Trakehnen

The city of Trakehnen in Prussia was home to the world famous warmblood Trakehner horse breed stables. Trakehnen is derived from the Old Prussian West [Baltic Language]? word 'trakis' meaning field or wildernis , track . When the people of Prussia were forced to leave by Soviet Military Occupiers, some owners were able to walk and ride their Trakehner horses for thousands of kilometers on the Big Trek (of refugees- expellees) to the west. A small number of Trakehner horses survived . East Prussians waited for years to go back to the homeland. When that became impossible during the communist regime and the Iron Curtain and the basic stock rapidly dwindled, they started new breeding farms in Westphalia in Germany beginning in 1957. The same EastPrussian? Elk-Shovel (Ostpreussische Elch Schaufel), in US called moose antlers, is the continued trademark .

This land had been tabu, off limits to all people outside the Soviet Union for 50 years and information was almost none-existend . Only very recently bits and pieces are becoming available, such as names given by the Russians etc. Under the Soviet Union the town of Trakehnen was named : Yasnaya Polyana or Yasnaja Poliana.

Yasnaya Polyana is currently still the name as part of a "Russian island" named Kaliningrad Oblast.

These Russians that were put in the town , after it was forcibly emptied of its inhabitants, must have found out about the original name meaning "Field", because they used the Slavic equivalent, which is "Polje".

Just as the people of Prussia are scattered throughout the world now , over 30 horse breeding stables of Trakehner horses have been established in many countries.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain new beginnings for this devastated land have been started by EastPrussians? now after 50 years being allowed to go back to the homeland.There they are setting up horse breeding stables for the Trakehner horses in the original location again ,together with the Russian now living there.

Some outside links :

• http://www.euronet.nl/~jlemmens/trakehnen.html
• http://www.trakehner.ru/
• http://rosneft.gazinter.net.euindex.htm