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visitors since 12.8.98
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 ARTICLES
- a tribute by Berny Maubach
A giant of a horse, in statue and character, a true mate whom I will miss
as long as I will live.
A pre-potent sire externally as internally - stamping his offspring as
horses of all round superb quality.
A disaster to the country and its breeders losing him now as 1998 will
mark his appearance in the sport horse world.
An old hairline fracture, one assumes -- and during the last collection of
semen which was to be shipped to the raffle winner 1998 of a free service to benefit the NZHS -- aggravated the fracture in his humerus. We heard a distinct crack when he was on the phantom mare. Four hours later he stood on three legs. The Vet gave his diagnosis and the terrible noise in his shoulder region was easily heard when moving his leg.
I knew his hour had come and waited for a second opinion the next day. We
fed him at night and the next morning at 5 am. He was shaking but alert and he enjoyed me being with him. At nine he stood throwing his head wildly in an unknown fashion. He had pain. We then collected semen of our new stallion Worldwide. And while preparing it for shipment, Dyna lost his
power and had fallen over on his bad side.
There was nothing left to do but to relieve him from his immense struggle,
I could kneel down, hug and kiss him, to say auf wiedersehen - two big ringing shots shattered the peaceful quiet of the Sunday morning, it was November 8, 10.45pm.
Only later I realised the fact that I had last used my 30.30 hunting in
Stewart Island, March 1981, the year and month Dynamit was born only to use it again to end his suffering. There are no words to describe my pain and my tears are flowing freely as I write this now and it is the right time to thank Jutta Rosenblatt and Carsten Pruesse for their dedication to me and passion for Dynamit whom both had the pleasure to ride.
I would like to tell you about my relationship with my horse and what a master my Dynamit was in teaching me. A gentle and totally trusting and trustworthy specimen of the equine world and I have asked myself several
times in the past how come that I deserved a being like him.
Dyna arrived on the 16 January 1992 - on the day 14 years after I arrived
in this country to take up residence. And he took care of me right from the
word go. Looking at the video footage of his arrival where I am taking him
off the transporter in sand shoes on his halter and Dyna taking me for a
gentle dance down the drive and hollowing his arrival to all the other
residents at Vollrath and what an echo he received.
He entered his brand new stable in his paddock with a little hesitation,
curled his lip after the involuntary introduction to the electric fence and tolerated my guided tour around his new paddock. I kept him on a long rope and watched him grazing as I had heard only a 6 foot fence would contain him in his surround. On the third day I sat down in the long grass and came back to reality when my German Shepherd licked my face. I had fallen asleep. Well, Dynamit was still in the paddock dragging his long rope around. That was the moment where I knew I could trust him not to leave his paddock without being led. He let me know when he was not in the mood to be shod or simply dealt with -- I gave him his space and he gave in to me at a later time.
Oh yes, and riding him was an experience - it was like driving a V 8 with an
automatic gearbox and sometimes auto steering as well. He actually
determined three times when I had to get off. All incidents happened
alongside the road's long acre. The first was when he saw a little piece of
corrugated iron I did not see in the long grass and he just left me on the
right when he shifted to the left side of the road.
The second time was a real punishment for me because I galloped him for two
miles after giving me a terrible ride as he did not want to settle down
with a filly and gelding as company. I did see that car parked on the road
side, so did he, and about 50m in front he put all the breaks in full power on and I kept riding right
over his neck and ears, dropping right in front of him. All the head gear
was in my hand, the bit held in his mouth by the nose band. It looked as if
he had a broad smile on his face, telling me: you see I did not hurt you,
treat me better and I take you home nicely.
After I sorted his gear out I somehow managed to climb back on to him and we
arrived home safely.
The only time he ever got a real fright was when he dived away from
underneath me to the right in a nice canter - out of a tall shelter belt a
small white car appeared without any warning and I am sure that Dyna
thought it was a mighty white lion and he simply had to change direction -
back home in full gallop. Fortunately the man in the lion picked me up and
I got Dyna back after a mile or so. This was the only time that he had not
waited for me after a dismount - oh what a Gentleman he was.
Serving mares was actually a job he was good at and he enjoyed himself.
Totally non aggressive he did his duty and he actually performed the
foreplay afterwards. Guess he could not figure out the order of things in
the southern hemisphere.
Initially we hobbled mares - because we were told that's the way to go.
Dyna teased his own mares which had access to his stable wall. And there
was no doubt in timing the correct mating. I locked Dyna out of his box,
led the mare through into his paddock and held her loosely while he ran
free. He mounted cleverly side on and shifted her into a proper position
and got on with his job. Once I recall we had a chestnut Witzbold mare who was
a real bitch to him. Well, I got so frustrated that I let her run with him
in the paddock and boy did he chase and actually disregard her - she was
hot like a fresh pancake backing into him - he did not jump. So 'to hell
with it' I thought, pick her up on the lead to take her out and "bingo" he
had her before I knew what was going on. He just knew the routine and what
I tried on him there was not his routine.
Anyway, Sally Conquest got a beautiful brown filly out of it.
A great shock went round the stud when a semen sample under the microscope
revealed no motility at all. That was October 1994. Dyna had spent all
winter running with pregnant mares and on my return from Germany I took him
out and served the first mare for the season. Gaby Petry from Christchurch
bought her, of course in foal to Dyna. Then he was "infertile" - what a
shock! There was no medical explanation for this as he was back on track
after a few more semen samples over the following week.
In my book, Dyna packed a sad and his depression caused by the separation
from his mares made him temporarily infertile.
That was the starting gun to collect semen and freeze it.
I hope we can breed with frozen semen, and he lives on via his offspring
anyway.
This year's crop is very much like him in colour and markings.
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