Warmblood By Boyd Martin Farewell to the Thoroughbred? I
’ve been involved in competing event horses on a professional level since the day I finished high school in 1998. Over all these years I’ve ridden plenty of good event horses—
as well as lots and lots of bad ones. Early on in my career, I was happy to sit on whatever came along; now, fifteen years later, I’m slowly but surely getting more selective about training and competing a specific type of event horse. During my years as a competitor, the sport
of three-day eventing, not unlike like my riding ability and common sense, has undergone major changes. Eventing has gone from being a grueling, survival-of-the-fittest endurance test to a much more technical competition where the best-schooled rider on the best-trained horse will often win over the raving lunatic who is brave but has no technique. As a result, the type of horse I prefer has changed too—but not completely. Growing up in eventing in Australia, we had an unbelievable pick of the best Thoroughbreds money could buy, who basically had been failures in their first career but were ideal for the sport of eventing at the time. If you look at the eventing medals through the 1980s and ‘90s, Australia and New Zealand were dominant—mostly due to their access to these brilliant Thoroughbreds. Now that the sport has evolved to the point that the
dressage and show jumping have about equal weight with the cross-country, a mixture of Thoroughbred and Warmblood is absolutely the way to go. There are a couple of points that I would like to make regarding
breeding and the ideal event horse. Point number one is that, generally speaking, the more Warmblood you have in your event horse, the better for the dressage and show jumping. But obviously the Thoroughbred comes through in the galloping and stamina needed for cross-country. This is where my theory of percentages comes into play.
Selecting an event horse based on pedigree, I believe that, on paper at least, a world-class, four-star event horse should have around 60 percent or more Thoroughbred blood. This should give you enough gallop, endurance and speed around an 11-minute four-star course. Obviously there are exceptions to these “rules;” you will see
Warmblood horses with less than 60 percent Thoroughbred blood who are successful competitors, but in my experience the stronger Thoroughbred influence produces the most athletic individuals. The current world and Olympic champion, Michael Jung’s horse Sam, is 75 percent Thoroughbred and 25 percent Warmblood.
98 March/April 2014 My off-the-track Thoroughbred Neville Bardos has had a
respectable international career, and won a lot of fans for his incredible bravery and resilience, but competitively he basically comes up a bit short—he was thirtieth after dressage at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and moved up to finish tenth after the jumping, which was about the best I could hope for on a straight Thoroughbred. Point number two, (which outranks point number one) is the horse’s character and body type. They have to think and look like a Thoroughbred, no matter what their pedigree looks like. When you ride the horse, he should
be hot to the leg and wanting to go, rather than the “colder” type Warmblood that you’re always pushing. In my experience these “colder” types do not make good cross-country horses because you’re always asking them to stay in front of your leg. If your Warmblood-Thoroughbred cross has an athletic build, a big open gallop stride and is light on his feet, you’re golden. A great example of this is my recent purchase, Shamwari 4 (by Star Regent out of Donnice/Der Clou). A German-bred horse, he’s only 60 percent Thoroughbred but his body type and character and way of going make him seem more like 85 percent. With my family in Australia, I’ve been breeding sport horses
for a few years now and we’ve produced several that my wife Silva and I have developed into successful dressage and event horses, again, paying attention to the ratio of Warmblood versus Thoroughbred blood. I think when American breeders (including me) are trying to
breed event horses we have a huge advantage because in this country we have some of the most unbelievable Thoroughbred bloodlines you could ask for. The technology of shipping frozen semen anywhere in the world gives us easy access to the best Warmblood bloodlines that Europe has to offer. Put those two together and there is no excuse for an American breeder not to find the best quality Thoroughbred mares and cross them with the best Warmblood stallions they can find. Is it farewell to the Thoroughbred? Absolutely not; the heart and stamina of the breed is invaluable for our sport, and still remains my number one priority of a top eventer.
Four-star event rider Boyd Martin represented the United States at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and the 2012 Olympics. He and his wife Silva, a G.P. dressage rider, own and operate Windurra USA in Cochranville, PA. Learn more about them at
www.boydandsilvamartin.com.
Amber Heintzberger
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