77 horses participated in the 2004 Olympic showjumping competition. Of these, 35 were geldings, 26 stallions, and 16 mares. The oldest, at 16, was the Selle Français Albin III, and the youngest, at 8, were the Oldenburger Countdown, the Dutch warmblood Oliver Q, and the Holsteiner Olympic. In addition to the 16 Holstein-bred horses who participated, a further 13 were sired by Holsteiner stallions, so that the studbook's immediate influence extended to 38% of the participants - which is not at all bad for a regional studbook with only about 7,200 registered broodmares. The outside influence of Selle Français stallions was less marked, with only 4 having sired offspring outside their own studbook. On the other hand, 7 horses were by Zangersheide stallions (excluding outsiders such as Ramiro, who carried the 'Z' suffix while at Zangersheide), which is remarkable for an operation which is only 30 years old. more...

The average age of the 25 horses who made it to rounds 4 and 5 was eleven years. The oldest was For Pleasure at 16, and the youngest at 9 were Richmont Park, Lamalushi, Adlantus As, and Fleche Rouge. Seven geldings, eight mares and ten stallions competed in rounds 4 and 5. It is arguable which horse was the best of the championship. The Selle Français stallion Dollar du Murier ridden by Eric Navet finished first in the 5 rounds leading up to the four-horse finals, with only 4 time faults and not a single fence down, followed by the Holsteiner mare Fein Cera ridden by Peter Wylde, who had two fences down. However, with only 3 time faults Fein Cera was the best horse in the finals with change of riders, while Dollar du Murier had a fence down when ridden by Peter Wylde. Either way, both horses are undoubted stars. Dollar du Murier (1991) is by Jalisco B out of Karielle, by Uriel, and he is inbred 3 x 3 to Ibrahim and linebred 5 x 5 x 5 x 6 x 6 to Orange Peel. Fein Cera (1991) is by Landadel out of the former German champion Cera, by Cor de la Bryère. Landadel is inbred 3 x 4 to Ladykiller, but there is no in- or linebreeding in Fein Cera's pedigree. more...

The names of Dark Ronald and his outstanding offspring Son-in-Law come readily to the minds of Holsteiner breeders, but what was the actual significance of these two stallions and their close relatives in the development of the modern sport horse? more...

Bayardo's dam, Galicia, was a daughter of Cox's favorite stallion, Galopin, who had been a superlative racer, leading sire three times, and was 26 years old when Galicia was born. Her dam was by Isonomy, sire of two English Triple Crown winners (Isinglass and Common) from a female family which began with Queen Mary, one of the greatest taproot mares in England's General Stud Book. more...

Nobility, appeal and clean conformation defined this stallion. He showed a sound strength of character, good rideability, wonderful gaits and talented jumping. His performance, type and pedigree produced offspring with excellent movements and jumping style, while at the same time retaining and improving the existing quality. On March 26, 1976 at the breeding stable of Kirow horse stud the black mare Bespechnost gave birth to her fourth foal. The jet black colt by Eol was named Blesk, what in Russian language means "Brilliance", and definitely he was the only diamond among eight foals of this luxurious broodmare. Her dam line goes back, via the stallions more...

In May 1993, Quidam de Revel left French shores. More than a great sport horse - he had been the best French competitor at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and one of the pillars of the French team under the saddle of the talented Hervé Godignon. Carrier of a formidable genetic heritage that the French allowed to escape from their clutches, with some consolation nevertheless. At 15-years old, he is still one of the best ambassadors of French breeding across Europe. That is without counting the fact that, ahead of some of the best current combinations, he carried off one of the most coveted Grands Prix, that of Hannover, under the saddle of the young Thomas Velin.
This article first appeared in the March 1997 issue of Breeding News for Sport Horses To subscribe to the magazine please visit their web site www.breedingnews.com PDF file, 4 pages, 365KB more...

Bloodlines. It is a topic that many books have been written about! You will see many names, and there is always the danger that you'll get mixed up. Many years ago, others had the same feeling, that these names should be placed in a certain order: the offspring off a stallion should always start with the initial of the father. And so we have different bloodlines which you all know: 0-line, F-line, and so on. A danger connects with that system: that you generalize too much. Bloodlines change over the years more...

