At the age of 88 years Fritz Floto passed away on June 19, 2012 at his farm near Fergus, Ontario. Fritz Floto was the pioneer of Hanoverian breeding in Canada and had much influence on the development of the Hanoverian breed in the US.
"The word Hanoverian and the name Fritz Floto are synonymous in North America", well described this old school horseman in the Canadian magazine Horse Sport in September, 1992. For his merits he was awarded the Golden Badge of Honour of the Hannoveraner Verband in 1980. The Chamber of Agriculture Hannover awarded him with a Golden Medal in recognition of his achievements in building up and promoting the Hanoverian breed in North America, and from the German Equestrian Federation he received the Gustav Rau Plaque. Mr. Floto was also a lifetime member of the Hanoverian Breeders' Club of Eastern Canada.
Fritz Floto was born at Gut Gaedebehn in Mecklenburg in 1924 the son of a family with a long tradition in horse breeding. He experienced the horrors of World War II in a cavalry regiment and with the artillery in Russia, where he was wounded several times. In 1952 Fritz Floto emigrated to Canada. He and his wife Erica settled down in the Guelph area in Ontario and started a dairy farm. The couple had two sons. He sold his cattle in 1968 and accepted employment at the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph.
In 1961 he bought two mares, Windrose (by Weiler) and Fernanda (by Fernjaeger) as well as the stallion Weimar (by Firnis) all of which had been imported to Calgary a short time before. With these horses he laid the foundation of Hanoverian breeding in Canada. In close cooperation with the German Hannoveraner Verband and the Lower Saxony state stud at Celle he imported further stallions in the following years such as Denar (by Duft), Waidmann (by Waidmannsdank xx), Ansturm (by Adlerfarn II), Equuleus (by Eindruck II), Sandsturm (by Sendbote), Lepanto (by Leibwächer), and lastly Welfenschatz (by Walhall).
As a judge and its branding representative Fritz Floto was for many decades a pillar for the Hannoveraner Verband in Eastern Canada. He was an honorary member of the American Hanoverian Society and a long standing member of the AHS Mare and Stallion Committee. The Hannoveraner Verband in Germany and Hanoverian breeders all over North America mourn the passing of a great horseman who was always open to discuss the issues with breeding and raising Hanoverians.
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