Draft:Equine sector in Germany

The equine sector in Germany is one of the country's leading sporting sectors, with the largest herd of horses in Europe. Germany is renowned for breeding sport horses, with the best horses coming from the Hanoverian, Holstein, and Oldenburg studbooks. The state actively supports the German equestrian sector and relies on federal stud farms (Langestüt) spread throughout the federal states (länder).

Horses also play an important role in German religious beliefs.

History
The Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum (8th century) indicates that fortune-telling using horses was prevalent among the Germanic peoples who originated east of the Rhine. Whereas 1.5 million horses were recorded in West Germany in 1938, their population declined steadily until the late 1960s, reaching 250,000. Then, as economic development favored sport and recreational riding, the number of horses increased slightly to 350,000 in 1988. In 1982, with 364,000 horses, West Germany had the largest horse population in Europe. In 1990, 60% of all registered German mares were saddle and sport mares, and 20% were pony mares, making draft horses a small part of the West German horse population.

Practices and uses
The German government actively supports and finances its equestrian industry at the European level. However, the associations are not subsidized. There are more than 1.5 million Germans who ride horses, making the German Equestrian Federation a major player on the international stage. In 2017, the estimated number of riders was 1.17 million. Of these, 42% were recreational riders, 26% practiced for recreation and minor competitions, and 26% were competition riders. 697,126 of these riders have a sports license.

3,600 equestrian events with 69,000 different competitions are organized in Germany every year. 2,400 German horses have a passport from the International Federation for Equestrian Sports and therefore compete internationally; German dressage riders have won numerous prizes worldwide.

Gallop racing is run independently by a national branch of the Jockey Club; trotting is run by the Hauptverband für Traber-zucht e.V. (HVT). The racing industry is in decline.

Breeding
In the 2010s, Germany's horse population exceeded one million, making it the European country with the highest number of horses (but not the highest density). In 2015, Germany had approximately 1,200,000 equines (including donkeys). The density of horses in Germany in 2008 was 12.1 per 1,000 inhabitants.

The warm climate, tempered by the Gulf Stream, provides a favorable environment for horse breeding in western Germany. In contrast, the climate in the country's east and south is less favorable. As a result, most horses are bred along the Rhine Valley. Germany has 9 Federal Studs (Langestüt), financed and managed by the Länders, which organize the support of breeding on a regional level, particularly by supporting and promoting horse breeds specific to each Länd. These studs act as stallions, organize qualifications for breeding horses, and buy young foals yearly. Approximately 700 stallions are owned by the federal studs, representing about 20% of the licensed breeding stallions in the country.

Saddle and sport horses
Sport breeding is the main sector, with German saddle and sport horses being especially renowned and sought after. The most important studbooks are Hanoverian, Holsteiner, and Oldenburg. The Hanoverian, originated in Germany, is bred in 12 countries worldwide, the Holsteiner in 5 and the Oldenburg in 4. Purebred racehorse breeding accounts for about 750 births yearly, ranking 4th in Europe. Germany has a large population of Arabian horses.

Ponies
The Haflinger is the main sport pony breed. Germany also breeds ponies from neighboring European countries, such as the Huçul and Shetland, whose populations are numerous.

Draft horses
Germany has a wide variety of draft horses, all of which are small breeds. Of all these breeds, the South German Coldblood (Oberländer) is the most numerous (in 2004) and the only one that is not in danger of extinction; it is genetically quite distant from other German draft horses.

Extinct breeds
Many German breeds are now extinct. These include the Emscherbrücher, Davertnickel, and Beberbecker. Other German breeds, due to their poor characterization and small numbers, have been merged into the studbook of other breeds, such as the Bavarian, Hessian, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringian Saddlebred, Württemberger and Zweibrücker.

Culture
The horse is very present in Germanic beliefs. According to Marc-André Wagner, the horse has always been seen as an oracle foretelling death : the omen of death was the dominant interpretation of a vision of a horse. The horse's behavior remains significant in nineteenth-century Germania: a man will die if he shakes his harness nervously, a funeral procession will pass if it shakes its head and ruffles its mane, the occupant of a house will soon die if a horse refuses to pass in front of him, whoever sees a horse through his window should die soon, etc. In the folklore of Lower Saxony and the Altmark, the "Schimmelreiter" is an evil white horse or a rider on a white horse, a symbol of maritime disaster that destroys dikes during storms.

The horse is also widely associated with notions of prosperity, luck, fertility, and good news, a legacy of the divinatory practices of hippomancy. The Brothers Grimm's tale of Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful tells of a man who receives a prophetic white horse that speaks, and can help and warn him. Jacob Grimm notes a Lower Saxon tradition of decorating the roof structure with wooden horse heads to protect against evil.