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Ramiro and Doruto Big Winners in WBFSH Breeding Guide Taken from - "The Leading Competition Sires of Great Britain and Ireland" by Hugh McMahon, published by Otterswick Marketing On the Saturday of the 1996 KWPN stallion selection finals in 's-Hertogenbosch, the new WBFSH International Breeding Guide was presented to the international press. The 330 page guide offers invaluable information for breeders of sport horses. It is the first time that data has been published about sires which are ranked in order of the performance of their offspring in international competition. 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. Showjumping Of these, the ranking of the older stallions is, without doubt, the most interesting. The ranking consists of an alphabetical list of more than 700 sires whose offspring have scored in the sport during the past five years. The stallions have accumulated points on the basis of the performance of their offspring. A paragraph is devoted to each of the sires in the top ten. The various studbooks and their results also receive attention and sires systematically producing good sport horses are distinguished from the flukes. Prominent hereditary features of sires, positive as well as negative, are discussed. Take Ramiro for instance. An indication is given of the kind of bloodlines he is well matched with, by looking at the success of his offspring and their descendants. We can also see from the data that it is the male offspring of the Selle Francais Jalisco which particularly prove successful in the sport, Grannus however, seems not to have produced any successors to Top Gun la Silla and Everest Grannusch. Landgraf 1 has clearly produced great sport horses, but in Holstein he represents a male line that is petering out. Some of his sons from abroad, however, possess the same qualities as their sire. Apart from the text and photographic illustrations, the International Breeding Guide consists of a number of diagrams which for example, show the difference between the number of offspring in the sport, the total points scored and the average scores per product. It is remarkable to note in this connection, that although Ramiro accumulated the most points and produced the most products in the sport, the average score (668) of his progeny is just one above the lowest in the top ten. The nine products of Lugano van la Roche score relatively best with their average of 1448 points, directly followed by the children of Grannus with an average of 1238 points. Because many of the stallions are either very old or deceased, another ranking was created based on the showjumping results of young horses in the World Championships at Lanaken. The KWPN sire Concorde shares his first place with the Selle Frangais Double Espoir. Other leading stallions include Jalisco, Nimmerdor and Pilot. Younger stallions such as Concorde, Ahorn, Damiro, Lord Liberty and Quat'Sous claim prominent places and their offspring raise high expectations for the future international sport. The third age category is a ranking of sires which are still active in the sport. This ranking, however, is based only on last year's results. Although in many cases nothing is known yet about their breeding capabilities, certain predictions of their future breeding careers, based on their own competition records can justifiably be made. Winner in this category is the French horse Souviens Toi 111 ridden by Roger-Yves Bost. Dressage Doruto is the undisputed leader of sires with hereditary dressage qualities. Ideal, number 15 in the all-time ranking for dressage horses, collected the major share of Doruto's points. Chevalier and Olympic Barbria have together collected the points for the twentieth place of their sire in the 1994/95 rankings. Another remarkable personality in the alltime top ten dressage ranking is the Holsteiner Lord, who, through his sire Ladykiller, is a half-brother to Landgraf 1. Lord has five offspring competing in dressage at top level since 1990, of which Lucky Lord had the best results. Apart from his dressage qualities, which Lord, like Ramiro, has mainly inherited from his grandsire Cottage Son, the Holstein progenitor is also a member of the jumping elite. In that discipline he claims tenth place, with offspring such as Lugana 11, To]) eed and Lusius. With his double tenth place, Lord is the only sire to score in both disciplines. Similar versatility is also often attributed to the Oldenburg Welt As, who claims a third (all-time) and a first (1994/95) place with Olympic Bonfire, Diamond VI and William's As, but in the showjumping discipline his products Leroy Brown and Wendy carry him only to 77th place. Eventing Anyone who still believes that the horses in eventing are but a random lot - too careful for serious showjumping and too common in action for dressage should think again. The ranking of eventing stallions demonstrates that some sires specifically breed very able event horses. Nickle King, sire of Mary King's King William, is winner in this discipline, followed by Polonez and Welton Louis. The WBFSH International Breeding Guide confirms and denies rumours that have so far not been verifiable. The hereditary power of sires can be deduced from an objective list that is based on data taken from international sporting arenas. Gone are the days when a sire's value could be based on an eloquent owner's praise or on one super product. The International Breeding Guide bases its analysis on facts and figures and is an indispensable instrument for every breeder of future sport horses. The WBFSH International Breeding Guide is available from Otterswick Marketing. |