Orlov Trotter

The Orlov Trotter is a horse breed from Russia. With his breeding end of the 18th century began.

Background information on the evaluation and breeding horses can be found at: exterior, interior and horse breeding.

Exterior

The horse has a height at the withers of 160 cm, is elegant, strong and has a slightly geramsten head. His most inclined gooseneck neck is high. His back is relatively long, the chest is not very deep, but wide. The croup is short and inclined and the tail is set very high and carried. The legs are strong, hard and long, with little lightly feathered. The hooves are large. Occur frequently tendon problems.

Orlov trotters have an impressive trot, but not as pronounced as in modern trotter. The body color of this breed is mostly gray, but there are also brown and black horses before.

Orlov trotters can about 52 km / h fast. They are ideal for harness racing.

Interior

The balanced, honest nature of the Orlov Trotter is appreciated.

Breeding history

Count Alexei Orlov Tschesmenski, once the favorite of Catherine the Great, fell out of favor in 1770 and devoted himself since the breeding of trotting horses. The goal was a reliable workhorse for carriage and carriage that could exist over long distances with great rapidity in the harsh conditions of Russia. Animals should be further equipped with a high trotting action and much nobility.

After several failed attempts, Count Orlov decided on the use of Arabian horses which are known for their great hardness and stamina. For this purpose, purchased by Count Orlov in the Morea, today's Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, in 1775 a group of Arabian horses for his stud Ostrowo near Moscow. A horse of this group was the gray stallion Smetánka, the Count Orlov should have purchased for 60,000 rubles. The stallion had a shoulder height of 153 cm, which is a great deal for a desert Arabs, the breeding goal of Count Orlov, however, was useful.

Of the five descendants of Smetánka fell out of a Danish mare bred to the stallion polka I. This in turn was crossed with a Dutch Harddraver -Mare, over which an improvement in the trot assets could be achieved. The son out of this combination, a mold called bars I ( Snow Lion), was the progenitor of the Orlov Trotter and worked 17 years as a stallion at the stud Chrenovoi. The mixed race of bars I was probably reason that the stallion inherited little constant. Only the pairing with half-sisters of the bars of I whose father polka I brought a good inheritance of the positive attributes of polka I and the trotting of the Dutch mare.

A systematic breeding policy which both scheduled inbreeding as a strict selection made ​​use of a beautiful, powerful race could be formed in a short time, specially suitable as fast Carriage and sleigh horse. Over a long period put the Orlov Trotter breed the fastest trotter dar. The stallion Cowboy ran 1,600 meters in 1:57,2 minutes. In the second half of the 19th century but was replaced herein by the American Standardbred trotter breed and crosses of this breed.

The existence of the Orlov Trotter was then declined sharply and almost a last minute regulations were from the Russian Empire Stud Administration enacted which includes measures for the conservation of the species. At the end of the 20th century, the existence of the Orlov Trotter is said to have about 25,000 animals includes.

The most important stud farms today are in addition to the original Chrenowskoi stud at Bobrow in the Voronezh Oblast: Moscow stud, stud Shakhovskoi ( in Tula ), Permski stud ( in Perm ), Tschesmenski stud ( Voronezh Oblast ), Altaiski stud ( Altai region ), Tatarski stud ( Tatarstan ), Nowotomnikowski stud ( in the Tambov Oblast ), Schadrinski stud ( Schadrinsk, Kurgan Oblast ) and the Kemerowski stud ( in Kemerovo ).

The confusion with the Russian Trotter and the Orlov Trotter comes from the fact that today's Russian trotter only Metis Trotter was called and the Orlov Trotter was temporarily renamed the Russian trotter - we wanted to make clear that the " nobles toy " nothing to would do. 1949 was the Orlov Trotter then its original name back and Metis Trotter may since hot Russian trotter. Russian trotters are so until 1949 actually Orlov and since 1949 Metis Trotter.