacksmith shop of the attached nineteenth century farm. Vilhelmsborg is where the annual stallion evaluation and the performance test are held. Next year the 65th Studbook Jubilee will be held on these grounds and Jane and I hope to be there. 

After lunch we visited Claus Brokholm in Thorso.  Claus has 30 Fjords on his farm.  It was a pleasure to see so many good mares and fillies at one time.  The only disappointment for me was that the filly I liked best was not for sale.  This was to happen many times during this trip.

Our next stop was the Birken Riding School in Skingstrup.  Here we met Jens Hoegh and Helle Graves.  I’m a stallion man and when we walked into the barn and saw five licensed stallions stalled side by side my mouth dropped open.  Here is where we saw Fjordens Marcus.  He was the one who floated around the arena on his own for half an hour.  I was really impressed.  His father is Kastanjegardens Fernando, now in Illinois and owned by the Sophie and Howard Fiedler.  Another very nice young stallion in the stable was Vikkelsoe’s  I.P., a two and a half year old who placed third at the 2004 Danish evaluation and received a breeding license.

We came to the riding school primarily to see three yearling fillies.  The one I really liked was Birken’s Morel.  This filly has wonderful movements and a very large engine in the back.  She has tons of energy and can really motor.  I immediately put her on my possibility list.

That first evening we stayed in the same village of Skingstrup in an old school house, the G.I. Skole, now a B&B.  We enjoyed a wonderful fish stew dinner with Helle, Jens, Claus and Birgit. Here was my chance to talk about Fjords in Denmark.

On Day Two we traveled to the west side of Denmark to visit Birte and Knud Bjerre at Spoettrup.  The Bjerres are presently building a new house overlooking a fjord, the geographical kind.  What a beautiful ocean view!  They have 18 horses and we looked particularly at three good-looking yearling fillies.  Each was from a different father: Birk Halsnaes, Citrus Klattrup and Halskovs Vulkan.  I find it fascinating to meet the stallions and then see what they throw.  Here we also experienced our first taste of “real” Danish pastries.  They were marvelous and quite different from what we get at home.

Next stop was Neils Bisgaard’s farm in Redsted Mors.  Here we met Dennis Bisgaard and his girl friend Ditte who owns a beautiful filly, with a score of nine, a full sister to Fernando, and, unfortunately, not for sale.  We also met the stallion, Cadeau Halsnaes, sire of many good young horses. After visiting Dennis we went on to meet his brother, Carsten, and looked at a few more nice fillies but they weren’t exactly what I was looking for.

That evening we stayed with Birgit and enjoyed a wonderful meal and visit with Niels Mortensen, a senior Danish evaluator, and his wife, Anna.  Niels and I compared notes on the North American and Danish evaluation programs.

After a 7 am start on Day Three we stopped at the farm of  Lone and Jes Boesen in Horsens.  Three stallions are stationed here.  The stallion I was excited to see was Golf Gudena.  In 2004, many of his get did really well at the final evaluation. They came first and second place in the two year old stallion class, and second and third in the three year old stallion class.  He had three of the top ten in the two year old mare finals: second, fifth and sixth places. Golf is a very up-headed stallion and he moves well.  He passes these traits on to his offspring. We saw three more very nice fillies at this farm before we were off to visit Jorgen Juhl in Fredericia.

Jorgen had a six year old mare he wanted us to see.  Her name is Hirse.  She was a very nice looking mare but I told him I was looking for a young filly.  Just as I told him I wasn’t interested I heard this voice behind me say, “I’ll take her.”  The voice came from my wife Jane.  I thought I was the one shopping for a horse, but Hirse became number one on our list to go to Canada.  I’ve since had a chance to check her lineage and I’m impressed with Jane’s good horse judgment.  Hirse’s father is Citrus Klatrop, a top breeding stallion.  Her grand-father is Pikant Halsnes, holder of the highest score ever in the Danish studbook. Her sister was the first place four year old mare and Hirse, herself a first class mare, received a 9 for type. 

Over a delicious lunch with the Mortensens, Niels and I continued our conversation about evaluation programs and then Niels showed us Halskovs Aera, the number one, two year old mare for 2004.  She has a beautiful head, lovely movement and great conformation, but, surprise, surprise, not for sale. 

Our next stop was Jens Kristensen’s farm at Ringkobingvej.  We saw Jens’ 20 Fjords and his stallion Abel Stanstorp.  He is a very gentle stallion with a wonderful trot.  Abel gave his trot to the three young fillies Jens had for sale.  They were lovely but I was still waiting for the perfect one who would say, “Take me home.”

