MAKING THE SWITCH

Dr. Andrea Sieg has been connected to horses for more than 40 years, from her childhood in Germany to becoming a breeder and, later, an equine veterinarian.

She started riding ponies when she was 10 and got the opportunity to ride a friend’s warmbloods when she was 14. While her parents told her she had to wait until she was an “adult” to buy her own warmblood, once she turned 18, Andrea wasted no time and bought a 3-year-old Westphalian gelding. Sadly, she lost the horse the first year she owned him due to colic.

“Knowing I could never find a horse like him, I bought a black, Gold Premium broodmare in foal,” said Andrea. “I kept hoping for a colt, but she gave me one filly after another!” She ended up with a lot of mares and, as a result, became a real mare lover. “Now I don’t want a gelding!”

Andrea has been very involved with the Northrhine Westphalian state stud (NRW) and is its official representative in the U.S., but for the last four years, she has only registered her horses with the Rhineland Studbook (except for one German Riding Pony).

Why the switch four years ago?

Andrea is from Cologne, located in the Rhineland area. She had a connection to that registry and admired stallions like Florestan I, Ehrentusch, Belissimo M and Ferragamo. Now she and her husband, Jimmy, stand their own Rhineland stallion, Lord Ferragamo (Lord Loxley x SPS Fairless P x/Ferragamo). They also appreciate the breeding standards adhered to by the Hanoverian and Rhineland studbooks. “We also have many clients’ mares we foal out and raise,” she explains. “The combination of the Rhineland with the Hanoverian Studbook has been great because we can offer both registries with one inspection.”

Andrea became a veterinarian because of nearly losing a mare to twin pregnancies. While the foals didn’t survive, the mare did and spent 25 years with Andrea as the foundation mare for their breeding program. “At 25, I entered veterinary school hoping a tragedy like that would never happen again,” she said. Andrea worked in research and did her Ph.D., which brought her to the U.S. “Now I love the reproduction part of my education—breeding with fresh and frozen semen, handling embryo transfers, foaling and raising the offspring,” Andrea said. So far, she has never ended up with twins carried to term because she has successfully reduced many twin pregnancies to one.

Each year at their Jackson, South Carolina farm, Andrea breeds 10 to 15 of her mares, along with embryo transfer with older mares, mares under saddle or mares for sale. She rarely sells any foals because she prefers to start them under saddle and either sell them or keep them for their breeding program. “Starting the 3-year-olds under saddle helps me evaluate rideability, temperament and potential and helps me identify what the stallions contribute, especially when we have more than one foal from a stallion,” she says. “With the mares, after one or two foals, we decide if we’re going to keep them in the breeding program or put them back under saddle to be marketed as riding horses. Our top broodmares are in our program until they can’t carry foals anymore and embryo transfer doesn’t work. At that point, they’ve earned their retirement and stay here.”

In Andrea’s breeding program, her priority is temperament, rideability and conformation. “Temperament needs to be number one or the mares won’t be in our breeding program,” she says. “They also need to be good movers with great conformation. A horse should be fun and a pleasure to ride.”

Andrea is also proud of Lord Ferragamo’s contribution to their breeding program. He had a successful year in 2022 with champion and Gold-Medal foals, a USEF national futurity winner and a First Level Junior Champion at the U.S. Dressage Finals. “He produces top foals for us every year and his offspring are blessed with an easy temperament, super rideability, lots of suspension and very good gaits.”

Andrea is pleased with the American Hanoverian Society and the Rhineland Studbook. If she could have one wish, she says, “It would be great if German Riding Ponies could be registered! That’s the only time we can’t stick with the Rhineland Studbook.”