POV
Post World War II, regional and national competitions became popular. Lighter types were more successful at these events. The Germans had established knowledge and proven skill in selecting very good English Thoroughbred stallions. Poland had their own extraordinary experience with the Thoroughbred, Arabian and Anglo Arabian, blend- ing these into the Trakehner breed. Sweden selected most of its cavalry breeding stock from Germany and England. Holland and Belgium tried assorted Thoroughbred stal-
lions that had been imported by their jockey clubs. Those racing stallions brought to Holland had to be approved by the WPN (before the K was added) before entering the studbook for riding horses. Belgium had the advantage of tapping its neighbor France with their sophisticated experi- ence of using Thoroughbred blood successfully for racing and riding. When breeding for sport, breeders in Holland had to start
from scratch more than the others, experimenting with an assortment of types and pedigrees. They met with varied success. Several top nicks were found—most notably Up- percut xx, Lucky Boy xx, Abgar xx and Pericles xx—all thanks to show-jumping offspring.
Recent History In Holland, all stallions (other than the show harness stallions) had to be evalu- ated for their three gaits of walk, trot and canter, jumping both free and un- der saddle, pulling a sledge over terrain (cross country) and stable behavior. A sledge? It was a holdover from the farm days that, fortunately for our modern stallions, is no longer required. The Thoroughbred stallions (race horses) initially had to be observed for stable behavior only. The original crite- rion was to be retired from a race career still sound. That evolved into a riding test for some in the 1970s. In the early ‘80s, the decision to fur- ther specialize by discipline came via pressure from the breeders. If someone came to a farm to look at a riding pros- pect, they usually queried, “I’d like to see your jumping horses.” At that time, Dutch riders seeking a dressage horse usually went to Germany, but that was about to change. The Dutch Studbook (WPN/KWPN) responded by ‘sepa-
Where there was overlap those sires became known as pro- ducers of ‘all-rounders.’ From there the specialization process required indicating
on the registration paper which ‘book’ (jumper or dressage) the horse was born into based on pedigree. Now, at a keur- ing (KWPN inspection), a horse that shows aptitude in the opposite ‘breeding direction’ can be reclassified.
Breeding Trends After specialization became the rule, and North American breeders (who tended to love the all-rounders) had stopped screaming, they too realized that they were breeding either dressage or jumping horses. As of this writing, as a breed registry, the KWPN leads the pack in this year’s World Breed- ing Federation of Sport Horse (WBFSH) rankings for both dressage and jumper horses. As a marketing and breed- ing goal, specialization has served the KWPN well. (As the world’s great merchants the Dutch said, “Hey! Two markets instead of only one!”) Next, the eventing format change, from classic to short,
was all the news for breeders and competitors alike. (See an explanation of this in Warmbloods Today’s September/Octo- ber 2013 issue, page 18.) But the perceptions that the need for hard athleticism and speed was only required for the classic format and that good dressage and jumping would now take the day was wrong! It was soon clear that not all Warmbloods were cre- ated equal for this new task. Assuming that the conditioning and
Oldenberg stallion Rubin Royal known for great movement as well as jumping talent.
training programs are correctly and diligently managed, it is not unusual to see eventing horses ranking well in the WBFSH that were foaled and registered as dressage horses. Many are surprised by this—jumpers would seem to make more sense. If we take a look back in the pedigrees of several of these world-ranked event horses, we’ll find ancestors who had not yet been desig- nated ‘specialized’ and had to be fairly successful at all aspects of their per- formance testing, including jumping, gaits and paces and cross-country.
The Advanced eventing mare RF Demeter, owned and ridden by Marilyn Little, is sired by Rubin Royal.
rating’ those that had abilities for dressage or jumping and noting which bloodlines tended to produce each type/abili- ty. Data was collected and analyzed and it became apparent that there were specific delineations for the two disciplines.
90 January/February 2014
Let’s Get Specific Let’s take a look at a few dressage- sired horses that are in the WBFSH
world rankings for event horses. For example, take a look at Oldenburg Rubin Royal, the sire of successful event mare RF Demeter. A quick online search will bring videos of this impressive stallion. Next I’d encourage you to look at +/– six generations of his pedigree. There are several sites I like
Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
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