The sun was setting as we headed for the home of Vivian and Jens Erik Skott at Hamborggardsvej where Vivian had a traditional Danish supper waiting for us.  We had high rounded spiced ground meat patties covered with onions and gravy and topped with a fried egg.  They were delicious.  Then the whole family came out with us to see the horses.  We were very impressed when young Simon and Therese automatically put on their hard hats to go into the barn.  We’ll make this a rule at home for our grandchildren.  While the adults looked at Fjords, the children played with their miniature Shetlands.  Jane was all for adding a few of these to the shopping list, but I was more interested in the grey fillies.  One of these fillies, Vikkelsoee’s Kunst, is coming home with our three.  She will be going to Russ Rasmussen in New Brunswick, Canada.

Day Four came all too soon.  This was our last chance to look for the perfect filly.  The day started at Helene Lund Frederiksen’s farm, home of the stallion, Orion Halsnaes.  Orion was led out by Helene’s mother, Karin.  I was so impressed at how gentle he was.  Karin led him past many mares in standing stalls with just a lead shank and no chain over his nose.  There was a beautiful filly by Orion in the barn but, again, she was not for sale.  They sure like to keep the good ones.

Our next stop was at Trille and Peder Lindberg’s in Sandved.  Here we saw the first place two and a half year old stallion for 2004, Mosegardens Kejser.  His father is Golf.  Also in the barn was the second place two and a half year old mare, Katrinedals Isabell, also by Golf. They did have a very good nine month old filly by Golf for sale,  Mosegaardens Bine.  I liked her a lot so she was put onto my possibility list.  Then we headed for the house and more of the Danish hospitality we found everywhere: good strong coffee, fresh rolls baked especially for us by Trille and Peder’s daughter, and the delectable Danish cheese we had at every stop.

Next on the itinerary was lunch with Jette and Flemming Strange-Hansen.  Flemming is Chairman of the Denmark Fjord Horse Association and an evaluator.   After lots of horse talk we headed out to the barn to see 28 year old Caesar Halsnaes.  This stallion is the last breeding son in Denmark of the famous Rei Halsnaes.  There is one other son owned by a German family and standing presently in the UK.  Practically every horse born in Denmark today has Caesar Halsnaes in their pedigree.  Old Caesar was in excellent condition and it was a pleasure to see him.  Flemming has many older horses at his farm, most of them born there.  His older mares have produced some top quality animals, however, there were no fillies for sale.

We were off after lunch to a nearby farm to visit with Camilla and Freddy Larsen at Svinninge.  Here we saw a very nice filly from Abel. Kia Enghaven is coming two years old, just the age I was looking for.  She has very good movements so I put her on the list.  I now had three to consider.

Our next stop was just down the road.  Michael Ravn had a filly by Golf, just coming two, a full sister to the mare that placed second in the 2004 final mares’ class.  As I walked into the barn I caught sight of the filly at the same time as I heard her say very clearly, and amazing as this sounds, in perfect English, “Take me home.”  Luckily, Katrinedals Vanessa was for sale because she went to the top on my list.  She had lots of presence and was overall as good a mare as her full sister. Now we were getting somewhere, and it wasn’t just down to the wire.

Leaving Vanessa behind for the moment, we were off to our next stop, the farm of Annette Fredslund in St. Merlose.  Annette owns the stallion, Idon Busklund.  Annette and some of her students put on a show for us and free jumped Idon easily four feet.  It was an impressive performance, especially as they say Idon also jumps four feet with a rider.  Annette also had a nice young filly for us to see.  The sun was setting on our last day as we headed towards the town of Gislinge and the last farm of our trip.

Jane and Leif Grimbuhler, another evaluator, had a filly coming two, also from Golf.  This filly was very nice overall and could trot beautifully.  My only concern was her size.  She was a little smaller than what I was looking for. 

Then Leif showed me his flying machine, Fuzzy Stanstorp.  Man could he move, all four feet off the ground and just floating. I have never seen a Fjord move like this guy.  If I had been shopping for a stallion I would certainly have considered bringing him home.

The sun was down on our last day and supper was on the table.  On the way to the house Leif told me he also had a very special nine month old filly stabled at a neighbors across the way.  She was not for sale, Leif continued, but perhaps I would like to have a look at her?  This filly’s father was Marcus, Fjord of the year in 2004, her grandfather was Kastanjegardens Fernando, Fjord of the year in 1998 and 1999, and now living in Illinois, and her great-grandfather was Orion Halsnaes, stallion of the year in 1997 and her great-great grandfather was Knast Halsnaes, Fjord of the year in 1988.  What a lineage!  She was just across the road in another barn and Leif’s wife was calling us in, but who can resist seeing just one more Fjord? 

Well guess what?  Young Emmeline had also been practicing her “Take me home,” and she is now on her way to Canada with Hirse and Vanessa. They will arrive on April 7th.