The History of the Stud
Stutteri Hove is owned and driven by Povl Hove and Gitte Søgaard together with their 4 children Elisa, Annika, Anders and Martin. The stud is situated in the northern part of Jutland in an area called Thy close to the newly formed National Park.
The stud includes around 35-40 Danish Warmblod horses primarily of own breed. To this number come the horses from external owners which are ridden, educated, in commission and/or made ready for championships.
Povl`s interest in horses started as a 13 year old in 1976 and he bought his first riding horse the year after. In 1982 Povl bought the filly Akki with counselling and advice from his now deceased uncle Svend Hove.
Akki was after Alibi with Duell as grand sire. By this the foundation for the stud was formed. Akki became one of the parent mares of the stud and achieved the status of elite mare.
In 1986 Povl bought the property in Nørhå and through the years the horse activities grew significantly. The other parent mother of the stud was purchased, Medea, after Martell with Alexander as grand sire.
The space in the stables became sacred and the existing stable building was expanded and renovated. Furthermore the building for storing machinery was in two rounds filled with pens for the horses as well.
In 1996 the horse activities was so massive, time consuming and professional that Povl chose the horses as his main occupation. The interest for the horses together with the desire to work his hobby full time was some of the reasons for this choice. At the same time the cause of the choice also came from the fact that the buyer`s demands for the education of the horses was increased as well and no one could sell a “raw” horse no more. The horses should at least be broken-in. Furthermore it was no longer enough just to run with the horses in front of the judges and the saddle selection became popular, which again increased the demands for the preparation for the selections etc.
The stud became the main occupation supplemented by a part time job at Svankjær Continuation School. At this school Povl got the responsibility for the horse line and the teaching in the equine sport. Today there are about 40 students at this line and in 2006 Gitte was attached to the horse line as well. She has taken over a lot of the teaching in the equestrian sports and she also has the responsibility of the more theoretical part of the sport.
In 2003 the in-door arena was built, which optimised the frames for the daily work and training of the horses.
The herd of horses are now around 35-40 horses. The stud breeds 4-5 mares and raise the breed in the best horse way possible. Horses are chosen and selected constantly as breeding material and as horses for sale.
All horses of own breed are descendants from the two parent mares. The parent mares have to a high degree passed on good rideability skills and well functioning paces. The rideability of the mares is one of the most important factors when choosing a breeding mare. For this reason all of the mares has been ridden and showed at the saddle selection for judgement as 3 year olds. An example of this is among others the mare Crelita, which achieved a gold medal at the elite spectacle in 2006.