WEG report
By Judy Wardrope
Top WEG Horses Considered
The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games of 2014 provide a good sampling to determine the top bloodlines by sport as well as those bloodlines that appear in more than one sport. Rather than look at all the entrants, we will focus on the top 30 dressage horses, the 59 finishers in eventing and the top 30 jumpers.
Dressage
D not only stands for dressage, it stands for Donnerhall. Seven of the top 15 dressage horses and 10 of the top 30 were descendants of that Oldenburg stallion. Interestingly, he does not appear in either of the other two Olympic disci- plines, and his influence is predominantly through male lines. Noble Dream (24th) was the exception, as her dam was by Donnerhall. Rubenstein I was another dressage-only ancestor, ap-
pearing in the lineage of eight of the top 30 horses. Likewise, Weltmeyer appeared in the ancestry of five of the top dres- sage horses, but in no other discipline. However, Ferro’s influ- ence, which was seen in three dressage pedigrees, appeared in one eventer.
Jumping
If the Ds have it in dressage, then the Cs have it in jumping. A total of 14 of the top 30 are descendants of Cor de la Bryere, who appears with regularity in all three Olympic disciplines. And the nine jumpers hailing from Cottage Son xx include Cortes ‘C,’ the best horse in the Final Four. Cottage Son did not figure in dressage pedigrees at the WEG, but he was found in two of the eventers that completed all three phases. Darco, with two jumping descendants, classifies as the
jumping-only progenitor from the 2014 Games. Eventing
Not surprisingly, most of the repeat ancestors in eventing are Thoroughbreds, as are the eventing-only ancestors. Northern Dancer xx, who has saturated the Thorough-
bred gene pool, appears in the pedigrees of nine of the 59 finishers in this discipline. However, one should be aware that it is not just any Northern Dancer that shows up in sport pedigrees. His sons with sport bloodlines on the dam’s sides are by far the most prevalent. Northern Dancer’s broodmare sire, Native Dancer xx, appears in the pedigrees of five of the 59 that completed all phases. Turn-To xx claims eight of the finishers, which is actu-
ally impressive when you consider just how much larger the eventing gene pool is compared to dressage and jumping. Stallions with six on the list of 59 include Bold Ruler xx and
Photos by Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
Jumper gold medalists: Jeroen Dubbledam (NED) and Zenith SFN, a KWPN gelding, is by Rash R and out of a Fuego du Prelet daughter.
Owen Tudor xx. Coincidentally, they are also ancestor to one dressage horse each. Those with five eventing descendants include Sir Gaylord
xx and his maternal grandsire, Princequillo xx, but only two of those descendants are shared between Sir Gaylord and Prince- quillo within the five-generation pedigrees used as references. My Babu xx and Rockefella xx each claim four descen-
dants, High Hat xx claims three and Imperius xx, Never Bend xx and Court Martial xx each claim two. Of the non-Thoroughbred ancestors, Clover Hill (an Irish
Draught noted for jumpers and eventers) has four descen- dants in the top 59 and King of Diamonds (an Irish Draught noted for jumpers and eventers) has three. Interestingly, neither of these stallions, despite their previous histories, ap- peared on the list of ancestors from the top 30 jumpers.
Versatility
When it comes to versatility, there are two factors we will consider: the ability to be in the ancestry for all three of the Olympic disciplines and the number of studbooks using their blood no matter their original registry. With 27 of the 119 horses considered in this article, to his
credit, Ibrahim leads the pack as most frequent ancestor but Cor de la Bryere, with 25, is a close second.
Warmbloods Today 21
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