Gambo GEL 1927
Gambo 1927, a Gelderland (light agricultural breed) is a foundation of the modern Dutch Warmblood. He is found multiple times in the backgrounds of the breed; therefore, he is a typesetter. Here we will explore his lineage to discover what he is made of.
Above is a photo of Gambo 1927, I am guessing this was taken at his approval (ribbon and wreath) for farm or harness breeding (docked tail, parked out stance).
I found Gambo continuously in multiples in the background of the modern Dutch Warmblood when I was exploring what warmbloods were made of and where the sport ability came from by extending the pedigree all the way back until the ancestry vanishes. We can see just from his picture that the attractive Gambo was not a light horse, nor a sport horse, but a very nice light agricultural or coach stock. At this period of time, in the Netherlands, sport breeding was a long way off.
Overall, Gambo's origins arise from the Oldenburg coach horse, which had become a source to the surrounding breeding areas for base stock. Oldenburg itself had arisen largely from the Mecklenburg stock, which appears to have been the beginning of the European effort to improve their farm stock into a lighter more agile breed to meet the need for a coach and carriage horse to transverse the improved roads. Most warmblood breeds go back to the Mecklenburg stock, and you will see multiples of their early stallions such as Jellachich and Zernebog, largely Thoroughbred horses out of what appears Irish Hunter mares; also, the Cleveland Bay and Yorkshire, in this case the Duke of Cleveland CB, horses they either imported or bred from imported Anglo stock. These Anglo stallions and others were crossed onto the European mares, almost completely unnamed mares, with unrecorded ancestry, what we would call grade farm mares.
Extending sport pedigrees all the way back to where they vanish became a discipline for me when I realized that the narratives we were being fed here in the States about these horses and their origin were lies. So, I decided to extend their lineages all the way back, and that practice provided a revelation into the true roots of sport ability, where it really came from, and what exactly the European contribution was. What was the lie we were being told in the States? The big one was the myth that the Europeans had been carefully breeding a sport horse for centuries, using the inspection process they developed back then. Was the Oldenburg a sport horse? Was the Mecklenburg? Were they selecting for sport traits back then? No to all those questions. And centuries, doesn't that mean more than two? Typically, their lineages only go back to the mid or late 1800s, and even then, the record of parentage only begins with the offspring of the imported horses. We see above, that even in the 20th century in Gambo's time, the evaluation he went through was for coach-draught, sport selection was not in the mix.
Okay, here is an example of the crap the Americans have had to listen to. In 2003 when the editors of Breeding News for Sport Horses (4/2003, trade journal for the World Federation of Sport Horse Breeders, aka WBFSH) decided to tell the world what they thought of America, its breeds and its breeders. They proudly boasted that they, the Europeans, have been breeding sport horses for centuries and that the Americans don't know how to breed sport horses and we are too uncultured to learn--all lies.
The above example was not an isolated incident, as here in the States the warmblood registries we hosted were churning out an expansion on that fantasy, the Hanoverian was claiming 300 years of continuous sport breeding, and the Holstein claimed 700 years of unbroken breeding. It continued on, for it was just a few years ago that the Warmblood Stallions of North America (editor Anna Goebel), published an article by Dr. Englehardt, that claimed the Hanoverian inspection system dates back 500 years (which in itself is a neat trick seeing Germany wasn't a country until 1871, and the Hanoverian Coach Horse was a new breed in the mid 1800s). Maybe she forgot to mention they were choosing draft stallions for use of the farmers back then, not sport horses? What I say is produce the proof of your 500-year-old farm horse to the modern sport warmblood! Because there is no modern sport warmblood that has identified ancestry with a farm horse any further back than the mid-1800s. I know because I extended all their pedigrees all the way back and the only recorded horses in them past 1860 are Anglo stock or their offspring. (Trakehners do have a few lines that go back further but even those are Thoroughbreds and their offspring.) Americans, really, you need to ask a few things, like how you do inspect a horse and not record the findings, or even the horse's name or its ancestry?
What is the truth? Well, here is an eye-opener: according to Dr. Hanfried Haring, the head architect of the German and European effort to sell their stock to the Americans (what we call the warmblood invasion), was that the German Riding Horse (aka modern warmblood) was created in 1975. What? Wait a minute, not in the 1700s like they say? No, to be fair my research has uncovered they intended this breed creation back in the 1930s, and I am sure you all know how the Nazis took all the good horse stock of Europe as they conquered each country. Did you not wonder why they did that? Now you know, they intended to build their Olympic style horse, they even told their intentions to the American Dressage team after they won the Silver in 1932 (deHaan, p 20). But they lost the war and most of those stolen horses were returned to their countries by the Allies. But Haring had another bombshell for us, the sacred inspection system that they insisted to us was hundreds of years old, was only designed in 1991! (see "the changing role of horses in our society" 2012 by Haring and found on lohmann-breeders.com in their information section).
