History Hengststation Bachl

Horses have always been part of this beautiful Bavarian farm, but riding was not always their purpose. Josef Bachl’s great-grandfather enjoyed harness racing and made sure that the local town, Pfarrkirchen, had the first race-track in Bavaria. The grandfather, also called Josef, then bought Fasselsberg for agriculture and forestry, but also as a place to keep horses. He brought the first trotters over form America. During the Second World War he had to suspend his breeding programme and focus on the breeding of Norikers, work horses. His son, another Josef Bachl, initially showed little interest in horses. It was only when he got signed up for riding lessons in the early fifties that he became interested in this sport and he found his vocation. At the time, hardly any riding horses existed in Bavaria. The seasoned local horses, the Rottal, were good work and carriage horses, but were unsuitable as sport horses. Breeding in Bavaria was also not geared towards equestrian sports. Josef Bachl therefore travelled to Westphalia, later to Hanover, looking for yearlings and foals. Cosinus B, born in 1982, was the first Holstein on the farm. With him, Josef Bachl laid the foundations to the current collection of stallions that nowadays comprises stallions of the best jumping and dressage lineages. The many offspring presenting themselves with some success in national and international events are proof enough. Josef Bachl himself took part in eventing and show-jumping at international level. He fetched many titles, was two-times champion of the Austrian Show-jumping Derby, European Champion in Eventing in the team of 1968, and in 1990 finished his career on horseback as winner of the national Volvocup final in Dortmund.

Today, Tobias Bachl continues running the A.I. centre and stud farm. For today’s standards he was a latecomer and only started developing his passion for riding at age 19. The horse he learnt on, Daimler B, accompanied him from Class A to Class S, and later the pair bagged 16 victories in this class, leading to the ‘Goldenes Reiterabzeichen’, the ‘Golden Badge’ and other trophies. An astounding development of Daimler B, who also proofed to be great at passing on his star qualities. The achievements of Daimler B’s progeny continued to cause a stir in the horse world. Probably the most outstanding offspring on the international scene was ‘Van Holland’ under Karin Ernsting-Engemann. Caretello B was the first real star on the Bachl stud. A stallion that with Holger Wulschner brought many international show-jumping victories to Pfarrkirchen and later sired foals that were equally successful, like Camirez B or Cogito H. In the meantime, Tobias Bachl himself is presenting his stallions successfully at national and international events. Victories like the Grand Prix of Salzburg (CSI) or the Grand Prix of Moos, a two-star jumping event, stand out from more than 40 victories in show-jumping within the S-Class. The beautiful old farm in the Rottal valley slowly became one of the biggest stud farms in Germany, with an EU approved A.I. centre, 15 stallions, rearing, training and competition presentation of young horses, sale of competition horses and breeding mares - to mention a few of our services on offer. We look forward to your visit!