FROM the many thought-provoking presentations at the Horse Sport Ireland Breeders’ Conference last December, it was dual World Equestrian silver medal-winner Padraig McCarthy’s comments about the need for more thoroughbred blood in event horses in particular that sparked off debates and gave some hope to traditional breeding fans.

Three months later, what does he think about the reaction? “I don’t know if it did have an impact or if people would breed to a thoroughbred horse this year because of that. It would be nice if a few people did, but they’re the ones that should be praised because it’s a difficult and thankless job,” he said.

This Rio Olympian ticks many boxes, both as a 2018 WEG individual silver medallist and horse breeder. Then there’s his first class honours degree in Economics and Finance with German, plus he holds a PhD in business insolvency laws.

McCarthy can more than walk the talk. However, it is intriguing with his economics background to hear more of his views about breeding event horses, often considered the ‘poor relation’ of sport horse markets.

His fellow Tipperaryman and Olympian Kevin Babington once quoted the old adage: “Fools breed foals for wise men to buy”.

So do event horse breeders think with their heads or hearts?

“Definitely with our heart,” McCarthy responds. “Collectively and individually, we all breed with our heart. Collectively, it’s a fool’s game because there are a lot of people out there that don’t know enough about it. But somebody has to breed them and horses come in all shapes and sizes.”

Padraig and his wife Lucy usually breed between eight to 10 eventing and show jumping foals at their Warren Farm in Devon. “We breed as many bad as good, but we’re lucky enough in that we’re better positioned than many to judge them and we have the benefit of being able to ride them,” he says, pinpointing how they keep down production costs.

Does it pay the traditional breeder to use thoroughbred blood though, when they may have to hold on to these less commercial youngsters until they’re at the ridden stage?

“It’s a difficult one. I saw something about the Horse Board inviting people to advise on strategy. There’s a lot that can be done from a strategic level that will feed back to breeding. I met Alison Corbally (HSI Director of Breeding) recently and she mentioned about the possibility of the RDS three-year-old young event horse class having a prerequisite of horses with 60%, 65% thoroughbred blood.”

Padraig McCarthy at the HSI Breeders Conference with Jens Meyer, Dr Alan Fahey, Tiernan Gill, Christopher Bartle, Alison Corbally and Bert Van den Oetelaar (Photo: Susan Finnerty)

Enthused about this proposal, he would take it even a step further. “I think it would be a fantastic idea to have it at 70%, 75%. Make it a shop window. Where in the world can you go to look at horses that are bred specifically to event with that amount of thoroughbred?

“Even today, take Burghley or Badminton, the majority of those horses have that amount of blood and are in the top four or five every year. If you do that every year, you’re going to have horses that could potentially win Badminton and Burghley. People in Germany, Italy and France will think we can go there and see what’s on offer, like in Holland. You can create a demand, build it and they will come,” said Padraig.

SHOWCASE

“They can create this showcase for what people are breeding and make something very unique for Ireland. When Alison mentioned it, I thought, ‘That’s fantastic, you have to go for it’. It mightn’t happen overnight but if we can do that consistently [raise the TB percentage], I think we’ll see the benefits, the breeders will become more enthused and I think it would be a really good thing for breeding event horses.”

One champion of thoroughbred blood for higher levels is top German event rider Michael Jung, who attended the Monart and Goresbridge Go For Gold sales last year.

“I spoke to him in Geneva and he said they just don’t have the blood in Germany and to win and to have sound horses, because you run them continually, you need blood. You can’t get away from it.

“But it’s a terrible thing because breeders don’t get rewarded for breeding them. A lot of breeders in Ireland are breeding to sell them as foals and there is no market, it’s just a loss-making enterprise. I know, because I’m doing it as well and it’s heartbreaking at times. We’re not breeding to sell, luckily, as foals and it’s encouraging to see people like Michael Jung and plenty of other customers buying three-year-olds.

“It needs to be driven strategically because I think if HSI and the RDS were to differentiate the young event horse class and not have it as a class for jumpers that are not quite good enough – 70% thoroughbred, specifically targeted for potential top-class event horses.

Just for the three-year-olds, it wouldn’t have to be for later on [Dublin young event horse classes].

With support for thoroughbred stallions averaging between 11%-14% in recent years and many Irish sport horse mares often having two warmblood crosses, it could be hard to round up numbers with a high thoroughbred percentage. However, Padraig is adamant it’s a step in the longterm direction.

“There’s no point having a horse in there with 30% TB. That horse, unless it’s a complete freak of nature is going nowhere at top level,” he said.

‘Name-dropping’ a horse’s thoroughbred percentage has become fashionable. Sometimes the percentage is totted up by diving far back into a horse’s pedigree, so which does he feel is better; the ‘fragmented thoroughbred pedigree’ or a couple of straight up thoroughbred crosses close up?

“I think it’s a good point and there’s different theories on that. Some people believe it doesn’t matter and some believe it does. In my opinion, and I think if you ask any of the top riders, you need blood in the first couple of generations and ideally, in the first generation.

“Most Dutch horses now will register 40 to 50% TB but you won’t see a thoroughbred in the first four generations. They’re a nice blood type, they’re sharp and spooky but they don’t gallop after eight minutes, they’re not the same quality,” said McCarthy.