Bolero, a classic foundation stallion in the Hanoverian Verband, is one of the few sires to produce a new foundation stallion, Brentano II, along with other top stallions, Bismarck and Brentano I. Also, three of Bolero's descendants medaled at the 2004 Olympics in Athens--Beauvalais ridden by Spain's Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, Bonaparte ridden by Germany's Heike Kemmer and Brentina ridden by American Debbie McDonald. more...

As white as snow, bursting with energy, self-assured and radiating a noble appeal, Capitol I looked like a horse out of a fairy tale. This monumental stallion is justly deemed one of the best Holstein jumper-makers in Germany if not in the whole world. His off-spring have earned well over 2.5 million Euro at competitions in the north and south, in Europe, in America and Australia – at Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games. more...

Concorde, Horse Of The Year 2003 Performance according to the pedigree On The 10Th Of May 1984 The Colt Foal Named Cupido Was Born At The Home Of The Family Van Diest In Son, North Brabant, The Netherlands. Who Could Have Ever Guessed At That Moment That This Colt Foal Would Become A Top Class Showjumper more...

Not only old, classical Trakehner aristocracy - in the best meaning of the word - has been recreated and conserved in the dark bay stallion, also multipurpose sportivity, that once made Russian Trakehner breed world renowned - based on proven ancestors, relatives and own performances. The maternal mare line of this stallion traces back to the mare Teorema, born in 1952 at Kirow horse stud, a dark chestnut of medium size, in whose pedigree the chestnut color was predominant. Her sire Termit appeared in 1933 at Hauptgestut Trakehnen out of the mating of the Dampfross son Hyperion with the mare Technik by Tempelhuter. In the stallion line developed more...

What is genetic evaluation? In every area of animal science (and plant science) some performance trait(s) is of particular interest. For example, dairy cows may be valued for their milk fat and milk protein yields, while animals raised for meat production will be valued for their lean tissue growth rate and feed efficiency. In the case of sport horses, animals are valued for their performing ability, or more specifically, their ability to win competitions and hopefully fetch good prices when sold. These traits are partly inherited from their parents and partly due to diet, training and other non-genetic factors. In animal breeding circles, these are referred to as "genetic" & "environmental" factors respectively. The “breeding value” of an animal is composed mainly of the sum of the individual (or additive) effects of all its genes. Since it is mainly these additive effects of its genes that an animal transmits in the chromosomes of the sperm or egg, by estimating the breeding value we are estimating the animal’s potential to transmit genetic merit (good or bad) to its progeny. At some future date when it may be possible to clone horses it may be the animal’s “genotypic” value ( that is, the value of all the animal’s genes operating as a unit) rather than its “breeding value” as defined above that will be of interest. But for the present, while progeny are produced by sexual reproduction, breeding value is defined in terms of the additive effects of the animal’s genes. PDF file, 140 pages, 1.2MB more...

Throughout the ages, human arrogance and vanity have caused countless problems in society. Generations of medieval monarchs and aristocrats married only within their limited class at the top of the social heap. Whether for political expediency or eventually for tradition, they married cousins, sisters, brothers, daughters, etc. The final result of these countless unions within a small group, resulted in idiocy, genetic diseases (e.g. hemophilia, cleft palates, mongolism) and a general declining ability and intelligence of the individuals involved. Is it any surprise then, that humans should impose these same standards on other endeavors? Our interest here, in particular is the lack of adequate criteria to select animals worthy of reproduction. more...

When hearing "Horses of the Dutch", everyone immediately refers to the Dutch Warmbloods belonging to the KWPN. The term however has to be given a much deeper meaning, and to be understood as well are the two breeds that formed the foundation for the present KWPN, and that are now on the verge of extinction. These two breeds are the Gelderlander and the Groninger Horse. The importance of the two breeds in cultivating the KWPN breed can
be clearly seen when examining the bloodlines of KWPN international jumpers or international dressage horses, and finding that many of them carry more than 50% Gelderlander or Groninger blood. We'll look at the influence the two breeds have had on the Dutch warmblood sport horse population, without going too deep into pedigrees. more...

