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Glücksruf: The Lucky
Stallion with Lucky Owners
Update 2024!
Glücksruf frozen semen now available in the US!
Lucky’s last ten years of fun and success:
 We moved Gluecksruf to our German friend who lives in Belgium with his wife and daughter, Kai-Steffen Meier. He gave Lucky plenty of time to work his way up the ladder and pinnacled with a third place at Sopot in the CCI4*-S in 2020 and a completion at the CCI4*-L at Boekelo in 2018. He also competed in showjumping up to the 1.25 meter level. He has demonstrated his ability to negotiate a 1.50 meter course too.
Perhaps his most salient features are his continuous soundness, willingness to learn and work, and his noble gentleness.
He is quite a kind personality, careful not to risk injury to people around him.
In the most recent years, he has begun to display his special abilities in producing foals that are very much like him in talent, movement superiority, and temperament. At the annual select foal auction in 2021 at the Bundesturnier, his granddaughter Kinshasa stole the crowd’s hearts and wallets, selling for the highest price ever paid for a Trakehner suckling - $85,000 Euros. Nr. 17 Stutfohlen "Kinshasa" von Millennium - Glücksruf I (youtube.com)
And here is another one of his offspring, quite similar: Stutfohlen von Glücksruf u.d. Kaikuora (youtube.com)
In 2023 her three-year-old full sister Kalahari sold at auction at the Neumuenster Koerung for the second highest price of all mares offered, 60,000 Euros. https://bid.trakehner.auction/auctions/52d536ba-5da7-4819-1008-08dbd45156e2/item-details/07811ebe-ec51-4985-ac4f-08dbd451a6bb At the request of Beate Langels, manager of the important breeding station Haemelschenburg, Lucky has been standing there the last two years, with outstanding success.
Frozen semen is available from New Spring Farm here in North America. Email holekamp@aol.com
for more information.
Update August 2014:
Some great jumping
photos!
Update May 2014:
Here's a short video of
one of Glücksruf's latest foals
Here's Glücksruf, May
2014
 There are now a number of
Trakehner fans who are interested in our
young stallion, Glücksruf, a flashy
chestnut bred at Ganschow, by Dramatiker
and out of a mare by Opernball. This
horse comes from Mecklenburg, part of what
was East Germany, and thus carries a
pedigree NOT part of the mainstream of
currently popular bloodlines. Dramatiker
is the successful Ganschow jumper (now
sold and exported to China for their
Olympic Team project). So this is a short
introduction to Glücksruf, even though he
is not available in North America (yet).
Why is he the Lucky Stallion? Well his
name means something like “a shout for
Good Luck”, and something lucky happened
to him and us one day in 2011 that has
changed everything in his life.
That lucky day was the day he was
approved for breeding at Neumuenster in
October of 2011. In truth, Cheryl and I
went to Germany just to learn, renew
acquaintances, represent the ATA, and to
have some fun. There was NO intention to
buy anything but maybe books or T-shirts.
Three days of carefully watching the
various parts of the colt approvals
process (Hengstkoerung) left us both with
a zillion notes in our catalogs, but not
much real interest in what appeared to be
the best of the colts to most of the
thousands of Trakehner fans there. Way too
much “and they all look just the same” for
us, and all about dressage.
So as we sat with most of the American
contingent at the moment of announcement
of the approval results, Cheryl and I
compared our notes about the colts,
actually for the first time. I said to
her: “Bottom line is: there is only one
here that I would like to use for breeding
mares.” She opened her book to Colt Number
10 just as I showed her the very same
page, and we looked at each other with
that sardonic grin we reserve for “Yeah,
like DUH.” We both had him scored very
highly on gaits and for temperament, and
we both just liked him. Not real big fans
of bright chestnuts, we have long known
that many of our best homebred competitors
and traditionally the best “show horses”
in the breed have been chestnuts.
Just at that moment, I heard a German
breeder/trainer friend behind me speaking
to two Americans about the colts, saying
something like: “There is only one here I
REALLY like”, so I quickly turned around,
just as she was saying, “and that is
Number 10, the chestnut from Ganschow!”
Whoops! Same knowing grin exchanged
between Stephanie Herken-Wendt and Tim
Holekamp….
I guess none of us were too surprised
that he was approved, that he was
announced as the best free-jumper of the
approved colts of 2011, and that he did
NOT receive premium status. In a way, that
was part of the lucky aspect of that day,
since his price would have been through
the roof if he were a top colt in the
inspection.
Stephanie did not attend the market on
Sunday, where most of the colts were
offered at public auction sale, but Cheryl
and I did. I sat there and watched some
foals sell rather inexpensively, and the
premium stallions sold for a bundle. As
the afternoon wore on, the crowd thinned
considerably, and I began to get the Itchy
Bidding Hand Syndrome. After explaining to
Cheryl that Glücksruf just might sell at a
price we could live with, I extracted a
tentative agreement from her that we try.
Those who know the atmosphere of these
auctions in the Holstenhalle will
sympathize with me, but if you haven’t had
a chance yet to attend one of these
moments, suffice it to say that it is
“electric,” no matter how you feel about
your bidding prospects. In came Number 10.