HORSES FOR COURSES

Allstar B, the individual gold medallist at Tryon, is one of those Dutch horses. “He’s an outlier,” responds Padraig. “They’re not the norm. Even in his phenotype, he’s not a quality horse. You see Tom McEwan’s horse, Toledo de Kerser…in his body type he’s a real quality animal, but Allstar B? No. In any walk of life, in any business, you don’t try to model yourself on the exception.”

He also made this interesting observation at the Breeders’ Conference when he said: “A lot of buyers will tell you they want to buy blood when they want to buy flash.”

What’s the difference?

Sporting his two silver medals at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, Padraig McCarthy takes Mr Chunky on their lap of honour (Photo: FEI/Liz Gregg)

“Flash is the one that comes out and trots around like a dressage horse and kicks his heels up in the air, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be the one to dig deep for you on Sunday afternoon in Badminton when the chips are down or going to put its eyes between the flags on cross-country on Saturday afternoon,” McCarthy explains.

How many horses in their lifetime though can compete at the new five-star levels of Badminton and Burghley? Don’t the lower level horses and riders keep the pyramid propped up?

“They do and it’s a very difficult one. Badminton and Burghley, for spectators and for the top riders, are the pinnacle of the sport, so we absolutely need to have blood though. Those horses that can do a really good dressage in the short format in a three-star, now four-star, where you don’t really test the blood and stamina for real cross-country…they’re all jumping-bred horses, they can move well and do a good dressage,” he says, mentioning Cillnabradden Evo and Vendredi Biats, both sold from their yard, as such examples.

“What we’re in danger of seeing and it has happened, like Chris [Bartle] said, the goalposts change. When the long format went, people started breeding or introducing horses with more dressage movement to be more competitive and then over the years, you see this dumbing down of the cross-country, for safety reasons, which is all fine.

“We’re starting to build cross-country courses to reflect the type of horses that we have, so where does that end? Do we end up going to Badminton thinking, ‘We can’t do that anymore because we don’t have the standard of training, horses, riders that we had 15 years ago?’

“I think you have to be aware that you can change the breeding system to suit the sport and now the sport is changing to suit the breeding.”

Another standout point he made back in December was about X-rays. With the advent of high-definition X-rays, is it getting more difficult to find the perfect horse?

“Yes and no, a horse can be fully functional with bad X-rays. If I didn’t have to sell horses, I wouldn’t X-ray a horse.

“I’ve had more sound horses with bad X-rays than unsound horse with good X-rays. For that reason, we almost purposely avoid selling to the amateur market because it’s impossible to find the ‘perfect horse’ that does the perfect lead changes, that never stops, that never puts its head up. It doesn’t exist.”

PRESENTING GIFT

Two of the key dilemmas for eventing breeders are often having to keep foals on as stores and where to find the next generation of proven thoroughbred stallions. McCarthy himself has used the Irish-based thoroughbred stallions Nazar and Pointilliste and foals due this year are by a variety of stallions, including the Holsteiner, Catch.

“We’ve a very good Warrenstown You 2 mare, she’s a full-sister to Balham Houdini and she’s breeding very good. Georgie Strang has a five-year-old out of her that looks very exciting and she’s in foal to Catch, he was champion of his stallion testing.”

Another interesting prospect due this year is a Jumbo out of a Presenting mare, that won six races.

“The owner of Jumbo offered me a few straws a couple of years ago, so I said I’d look out for a nice mare. By chance, a girl I teach, her dad had this Presenting mare and I said, how the hell do you have that mare? An Irishwoman named Norma Twomey had moved to Australia, she owned her and kindly offered the mare free for a year. That’s the foal I’m most excited about.”

Jumbo on a thoroughbred dam is the formula that produced Mr Chunky. Which would Padraig prefer to get that thoroughbred dose, on the top or bottom line?

“I wouldn’t really care. If I was to set out to breed one, I would certainly pick a thoroughbred mare. You can always test the mare yourself and see what she’s like. You could trot a mare up to see if she moved and if you could see her loose jump to see if she had some basic idea where her legs were. You can add then through a jumping stallion, more jump or more movement, whatever you want. Maybe I’m wrong but I have the feeling you have a better chance of bringing more jump that way.”

Hypothetically speaking, would he still use Pairc na Clocha, the Kildalton Gold stallion Padraig once show jumped, in his current breeding programme?

“Absolutely! The horse was absolutely beautiful, an amazing horse, one of the nicest horses I’ve ridden in my life. I had a son of his out of a thoroughbred mare and Sharon Hunt had a really good horse by him. He would have covered very few mares but Pairc na Clocha was an exceptional horse.”

The following anecdote is a giant-sized clue as to why McCarthy puts such store in thoroughbred blood. “I went cross-country schooling with a load of horses the other day and there’s this little thoroughbred horse in the yard, not the most talented. I rode all the youngsters and it was refreshing to ride him. As useless as he is, he put his ears forward and just cantered around, he had a leg wherever I put him and he just found a way to get to the other side. “I didn’t have to think about keeping him back or keeping him forward, he just kept running along and kept doing the job. There is nothing like a thoroughbred horse,” said the astute economist, still prepared to breed horses for the eventing market.