Breeding Eventers – Blood will out

Eventing – blood will out!

I suspect that it is one of the most persistent myths of equestrian sport, that eventers are freaks, accidents – that you cannot breed to produce eventing horses. As I see it, this is just plain wrong. The limited number of people who have tried to breed for eventing have consistently been successful, even when they have sometimes started with fairly ordinary genetic material. Patricia Nicholson in Ireland, Sam Barr in England, even Bridget McIntyre in Australia, were all early breeders who used whatever mares they could find, and combined with an eye and an intent, and a passion for the sport, were remarkably successful in producing top line eventers. More recently the highly successful German eventing teams have featured horses produced by the pioneer breeder, Friedrich Butt, who initially set out to breed horses for Hanoverian racing – on the beach if you don’t mind – and while he kept using the Hanoverian brand, each generation he bred to Thoroughbred sires until producing the gold medal winning duo of Butts Abraxxas and Leon, and they were 63/64ths Thoroughbred.

Thoroughbred blood is an essential element in eventing breeding, whatever the pundits who predicted a Warmblood onset after the changes in the three day format may believe.

These thoughts were partially inspired by a weekend at one of Australia’s premier three day events – the Melbourne CCI*** in Victoria . Once again, we saw the influence of the Thoroughbred stallion, Brilliant Invader with two horses in the three-star class.

Brilliant Invader has a convoluted relationship with Australian jumping. Foaled in 1978, he was raced by banker, Laurie Connell, who with another high flyer of the time, Alan Bond, set up the very rich Australian Bond Showjumping circuit, before both individuals spent time in jail for their financial misdemeanors. Connell was Jeff McVean’s owner when he was a top ten showjumping rider in Europe, and the Australian jumping chef d’equipe at the LA Games. Brilliant Invader was a reasonable success on the racetrack, winning eight races from 1200 to 2000 metres.

Exported to New Zealand in 1983, Brilliant Invader left his mark on equestrian sport in that country, siring a string of World Cup level showjumpers, as well as the Atlanta eventing gold medallist, Ready Teddy. Brilliant Invader returned to Australia in 1989, and stood at a couple of sporthorse studs, continuing to produce performers, but – despite covering some well credentialed mares – failed to produce a stallion son to carry on the line. Brilliant Invader’s pedigree contains all those famous Thoroughbred jumping stallions: Phalaris, Son-in-Law, Bay Ronald and Precipitation – his dam was by one of the last sons of Precipitation, Agricola, who also sired Vicki Roycroft’s Apache – a winner of the Grand Prix of Rome.

Brilliant Invader continues to exert an influence around the world, he is the dam sire of William Fox-Pitt’s Parklane Hawk, a winner at Rolex Kentucky and Burghley. Another class eventer Black Tie Affair out of the same mare, Dee Bee Lady, is in the UK with Oliver Townend.

In the showjumping world he continues to make a mark, with Dunstan Delphi ridden by Katie McVean at Lexington, and then sold for a mega mega price to the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation, out of a Brilliant Invader mare, Flower Power, that had been ridden by her father, Jeff.

One of the two Brilliant Invaders at the Melbourne event, Wade Equine Highly Recommended, is out of Diversity by Distelfink, a Hanoverian stallion who was hugely influential in New Zealand. Amongst others, he was the sire of GV Braveheart, who carried a 19 year old Olivia Bunn to 8^th in the eventing at the WEG in Rome in 1998. Diversity is out of Hino, a grand-daughter of Tira Mink, the sire of Mark Todd’s superstar, Charisma. Diversity’s progeny include Katie McVean’s successful showjumper, Dunstan Springfield.

The winner of the CCI*** at Melbourne, is another example of breeding for eventing – BP Flamboyant is the product of a breeding program run by the rider, Katja Weimann, and her family. The sire, Triathlete (aka Remi West Side Story – by the imported Hanoverian Winterkönig out of a Thoroughbred mare by Shaft) was ridden by Katja to two star level before his untimely death. He won seven events in a row at one star, and was 3^rd at Lakes and Craters CCI***. The Thoroughbred dam, Margot’s Glance (by Gypsy Kingdom) is also the dam of another of Katja’s three star eventers, BP Gallantry.

One horse to impress at Melbourne was the Kiwi import, Charlton Veeza who carried Charlie King to victory in the CCIJ*. Veeza is by Charlton Javelin and out of an Aberlou mare called Plain Jane. A Thoroughbred, Aberlou was pretty well the founding sire of Kiwi eventing, and sired a string of top class eventers including Blyth Tait’s World Champion, Messiah and Delta who he rode to 2^nd place at Badminton.

Javelin is by the imported Warmblood stallion, Oldenburg bred by the great Georg Vorwerk, and by his Anglo Arab stallion, Inschallah, out of a Weinstern mare. Exported to Holland and re-christened, Imperial, he sired Zucarlos who ridden by American Jay Hayes, competed at the Barcelona Games and the Stockholm WEG. In New Zealand, Oldenburg was the sire of Internet, who was 7^th at Burghley. I am indebted to New Zealand sporthorse agent, Joanne Bridgman, for this information, and young Charlie is indebted to Jo for finding him the horse.