The Trakehner horse is the oldest warmblood breed in the world, with a history spanning over 400 years. The official name, "The East Prussian Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin" hints to the roots of this magnificent breed: the region of East Prussia once belonging to Germany, but lost during World War II to Russia.The origin of the breed is a small horse - bred locally in East Prussia - known as the "Schwaike". The Schwaike was known for its versatility and endurance. When this breed was crossed with imported English thoroughbred and Arabian stallions, the resulting horse was named after the main stud it came from: Trakehnen. The original purpose of the Trakehner was for use as calvary mount. more...

Evidently, Hockey was one of the best breeding stallions at Kirov horse stud in Russia. During the long and prolific life he produced more than 350 offspring by natural covering, including 70 broodmares, which are used in breeding not only in Russia, but all over the world. At the present time six sons and eight grandsons of Hockey are the breeding stallions in Russia plus seven stallions, which are available for breeding in Europe and North America. more...

By the time one tries to learn all the correct words for pedigree analysis, one's head can be spinning. Taproot mares, family strains, plus symbols after names--it seems to be a foreign language, and one that one cannot buy a translation dictionary for in a local bookstore! more...

Conformation and Gaits Shows - Reason and Sentiment
"Beauty" contests for all types of animals have existed since man started raising them, or almost.
The horse is no exception to this rule, quite the contrary, because the contests known as "Conformation and Gaits" were only a short while ago (20 years) the only criteria for selection, at least as regards the saddle horse. Notably, the young 3 year old future stallions were judged du-ring a Conformation and Gaits Show, which was the only testing phase in the life of a breeding stallion before his get were judged ten years later more...

Out And About, Murphy Himself, Better And Better and J.J. Babu have more in common than being unstoppable forces on three-day event cross-country courses. They each also carry in their pedigrees one of three fiery, dark stallions whose influence in Thoroughbred breeding would not be fully appreciated until the breeding of sport horses began to be examined. more...

In the August 2002 edition of the journal Animal Genetics, Dr. Emmeline Hill and her colleagues at the Department of Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, published a ground-breaking study that changes much of what we thought we knew about the early history of the thoroughbred, and that affects the pedigrees of virtually every thoroughbred now living. It is not, as Dr. Hill says, the "definitive" study; still, it is the first to apply the power of mtDNA research to the history of thoroughbred matrilines. PDF file 8 pages, 254 KB more...

Every superstar of Russian Trakehner origin has or had something special, something that made this horse completely different from other horses. Many show jumping fans and horse lovers remeber the hectic and super fast reflexes of Topki, the mighty power and charisma of Almox Prints J. I will try to find out what is the very special thing about Obzor more...

Buckram Oak Farm's homebred Eurosilver ranks high on most Kentucky Derby (gr. I) followers' lists, including the one compiled by The Blood-Horse's Steve Haskin, who has the son of Unbridled's Song No. 2 on his Derby Dozen. Does last year's Lane's End Breeders' Futurity (gr. II) winner have the pedigree to get 1 1/4 miles on the first Saturday in May? The quick answer is a definitive "yes." But let's dive deeper into the gene pool as to why the dark bay or brown colt shouldn't have a problem covering a route of ground. more...

Trend toward more intensive breeding could cause problems. As an audience gathered to study his every move, Lion Heart shifted into sales mode. Neck arched, nostrils flared and chestnut coat gleaming, the 5-year-old stallion showed off his genetic potential as he gracefully strolled out of his stall and struck a conformation pose before breeders during Ashford Stud's open house in January. Those who were sold on what they saw hoped the $30,000 stud fee for Lion Heart's services would prove to be a bargain. But while his reputation in the breeding shed is years from being established, the son of Tale of the Cat has already eclipsed every other stallion in productivity more...

In this first part, we focus at a stallion from Holstein breeding. The stallion Quantum (Quidam de Revel) is amongst the most promising breeding stallions in this breeding area. As a two-year-old, his breeder Johann Peter Lass introduced Quantum at the Holstein stallion selection. The still youthful appearing Quantum was at that time a striking appearance showing much expression and blood. After his approval, he was described by breeding manager Dr. Thomas Nissen as follows: more...

In this first edition of the WBFSH International Breeding Guide the Holsteiner Ramiro and the Trakehner Doruto are the big winners.The International Breeding Guide distinguishes between the three Olympic disciplines of showjumping, dressage and eventing. The breeding information in the jumping disciplines is divided into three age categories.

The second WBFSH Seminar on the evaluation of young show jumpers in ‘s Hertogenbosch, Holland, was held on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd 2005. The results of the JUMPEX research, performed in The Netherlands between 1998 and 2003, was on the programme of the first day. Dr. René van Weeren gave detailed information about the biomechanical research performed by dr. Susanna Santamaria and all developments concerning the young show jumpers performing in the JUMPEX research. more...

Jumping Rider Chris Kappler Performs Incredibly With Royal Kaliber, The American Horse Of The Year 2003, According To ‘The Chronicle Of The Horse’. In January They Won The Tampa Grand Prix. Royal Kaliber Was Bred By Jan Lamers From Oss,Holland, And Was Born Under The Name Of Korporaal (Sire G.Ramiro Z Out Of Fiedonja, Voltaire X Stuyvesant xx). Kappler And Kaliber Won The Triple Crown: The Gold Cup, The Invitational With A First Prize Of 200,000 Dollars And The Aga Championship. more...

In 30th year of the last century Kirow Gestut, was founded by the Mikhalikovy brothers. At that time, it specialized primarily on the Budenny breed. Later on, after the Second World War, Kirow Gestut finally came to light as the home of Elite Trakehner Hauptgestut «Trakehnen», and the East Prussian horses delivered from Germany. For almost 60 years Kirow breeders have taken great care and increased both the genetic and sport abilities of this unique breed. The quality of Kirow Gestut horses is well known in Russia more...

"Once the 1st foals of the year are dropped, a breeder begins again to study stallion directories & numerous glossy brochures from famous stallion stations. He absorbs all of the information, weighs the advantages & disadvantages of his mares & finally selects a stallion that appears to be ideal - a decision that no one else can make for him.
The German equestrian Federation, however, gave the breeder an invaluable aid with its more...

Blenheim II was bred in Ireland by His Highness the Aga Khan. His racing career included a win in the Epsom Derby.
He was a successful sire in France and England, and at 10 years of age *Blenheim II was exported to the United States, where he stood at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. In North America he was among the top ten leading race sires on nine occasions.
*Blenheim II was by Blandford, whose nine foal crops included four Derby winners. more...

The *Teddy line has been extremely important in both racing and jumping on both sides of the Atlantic. *Teddy was sired by the stallion Ajax, who had won the French Derby and the Grand Prix of Paris on the race course. The dam of *Teddy was the English mare Rondeau, a daughter of Bay Ronald. Bay Ronald was the sire of Dark Ronald mentioned earlier as the founder of one of the leading sire lines in Germany. As a race horse, *Teddy won several important races,including a race substituted for the French Derby because of the war. He also won the San Sebastian Grand Prix and the San Sebastian St.Leger. Like his sire, *Teddy stood at stud in France, more...

Dark Ronald was born in England, where he raced and later stood at stud until he was sold to Germany. Dark Ronald, sired by Bay Ronald, was the founder of one of the two male Thoroughbred lines that have dominated
Germany for many years. The other line is that descending from the stallion Louviers.
Before being sent to Germany, Dark Ronald sired Son-In-Law, who was a plodding distance horse, and in England he also sired the fine race horse and sire, Dark Legend more...

The French Dollar line was named after the stallion Dollar, who stood in France in the last part of the nineteenth century. Five generations after Dollar, his line produced Bruleur, a high class stayer on the race track. The sire line continued through Bruleur's son Ksar. Ksar's outstanding contribution to modern bloodlines was when he sired *Tourbillon, a winner of the French Derby and champion sire in France on four occasions until his death in 1954.
Although the Dollar line originated in France, the family has not been as prominent in the bloodline of jumpers in Europe as it is in North America. more...

The French Grey line is a very successful jumping line in both Europe and North America. The grey color so predominant in this family can be traced 250 years to two stallions, Brownlow Turk and Alcock's Arabian, both imported to England from the Orient. About 3% of the modern Thoroughbred population is grey and is traceable to these two imported stallions and, according to Peter Willett, a well-known English bloodline authority, "What is true of a single, easily discernible character like color may be equally true of other characteristics that are less
apparent but more closely related to ability." If one considers the number of great grey jumpers more...

