Episode 05: All About Hanoverians
Hello! Welcome to Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers! I’m a horse girl who loves to ride and each week I’ll share about what I learn and love about horses. Today’s episode is number five and it’s all about Hanoverians.
What are Hanoverians? Are they a horse or a pony?
Well Hanoverians are horses, and they stand at about 16 hands which is the same size as a Thoroughbred. This stock-like horse is fun, creative, curious, active, nice and has an easy going nature. It’s kind of like a formal dancer. Like whatever it puts its mind to it does it, and then tries another thing and puts its mind to it and does it.
This is what I love about Hanoverians
So, they’re very athletic meaning they do jumping, they do dressage, they can do high poles they can do low poles they can do cross country and they have big muscles so they can go long distances in a short amount of time. A Hanoverian’s color is they can have different colors: blackish brown, chestnut with black mane, maybe a white face marking.
What makes them so cool?
Well fun fact: they’re also called European Warmbloods because I’m pretty sure they were bred in Europe. And so they’re called European Warmbloods because they’re part of the Warmblood family. So if you’ve seen a Danish Warmblood or a Dutch Warmblood or something like that then you can think, “Hey, a Hanoverian looks a little bit like a Dutch Warmblood” well it is a type of Warmblood. And they were bred in Europe in a part in Hanover and that’s why their named Hanoverians. Fun Fact: every registered Hanoverian has to have an ‘H' mark marked on their left hind quarter.
What are they know for?
Well they’re known for jumping and they’re known for dressage. If you don’t know what dressage means, it’s like ballet except for horses where they trot, they have a light canter. And the judges are looking for the horse and the rider to act as one with their movements. When you think of Hanoverians you might think of a pretty horse that does jumps but a long time ago they would carry cannons or they would plow farms or they would pull stuff like carriages or things like that. And now they just do jumping and dressage or horse ballet or something and its just kind of funny because they used to be these strong really big horses and now they’re these delicate little horses. Although fun fact it does take a lot of strength to do jumping and dressage and horse ballet and stuff like that so they’re basically just changing what they do.
Brothers Grimm
So if you guys know the Brothers Grimm, its Rapunzel, its Hansel and Gretel, its Cinderella, they basically made those fairy tales. And Hanoverians are basically as old as the Brothers Grimm and they’re from the same part of the world. They’re about 150 years old. Not quite as old as Arabians but they’re pretty old. Meaning Arabians are like 4,000 years old. If you want to learn more about Arabians, listen to Episode 2: All About Arabians.
I know a Hanoverian
He was good at jumping. He was a good athletic horse, I would always see him trotting around in his pasture. He has passed on and it’s kind of a sad thing. I don’t know if you have ever had a horse pass on, but it is a sad thing. We had to let him go and he was a member of our family and it was just, sad.
A story about a Hanoverian
I heard a story about a Hanoverian and it goes like this: So a Hanoverian, if you’re riding one and you feel like you’re going to fall off it will actually scooch underneath you so that if you feel like you’re going to fall off, you won’t feel like that because they will just try to land on their feet.
So that’s it! Now you know a tiny bit more about this special horse. Join us next time and subscribe for another episode of Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers!