ASK THE EXPERTS: Where Do We Go From Here?
BRUCE DAVIDSON SR. is a name synonymous with U.S. suc- cess in international eventing. He was a member of two gold-medal winning U.S. Olym- pic Teams (1976 and 1984) and two silver-medal winning Olym- pic Teams (1972 and 1996) and is a two-time World Champion in eventing who is now concen- trating even more on breeding and starting the young horses produced at his Chesterland Farm in Unionville, Pennsylvania, where he stands the Irish Sport Horse stallion Keltic Lion (Lux Z – Errigal Flight). Bruce has been breeding sport horses for over three de-
Bruce
cades. Over his long career Bruce has preferred using fast American Thoroughbred lines and later he started crossing them with Irish Draught horses in his breeding program. He shares several bits of wisdom on producing successful event horses. First, he says that the mare is at least 60 percent of the
breeding equation. “A mare can only produce as good as herself, at best. Breed a good mare to an average stallion and you will get a good foal. Breed an average mare to a top stal- lion and you will get an average foal.” Second, doing a good job of raising modern sport horses depends a lot on the land and the type of soil on your farm. A proper mineral mix in the feeding program is very important and your soil and feedstuffs must have this mix. “Horses are made to roam and graze in the space of the outdoors, not to stand still and ingest food. This is why Ireland, Ocala, Lexing- ton and Louisville are so famous for raising and building the bones of young horses. Genetics plays a big part, but how they are raised is so important for the overall soundness and purpose as a working horse,” says Bruce. Third, Bruce maintains that starting a youngster properly
to produce a competitive modern sport horse is just as im- portant as the bloodlines. “There are lots of people in this country that can breed nice horses, but they may not know how to break in their young stock properly. Backing a young horse involves so much more than sitting on its back. You must teach them to go forward and to be relaxed while go- ing forward. It is the right questions at the right stage that helps improve the horse as it learns. Set standards and follow through. It is all about teaching them what they can do, and then they are so pleased when they do it well!” MICHAEL POLLARD is an international event rider,
2011 Pan Am Games Team gold medalist and co-owner of Chatsworth Stud with his wife Nathalie (daughter of Belgian Olympic event rider Carl Bouckaert) in Chatsworth, Georgia. He serves on the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Breeders Committee and currently manages four breeding stallions at their farm, including Denny Emerson’s Irish Sport
“Breed a good mare to an average stallion and you will get a good foal. Breed an average mare to a top stallion and you will get an average foal.”
Horse stallion Formula One and German Trakehner stallions Halimey Go, Rusticus and Songline II. “In my opinion, it is certainly not inconceivable that we
could breed another Olympic team of U.S.-bred event horses. We’ve done it many times in the past and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do it again. We’ve got an excel- lent base in the Thoroughbreds and we already have a lot of very, very good Warmblood stallions in the United States. I think it just requires a consistent, coordinated effort go- ing forward. We certainly breed enough sport horses already to achieve that goal if it were a little bit more organized.” He thinks that if in the U.S. a na-
Michael
tional breeding effort was planned with even as few as 70 horses per year—maybe five to ten breed- ers breeding five to six horses per year—it would get us most of the way there. “If we bred our top three and four-star mares to top stallions with someone coordinating some lineage infor- mation and the results gained from three and four-year-old classes, then in 15 to 20 years you could make a major dif- ference—or maybe even within 10–12 you might even have some team horses. This may seem like a long time, but if you don’t start, it is always at least 12 years away,” he says. Michael has a master plan for achieving this goal for the
U.S., including establishing a North American stud book and the creation of a national breeding coordinator at the USEF level. He is also a proponent of Young Horse Championships and encourages some regional competitions leading up to the championships, citing that the United States Eventing Association has already taken a lead in this area.
Go For It North America! Remember there was a time when we only rode American- breds in eventing. The statistics from the 2014 Rolex event indicate that we are on the road toward breeding our own North American-bred international stars again, thanks to our strong Thoroughbred base and access to the best stal- lions from around the world. Now the challenge is to put it all together, since the
breeders aren’t only the ones responsible here. We need an American system to produce top-quality horses, give them the best possible start and encourage partnerships between the best and the best—horses and riders. It can certainly be done, but will take a level of organization (and perhaps funding) we just haven’t seen so far.
Warmbloods Today 29
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