A very important jumping line in both Europe and North America descends from the English Thoroughbred stallion Marco. Marco was a descendant of the Matchem line, a Thoroughbred line particularly noted to be slow maturing, staying race horses. Marco stood at stud in England, where he had several sons of importance in both racing and jumping pedigrees. These sons included Marcovil and Omar Khayyam. Marco was also the grandsire of Cottage, a famous ‘chasing sire in England. more...

The Rock Sand line is another important producer of jumping horses in both North America and Europe.
Rock Sand stood at stud briefly in England, producing little of quality, and then he was shipped to the U.S.A. where he was much more successful at stud, siring Tracery, a first class winner. Rock Sand was later exported to France, where he died. Rock Sand was reputed to be "one of the worst actioned horses at slow paces, but when running he gave an idea of his quality." His sire, Sainfoin, also was the sire of Tout Suite, the dam of Hurry On (previously mentioned in the Marco line). *Rock Sand sired Tracery in the United States, but Tracery was exported to England as a yearling, where he won a number of the great classic races and then retired to stud. more...

The Thoroughbred sire Nearco was bred in Italy by Federico Tesio, an Italian breeder and author who was nicknamed "The Wizard of Dormello" because of his successful breeding program at his estate, Dormello.
Nearco was never defeated on the race track, winning 14 races at distances from 5 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles. As a three-year-old, he was purchased and exported to England, where he was champion sire three times and champion broodmare sire three times. Some of Nearco's greatest influence was asserted by his sons *Nasrullah and *Royal Charger, more...

Degrees of heritability and genetic correlations in the Hanoverian breed.
How safe is it to assume that the shape of a horse's head will be passed on from one generation to the next? What happens to the basic gaits and the typiness if we select for jumping ability only? Ludwig Christmann researched these kinds of statements in the course of his study of the development of the breed value estimation based on the results from mare inspections and mare performance tests at the Institute of Animal Breeding at the University in Goettingen. These results are not only necessary for the estimation of the breed values, they, in themselves, also bear important information with respect to breeding.
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It's already six years since the first appearance of the BLUP.
In the beginning I was optimistic concerning the BLUP; even though I have always been convinced that nothing can replace experience and observation and the know how of a horseman. Today , with hindsight , I am aware of the system's aberrations as well as the way in which it has been abused and deviated.
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Alme fell asleep for ever on 21st March 1991 at 21H 00,the first day of Spring .He was 25 years old and enjoying a gentle and well earned retirement following a long career which we shall review with some emotion.
The story of this outstanding horse punctuates that of the modern sport horse at the end of this century.If the thoroughbred Orange Peel left a remarkable imprint more...

When selecting an event horse prospect, some of the most important considerations are type, soundness, boldness, movement, ridability and conformation. But, there are other factors thatshould be included in the selection process.
Pedigree evaluation can be an important part of predicting the suitability of a prospect for combined training.
For this study, the pedigrees of 61 of the most successful more...

At the dawn of the 21st century , after a little less than one and a half centuries of utilizing the thoroughbred to improve, first the army horse , then the saddle horse and now the sport horse ; do those which we call , in contrast, the " half bred " , "warmblood" still need to be transfused ? Today some would assert that thoroughbred blood is no longer necessary because our Selle Français half breds have sufficicient thoroughbred in their pedigree to become "self sufficient" more...

If you believe that inbreeding has a place in producing topclass thoroughbreds, then the concept of
cluster breeding will extend the range of possiblities dramatically, writes KAREL MIEDEMA. more...

The prized blood of the Akhal-Teke horse is the beginning of the world's horsebreeding culture. From ancient books, you can see that Central Asia was the center of horsebreeding of the ancient world. The paintings that we still have, show to us Central Asian horses with beautiful and strong legs, high necked and quick, already existing at the end of the third and the beginning of the second century BC. The ancient authors speak especially of the golden color of these horses. more...

Milton has died, Ratina is retired and E.T. is not the same anymore. World Cup-winner and present number 1 of the world Tinka's Boy fills the gap that famous predecessors left behind. The history of a small highness, the history of the best jumping horse of the world. Tinka's Boy was born 14 years ago as Hooper more...

The importance of understanding Arabian pedigrees before one breeds is best summed up in a statement from the noted breeder William States Jacobs (who was active in the 1940s and bred some excellent horses, including the National winner sires Imaraff and Raffi). He said: "Whatever is in the pedigree will come out. Nothing else can." This simple statement could alternately be said to be the eleventh commandment for Arabian horse owners more...

