IN part one of this series from the sport horse breeding and production seminar at Harthill Stud in Cheshire, England, (See The Irish Field, April 4th), the panel of speakers – Paul Hendrix, Arie Hamoen, William Funnell, Oliver Townend and Enda Carroll – spoke about how they assessed young stock.

Paul Hendrix of Dutch Sport Horse Sales outlined how he assessed his young horses as early as April of their first year by jumping them loose over a small pole.

The yearlings are scored on their athleticism and reaction to the loose jumping exercise over three days, before being turned away for six months. At this stage the young horses are again assessed over a pole and scored again.

Hendrix maintained that many of the top scoring yearlings went on to become the top three and four-year-old horses.

Top British show jumper and producer of young horses, William Funnell, was clearly interested in the way Hendrix evaluates his foals.

The European gold medallist and his wife, Rolex Grand Slam-winning event rider Pippa are partners with Irish man Donal Barnwell in The Billy Stud in Surrey.

Their stud business began 17 years ago with a foundation mare called Tatum, an Irish-bred Clover Hill/Sky Boy who they bred to top European stallions. Now carrying more than 100 horses for sale each year from four-year-olds up to international show jumpers, Billy horses to have reached the top include Billy Congo, Billy Birr, Billy Bianca, Billy Grand and Billy Angelo in show jumping and, in eventing, Billy Landretti, Billy Shannon and Billy Beware.

“We breed show jumpers and eventers and, as most of our youngstock are out at grass until they are three years, we don’t have such a structured process as Paul,” Funnell told breeders and producers at the Harthill conference. “Flatwork is important and the basic schooling of our potential eventers and show jumpers is pretty much the same way.”

He explained: “Our potential show jumpers are schooled over ditches and water in the same way as the eventers - it’s all good education.”

He added: “Breeding is important, and so is ability, but production is another 50% on top of that. Customers are now happier to pay more for a proven horse so we have to do our job right from the very start.

“It is important not to do too much too soon though and although we need to start young horses somewhere to show off our homebred horses, we never over-jump them as four-year-olds,” explained Funnell. “We have good age classes in this country and the Addington Young Horse Festival gives us the opportunity to view the difference between the best British and Continental-bred horses in the finals. Shows are our shop window but it is no consolation to me when some of the best horses showing the greatest potential go to the most inexperienced riders.”

He continued: “We really have to raise the benchmark and put British breeding on the map and make approval for a stallion in this country mean something. I envy the KWPN system and their studbook.

“In Britain we can choose from around five studbooks and as foals take the nationality of the chosen studbook, for example KWPN, British breeding loses out and that makes it difficult to climb up the rankings. As they have some of the highest ranked show jumping stallions in their studbook we tend to support the Anglo European Studbook (AES).”

DETERMINED

Event rider Oliver Townend has a reputation as a fiercely determined rider and proved he is has considerable horse power behind him for 2015 by recently taking first and second places at Burnham Market in three different classes; the CIC*** with Mr Hiho and Armada; the CIC** with Cooley SRS and Colonel Joe and the internmediate class with Red Andes FanfareandPeruising.

In 2009, the Badminton and Burghley winner joined forces with Nina Barbour to create Harthill Stud, with the aim of producing top class event horses for the national and international markets. They stand Ramiro B and Power Blade, among other stallions, at Harthill.

While the basic schooling of young horses trained by both Funnell and Townend are very similar, the event rider was adamant that horses should not compete in events as four-year-olds.

“It’s perhaps a good move commercially to start young horses in the Burghley Young Event Horse (BYEH) series; it gets horses out and about and it’s all very good experience but that’s not to say all the finalists will make eventers,” he warned. “Last year I only saw one horse in the top 10 at Burghley that I considered would make a top event horse.”

Asked what level of training horses needed to achieve before they go eventing, Townend replied: “The most important thing is for horses to be confident. We have 40 horses in at the moment at various levels and we do a lot of our cross-country training on the job at events. We would perhaps school at least twice over a cross country course before starting horses in their first BE event.

“Before that we may have done two seasons show jumping with horses before we consider taking them eventing, but we have to take into account the owner’s wishes.”

He added: “I consider England and Ireland to be worlds apart from the KWPN in breeding eventers. Although I think Ireland lost their way a little bit when they concentrated on foreign stallions, it is all coming good again now.”

CATCHING UP

Paul Hendrix interjected at this point, commenting that event horse breeders on the Continent were rapidly catching up and predicting that some of the next eventing superstars could well come from Belgium, France, Germany or Holland.

Townend continued: “Eventers need stamina most of all and they need to be athletic and have a good brain. My breeding preference is to have a large percentage of thoroughbred (TB) blood in eventers. For me the ideal match is a jumping sire put to a TB mare or vice versa. I have been lucky enough to ride horses by (Harthill stallions) Ramiro B and Power Blade and they deliver the pattern needed.

“I spend around 60% of my time in collecting rings and when I see a decent horse warming up it is so disappointing when I ask the rider about its breeding they don’t know it,” concluded Townend.

Irish show jumper turned high class horse dealer Enda Carroll spoke about what the amateur and professional market was looking for at the top end of show jumping. Now based in Belgium, Carroll represented Ireland at young rider level before working for Cian O’Connor and Dave Quigley. He then decided to concentrate on the purchase and sale of elite show jumpers and built up his business, known as Ashford Farm in Bocholt, where he has established himself as one of Europe’s leading sales centres.

“It is my passion to develop young horses up to the highest level and at Ashford Farm we currently have 50 horses and four riders competing. The industry has changed so much over the last five years; clients demand more for their money and we have to deliver and match the right horse with the right rider,” he said.

Ashford Farm recently sold world number 10 Bertram Allen the Holstein gelding GK Casper (Canto x Quantum)and their 2014 purchases included the five-year-old silver medal-winning mare Irish Sport Horse mare Ard Ginger Pop. Ashford Farm horses have most recently featured at the Global Champions Tour in Miami, where Carroll’s stable jockey Marlon Modolo Zanotelli and Zerlin M finished second in the 1.50m speed competition for the Elm Rock Trophy behind Todd Minikus.

“We train all our horses for top level jumping and a 1.40m horse will be given the same training and opportunities as a five-star Grand Prix horse,” he explained. “This is very important to our clients so when they ride horses after buying them, all the schooling is done and the buttons are working. We are interested in horses five years old and upward and jumping ability rather than pedigree would take most of our interest,” continued Carroll, who travels extensively on the show jumping circuit all over the world buying and selling.