On went the bidding. Slow…..not a lot of
interest. I bid, then an elderly man and
his wife down in the premium seats bid,
back and forth. I couldn’t seem to get any
traction and ran past the limit Cheryl had
set. Finally I gave up, and just wilted in
my chair, while the elderly couple signed
the paperwork and took the flowers and
champagne with big grins. RATS!
Just as I was silently bucking myself up
with the sour grapes routine (Ah heck, he
was probably a dud anyway….) a Verband
representative came to my seat to say that
the successful bidders were bidding for
the owner/breeder of the horse, so it was
a no-sale, and would I like to talk to Mr.
Mencke about the colt? Sure, I donned my
coat and met him out behind the arena,
where I discovered a wonderfully congenial
man, whose English was not much better
than my German. After a while we gave up
and phoned his fluent son to come
translate.
Things got better after that, even though
we found ourselves quite far apart. I
offered to trade with him. What? Well, I
have a very fine wife, a Grand Prix
rider/trainer and upper level dressage
judge? No thanks, he said. We eventually
DID find a way to meet both sides’
expectations, shook hands on the deal, and
that was that. I raced back to the hotel
and telephoned Stephanie Herken-Wendt to
see if she might be interested in training
Lucky for a year or two.
She said that she had been following the
auction on the internet from home and
learned that Number 10 sold to someone.
Yes, to me, I said. WHAAAAAT? And would
you like to train him for me, I asked? The
“yes” came SO fast that it almost canceled
out the question, and before I knew it, we
had a deal. A Lucky day? Oh yes, for all
of us -- because the picture of this horse
and his accomplishments that has developed
since then keeps getting brighter and
brighter.
A year of very careful and slow-progress
work by Steffi and her talented and
tactful rider, Tanya Kuhn, led to a 30 day
test at Redefin, where Lucky pretty much
dominated, winning the dressage part of
the testing with the highest score any
Trakehner colt earned in Germany in 2012,
plus the same in rideability. We visited
Mr. Mencke, Ganschow, Dramatiker, etc., in
August of that year and all agreed that
Lucky was doing brilliantly, but the
30-day test endorsed our optimism. We
watched him at Steffi’s farm, and at a
training park. All looked good. This colt
is certainly not a fire-breathing super
stallion, but he is a phenomenal “workman”
and an upper level quality mover. He is
slow in developing, just now leaving the
gawky adolescent stage, and filling out
into a Horse-In-Full, so to speak.
In February, he visited the annual
winter approvals and stallion show at
Muenster-Handorf, a Trakehner lover’s
winter dose of stallion-watching and quite
well-attended. There, due to some
shenanigans, the other
coming-four-year-olds that were supposed
to go into the arena with him declined,
and the only option was to go by himself.
Steffi and Tanya said, “No problem”, and
sure enough it was no problem for this
obedient young horse. At the end of his
little “tour” of the arena, showing off
his gaits, Tanya just rode him to the
center of the arena and dropped the reins.
The applause was loud, but the announcer
said something like “Is that all you can
come up with?” And they stood and cheered.
Most four-year-old colts would have
immediately exited, with or without the
rider. Lucky stood there on no rein and
just looked around calmly, figuring he had
earned the accolade, I guess. Doubt it
happened like that? Go here and watch it
happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEDVn8qcaDg
 This spring his first foal
was born (photo left), from a good mare of
similar type. Everyone seems quite
pleased:
Because of his prominence at Handorf in
February, he had more mares this spring.
All are in foal.
On June 28, 2013 Lucky went to his first
“real” competition show at Eutin, in East
Holstein, where the under-saddle division
for four-year -olds (Reitpferdepruefung)
had 41 entries including the reserve
champion of Lucky’s approvals in 2011.
When it was all over it seems that the top
horse was indeed Lucky, with an 85% score,
the reserve Siegerhengst second with an
83% and the rest in the 70s or below. Wow!
That definitely got some attention.
So now what comes next? He has been
working slowly and calmly to the level
needed for doing the much more demanding
70 day test, starting in August, 2013.
There we will see what progress he has
made and how other testers like him. Our
initial plan was to go back to nearby
Redefin, so that Steffi and Tanya could
visit and keep an eye on things, but the
number of applicant stallions was not
enough to hold a testing there, and so we
became part of a large group accepted to
test at the prestigious and ancient state
stud at Marbach (birthplace of our
departed Amethyst), in the far South of
Germany. The plans are laid. I recommend
that you stay tuned…. We sure are.
Tim Holekamp
Glücksruf update
August 2014
Here are some really choice photos sent
by Glücksruf's new rider, Miriam Bray, who
in late July, 2014, placed second at the
Trakehner National Championships in
Hanover, Germany on him in a class open
only to five- and six-year-olds in
showjumping (in other words, a Young
Jumper class). Subjectively scored, he got
an 8.2, which is quite a very good score.
This from a horse that won the dressage at
his stallion testing both as a three year
old and four year old.
Miriam and her husband are very
enthusiastic about Lucky's "all-around"
potential, and were amazed at his perfect
manners at the big Hanover competition,
called the Bundesturnier. Photos by
Tierfotografie Huber.
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Tim and Cheryl Holekamp
New Spring Farm
7901 Highway 63 South
Columbia, MO 65201
Sales horses: newspringt@aol.com
Breeding to Windfall: holekamp@aol.com
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