At least 35 of the 48 British-bred horses that are in the 1996 WBCSH World Breeding Rankings for eventing are by thoroughbreds, and the best British horse in the showjumping rankings, Welham, is also by a thoroughbred.
Britain’s most valuable asset in horse breeding is the thoroughbred. For a hundred years or more, use of the thoroughbred sire has been the basis of British breeding of sport/leisure horses. The shortcoming has been that little thought was given to the possibility that one thoroughbred, because of its bloodlines and own ability, might be more likely to produce athletes with good temperaments. Admittedly, it has been difficult to identify which thoroughbred stallions did have the credentials to produce sport horse. There were the race records which helped to assess courage and soundness, but little else that was of value in the breeding of sport horses, and there has been the National Light Horse Society (HIS) which ran a stallion show for thoroughbreds where the stallions were assessed for their As long as he was good looking and sound, then any thoroughbred would do. The result of this indiscriminate use of large numbers of thoroughbreds (1,021 stallions are registered at Weatherbys, and more are producing unregistered stock), have been examples like at the Young Horse Finals for Eventers when, of the 60 qualifiers, everyone was by a different sire (nearly all thoroughbreds). This article first appeared in the January 1997 issue of Breeding News for Sport Horses To subscribe to the magazine please visit their web site www.breedingnews.com/ PDF file, 2 pages 68KB. more...

Integration of Sport and Breeding
The World Breeding Federation was founded in November 1994. It is a cooperation between studbooks from all over the world. These studbooks have one common aim, which is breeding a sport horse for use in showjumping, dressage or eventing. Over thirty studbooks, the major ones, are already a member of the World Breeding Federation and a long list of candidate-members is being studied by the Breeding Committee of the World Breeding Federation.
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For several years the superior importance of the dam line got more and more attention of the sport horse breedership and the connected media. Latest highlight in this development of explanation is an article in one of the leading German Horse Magazines (Reiter Revue Nov. 2002), which explains the surplus value of the female line not only with the situation of the x and y chromosome (the female x chromosome is the biggest horse chromosome and carries much more genetic information as the male y chromosome, which is the smallest horse chromosome with in comparison few genetic information), but also with the mitochondria, which are cell organelles, which themselves carry genetic information. Most body cells contain up to 10,000 mitochondria, which are passed on to the foal almost only by the dam. more...

1993 was the year that Europe opened up, and in particular the Europe of the horse world.
Do the French realise the changes this will make to their lives; riders, owners, and sport horse breeders?
The opening up of Europe has encouraged certain private breeders to think again about the evolution of the French Sport Horse. French breeding is doing well. Our most effective ambassadors are our horses international results. People come from many countries to draw from our genetic inheritance to boost their own breeding more...

Taken from the book- "Stallions - The Leading Competition Sires of Great Britain and Ireland" by Hugh McMahon.
The term "Warmblood" is a comparatively recent addition to the British horse breeders vocabulary, and when a newcomer to the equestrian scene asks, "What is a Warmblood?", the chances are that the English reply will be: "one of those soft and gutless things from the continent!", or comments like that. The true answer is far more complex and extremely interesting.

All over the world, Britain is envied for her large and high class stock of Thoroughbreds, but in sport horse breeding we have made much less use of our abundant supply than the continentals have of their more limited numbers.
The tendency has been to use the Thoroughbred as a breed and any reasonable representative would do to upgrade half bred stock, inject some class and stamina, and with luck produce a good hunter, eventer or show horse. more...

The last twenty years have seen the emergence of specialist show jumping sire lines, which have more-or-less supplanted the old half-bred formula at the top level of international show jumping. Yet almost all of these sire lines can be traced back to the thoroughbred, although in some cases one has to dig a little deeper than in others. more...

Although Doruto, the absolute number one in the dressage sires ranking, was born and bred in Trakehnen, his entire breeding career was devoted to the KWPN in The Netherlands where he was in active breeding service from 1965 to 1988. In this long and fertile period, during which he served 2318 mares, he produced 1610 offspring,the majority of which displayed a distinct talent for dressage more...

