When the conquest of the province was imminent during the Second World War, the country stable master arranged for the horses of the stud farm to be brought to safety. First the young stallions were taken to the west. In October 1944 the remaining 668 animals fled from Trakehnen to various emergency shelters. 290 animals arrived in Mecklenburg where they fell into the hands of the Soviet army at the end of the war. Only 27 of them were secretly brought across the border to Schleswig-Holstein. Together with 58 young stallions in Solling in Lower Saxony, they were the only horses of the stud farm in the western zones.
In January 1945 thousands of horses pulled the trekking wagons of the civilian population. But only few of them survived the flight and hardship of the post-war years. Soon the few horses left of Trakehner descent began to be tracked and, under great difficulties, a new drove was bred on private estates. Until today, no other races are crossbred except thoroughbred horses.
Illustration:
Horses of Trakehner descent in Rantzau, Schleswig-Holstein, around 1950. After 1945 people tried in various places, particularly in Northwest Germany, to unite the horses of Trakehner descent that fled from East Prussia and to continue pure breeding them. Trakehner horses were bred in Rantzau until the 1990s. Photo: Archive Erhard Schulte