While we are on the subject of dams, try this for amazing (and I am indebted to Australian eventing horse dealer, Sharon Ridgway for this insight) – the winner of this year’s Badminton was Clifton Promise out of the New Zealand mare, Darn Style. Promise was born in 1998 by Engagement. The mare only had one other colt foal, GV Top of the Line, born in 1992 by Golden Glimmer – and he too was an eventing star, carrying Olivia Bunn at 7^th place at the WEG in Jerez, victory at Puhinui CCI*** and Taupo CCI*** as well as 4^th at the World Cup final in Malmo. Given that Top of the Line and Promise were both bred to race, it’s amazing that the pair made their way to eventing and statistically highly improbable that they should be so successful.

There are two stallions with two progeny each in the 2013 Badminton top 20, Heraldik with Happy Times and FRH Butts Abraxxas (he is also the dam sire of the horse that placed second, La Biosthetique – Sam FBW) and Master Imp, sire of Master Crusoe and Ringwood Magister.

The Thoroughbred, Heraldik came to Germany from Czechoslovakia, and had the good fortune to be discovered by southern German breeder, Alfred Casper in 1995, and he was lucky that the local mare owners responded warmly, sending over 100 mares to him in his first season. They were well rewarded and when he died at the stud, in 2005, Heraldik had already established himself as one of the great performance horse sires… but sadly, he does not seem to have produced a stallion son equal to himself.

Master Imp, even though a full Thoroughbred, was definitely bred with a Sporthorse career in mind. Born on the famed O’Neil family’s Slyguff Stud, he was by Imperious, a winner on the racetrack before he joined the performance horse stallion ranks at Slyguff alongside another Thoroughbred, Highland Flight and the celebrated Irish Draught, King of Diamonds. Imperius was the sire of Nelson Pessoa’s Hickstead Derby winner, Vivaldi, and also Slyguff, who narrowly missed an individual bronze at the 1984 Games. Imperius is the dam sire of Imperial Cavalier who finished 13^th at this year’s Badminton.

On the 2012 WBFSH eventing sire rankings, Master Imp is 2^nd  behind Heraldik xx with Cruising, 3^rd. Cruising is an interesting stallion. He looked so ‘ponyish’ himself, that there were all sorts of rumours that he was really by the stud’s pony stallion, but there is no denying that he has been a wonderful sire of jumpers – look no further than Rich Fellar’s Flexible – and a very good sire of eventers. There is however a fair whack of Thoroughbred on his sire, Sea Crest’s pedigree, and his dam was largely Thoroughbred – and Cruising has worked best for eventing when bred to mares by Thoroughbred stallions – the cross that produced Mr Medicott and Mr Cruise Control, who cruised to victory at Luhmühlen this year.

Ricardo Z in third on the list really seems to be a most unlikely candidate as an eventing sire. He is by Rebel Z II, the full-brother of the great showjumper, Ratina Z. Rebel Z II was three quarters Holsteiner (and not a lot of ‘blood’ in the mix either), and one quarter Selle Français – Almé. Rebel Z II failed to emulate his sister’s feats in the competition arena, and was only a moderately successful sire, with the reputation of breeding ‘tricky’ horses. Ricardo Z is out of a mare by the great Selle Français export to Germany (and briefly Holland) Furioso II, by the Thoroughbred son of Precipitation, Furioso. This is much more likely a source of eventing prowess – then we get to the final line, that much loved Holsteiner ‘tank’ Amor, a hugely influential sire in the early days of Dutch Warmblood breeding. I do note however that in the sales pitch for Ricardo Z, they stress his value over Thoroughbred mares – although his most successful foal, Jeepers Creepers is out of a mare by the Holsteiner stallion, Cavalier Royale. Jeepers Creepers best result in 2012, with Polly Stockton in the saddle, was a win at Blair Castle CIC – and there are no superstars in his group.

On my count, 75% of the horses in the top 20 at Badminton this year were purpose bred for eventing – only trouble is, the winner, Clifton Promise, certainly wasn’t. He was sold as a two year old for $3000 to race in Malaysia, but luckily for him (and for Jock Paget) he was so slow he wasn’t taken to Asia, and found his way to eventing owner, Frances Stead. The rest is history.

There are only five Thoroughbreds in the 20, they were the ones bred to race – but 10 of the others are at least 50% Thoroughbred and Butt’s Abraxxas is 63/64ths Thoroughbred.

So not only is it possible to breed for eventing, but it is already being done, and done successfully, as the results at Badminton – and for that matter, Melbourne – confirm – the only thing to remember, is that if you want a successful eventer, it is not wise to let your Thoroughbred blood fall below 50%, and my feeling is that 75% works even better… and even then, be prepared to be beaten by the odd Kiwi Thoroughbred with an exceptional jockey on board.