Breeding horses specifically for eventing has less tradition than breeding jumping or dressage horses. In the past the most important aspect was the horse's ability to jump over fences, walls, hedges and other such natural obstacles. With a few exceptions, nobody was interested in the sires or breeding history of their horses. Therefore, it was always a difficult job to identify the heredity of event horses. However, in the last few years event riders have become more interested in genetics and information concerning the origin of their horses. more...

The life story of the recently deceased Holstein progenitor was covered by almost every magazine. Bred by Baron von Nagel, this grandson of Ramzes x encountered problems at first with stallion selection committees which did not like his looks. But as his magnificent sport career under Fritz Ligges unrolled, he was quickly rehabilitated in the eyes of the breeders, specifically when Ramiro's first products such as Fatinitza under Thomas Frühmann easily soared to the top of the sport. more...

To meet the new and growing demands after the war, the state stud in Lower Saxony -home of the Hanoverians in Celle- began using Trakehners almost immediately. Many homeless Trakehners found refuge at Celle, among them the chestnut Abglanz, who proved to be an outstanding cross with the heavier Hanoverian mare base. more...

After WWII, the local warmblood breed in Westfalia, (a North-Western German state), faced the same problems as most other horse registries: how to transform the heavy farm horse type into a refined horse, suitable for all types of riding. Before WWII, the breeder Baron von Nagel realized how valuable East Prussian horses could be in "modernizing" these heavier types into suitable riding horses. In 1938, he bought the East Prussian stallion Oxyd from the Prussian state stud Beberbeck. A descendant of the Perfectionist xx-Irrlehrer line in Trakehnen, Oxyd was a very valuable stallion in Berberbeck before he was more...

Research indicates that the female X chromosome is responsible for the large hearts found in outstanding racehorses
Today, thanks to the truly great heart uncovered at the autopsy of the amazing Thoroughbred Secretariat, it is known that great heart really is a physical description of an extraordinary heart found in certain Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses and Standardbreds that has passed down the female line on the X chromosome from the legendary Eclipse, foaled in England in 1764. more...

By Jac Remijnse: One of the most influential bloodlines of the last decade in Holstein is surely the family of the mare Rappel, from damline 173. Romanus (Ramzes), Hans Günter Wi n k l e r ’s jumper and the top earner Capitol I (Capitano) are just two of the big names which go back to the Heinzelmann daughter, who couldn’t be kept in a meadow herself, because she would always jump over every thing! more...

The Performance Horse Registry (PHR) has announced the high score winners for the 1995 show season in jumping, combined training, dressage and hunter competitions.
This is the first year the recently organised Performance Horse Registry has made the awards. To be eligible for the awards program the horses must be at least one-half Thoroughbred and must be recorded in the Registry. Awards were given at both national and regional levels of competition. An overview of the horses receiving awards has provided some interesting date. It is the goal of the PHR, an organisation operated under the auspices of The Jocky Club, to make bloodline and performance information available to the performance horse industry more...

These three charts trace the lineage of some thoroughbred jumping lines in tail-male descent. As in the study of flat running horse pedigrees, the sire top line is just part of the equation. In fact, in many instances, it is the combination with strong female families and/or mares that trace to sires of jumping horses that produced the winners listed in these charts. In the case of Grand National winners, it should be noted that 14 winners can be traced to half-bred mare families, in other words mares whose ancestors were not all registered thoroughbreds, and the dams of another 22 can not be traced beyond a couple of generations. Likewise, horses have won the Gran Premio Merano and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, who are classified as Autres de Que Pur Sang (AQPS), horses, where usually one parent is not listed in the thoroughbred stud book. more...

Bred at Kirow horse stud, he was one of the most important sires after the World War Second in terms of type, interior qualities, rideability and hereditary transmission. His willingness to perform was enormous, his jumping results were outstanding and his pedigree was nearly like a dream. In 1979 at CHIO Aachen nobody knew the imposing silky black stallion, who won one of the world’s most difficult jumping events – the Grand Prix of North Rhine Westfalia. The name of the beautiful stallion was Topki and he was Russian Trakehner with the best sports genes. At that time he was only seven years old, that is the beginning age for S klass jumping competitions. It is difficult even to imagine, that a young horse wins such jumping competitions without any experience or special training for international rivalry and with an internationally inexperienced rider in the saddle. All these facts show the high class of the black athlet. more...