That's enough background, let's look at Gambo GEL and see what his lineage tells us. Here is his pedigree, which you can print out and examine for yourself. The duplicated names are highlighted in color (so you can see them easier, duplications by their multiple lines become the dominant genetic factors).
Right away we can see he has a double of his grandfather, Gambo OL, 3x2, which is inbreeding, and a powerful typesetting design. Gambo 1912's sire is Girello OL , and he is also found again through another son, Gildo OL, and this increases the genetic reach of the line, which is the main genetic strength in Gambo GEL. Girello's genetic dominances are in Anglo-Norman, Cleveland Bay, and Oldenburg. Going a little further on we will multiples of Kimme OL (6th and 7th generations) another dominance, and instructive because through it we begin to see the vanishing of the native lines. Kimme's only lines that have ancestry recorded are Duke of Cleveland CB, and Theodor OL, who only has his sire line recorded for a few generations, all the rest of it is missing. Duke of Cleveland CB was an important stallion in Mecklenburg and is found throughout the warmbloods of Europe. There is also a Landessohn OL in multiples in the background, and he too is found throughout the European warmbloods in the back of their pedigrees. but we have no idea what he came from, his lineage is basically a mystery.
Another significant influence is Gambo GEL is Rutland OL 6x6x6x6x7x5x5, through sons, which is a critical mass design (typesetting). His genetic mix is Anglo-Norman, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and he even has a few of the early Hanoverian lines. Anglo-Norman is a mix of Norfolk Trotter (aka Hackney), French Trotter (Norfolk Trotter and Anglo-Norman), Anglo-Arab and Thoroughbred. Rutland's damsire is Emigrant OL, a foundation common to many European breeds, and here in Gambo we find 34 lines in 10 generations, so he as at critical mass level and he is a 3/4 Thoroughbred. Another typesetter is found in Elegant OL, who is 5x5x5 and reinforces many of the same background lines (Landessohn, Duke of Cleveland, Kimme and the Mecklenburg stock).
Now, a few things can be observed from examining these lineages, first, the further back in time we go the less pedigree material there is, and usually only the Anglo lines are extended. Look at the oldest represented here, Landessohn and Kimme, to see this. Europe was importing tons of Anglo breeds in the mid-1800s, especially Mecklenburg Stud, which appears to have been the major hub for improvement of the coach class horse, making it lighter and more agile, so it could efficiently pull coaches and carriages (early Oldenburg got most of its foundation stock from Mecklenburg). Sport breeding had nothing to do with this project, rather their focus was utility and efficiency in the harness horse for the road; it was a very practical operation and done as a government directive. We can't really see the next step on the way to the modern warmblood through Gambo's lineage, but many of the previous agricultural studs were directed to change their direction to cavalry production, both artillery draught and cavalry mounts preparing for WWI and then WWII. The East Prussian (Trakehner) was the primary breed used in the production of cavalry horses, and they were instructed to create a breed more like the English Thoroughbred, and they imported many Thoroughbreds to achieve the conversion. The Olympics, begun in 1912, was based on the cavalry tests for horse and rider, and the Germans almost exclusively rode the East Prussian in the early contests. You will find the military conversion mostly to artillery horse in the Hanoverian, Holstein and Oldenburg which were prime coach horse stock and easily made into efficient artillery horses; with more Thoroughbred added they made cavalry mounts as well.
As mentioned above, by 1932 the Germans had already decided to rule the Olympic style sports, but losing WWII put their grand plan to sleep until Dr. Haring dusted it off in 1975 and led the charge for Olympic sport conquering.
Gambo's lineage is typical in ancestry and depth of the continental horse in that by the mid-1800s there is no European lines recorded at all, this is consistent in all warmblood breeds, they did not ever record their pedigrees until after they were crossed with Anglo breeds, which had pedigrees already. The warmblood propaganda of centuries of sport horse inspections is a lie, and the claim of centuries of sport horse breeding is another whopper.
References:
Breeding International Limited. 4/2003. Editorial. Breeding News for Sport Horses.
Bryant, Jennifer O. 2000. Olympic Equestrian
Clarke, Celia and Debbie Wallen. 1991. International Warmblood Horse.
deHaan, Diane and Dumbell, Lucy. May 2010. "Equestrian Sport of the Olympic Games". International Journal of Sport.
Haring, Hanfried. 2012 "The changing role of horses in our society". lohmann-breeders.com
_____1991 foreword for International Warmblood Horse.
Kirsan, Kathleen. 2007-2023. sport-horse-breeder.com
_____ 2023. American Running Horse.
Schilke, Fritz. 1938--updated 1982. Trakehner Horse Then and Now.