SO why was it so difficult to watch the last quarter of the Badminton cross-country this year? Too many tired horses struggling to maintain a gallop and keep their jump.

Was it the holding ground, the restricted spring competition programme, the number of jumping efforts, horses not being fit enough, some riders trying too hard, or the new dressage scoring system?

All have been blamed and without doubt all contributed to a small degree, but few have talked about probably the most significant factor of all, which is the changing bloodlines of event horses.

We have gone from a situation 20 years ago when the majority of event horses had a majority of Thoroughbred (TB) blood, to the reverse situation where few people are looking for TB blood, except, interestingly, most of the top riders!

German supremo Michael Jung credits his rise to the top by switching to horses with more quality. “My ideal is to have 75% TB.” Not surprising as his record breaking superstar La Biosthetique Sam is 75% TB by the TB Stan The Man, who was also sire of Leslie Law’s two great grey Irish-breds and British gold medallists Shear L’eau and Shear H2O.

Former German team trainer Chris Bartle said: “When I met him (Michael) in 2003, he had some fairly old fashioned warmblood horses at the time. They could see that the type of horse they had was wrong for the modern sport, the idea of having horses with more blood became clear to them.”

They also had the example of Ingrid Klimke’s great Olympic and World Championship team horse Sleep Late, and later on her prolific medal winner Butts Abraxxas who was 99% TB.

WHY IS THE TB OUT OF FASHION?

The problem is not what they bring to the party, especially gallop and endurance, but what they don’t bring to the party. There is a perception that they don’t jump well enough and don’t do good dressage.

But the scoreboards at the highest level do not confirm this. Last autumn, EquiRatings issued a new list of top horses, based on those that have most consistently made the top 10 at four-star level in modern eventing. The breeding of these horses gives solid evidence about what type of genes are best. Below are some of those horses.

THE RIGHT HOTEL

The records of these horses also emphasises the importance of going to the right rider, what I call ‘going to the right hotel’. This group of riders are the best of the best and horses only just outside this top group are ridden by Andrew Nicholson, Philip Dutton and Mark Todd.

With three German riders on this list, it also confirms the shift in the world order in recent years. The inclusion of only two female event riders is both a reflection of Tina Cook and Sandra Auffart’s awesome ability and the current slight imbalance at the top of our sport. But results suggest that this is changing, particularly in the Britain.

DOES THE THOROUGHBRED HAVE ‘JUMP’?

Many modern breeders say the same thing, the Thoroughbred doesn’t have enough jump. But the challenge is that very few people are now looking for TB blood with jump since the warmblood takeover. This creates a vicious circle with very few modern TB jumpers, which in turn is taken as confirmation of their inability to jump. To counter this, I list the names of 50 full TB North American show jumping champions (see box right).

They are all horses that won at least three Grands Prix and in many cases were competitive in international championships from Pan American Games to Olympics from the 1960s to the 1980s.

What is significant about this list is that although the tracks then were not as technical as they now face, they were bigger with oxers that were up to 20cm wider and verticals 10cm higher than permitted now, and distances in the combinations that would not be allowed today.

Sometimes, as in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, it produced a competition that a modern audience would find difficult to watch, with regular falls and a high number of faults, but the performances of the top teams at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympic Games were good.

There is also a statistic from just 12 years ago at the Aachen World Games (2006) which casts serious doubt on the breeding policies of many jumping studbooks – three of the four show jumping finalists were out of daughters of TB stallions!

As Dr Thomas Nissen, breeding director and managing director of the Holsteiner Verband, told The Irish Field in November: “Everyone knows you need thoroughbreds, you cannot work without thoroughbreds.” It must be possible to find breeding stock, in particular mares, that have ‘jump’ plus the right temperament and paces to be of great value to the sport horse world.

Thoroughbreds have also been some of the most influential sires in show jumping warmblood breeding history. Here are 10 of the best, all with numerous approved stallion sons and grandsons. It is difficult to find a jumping pedigree without several crosses of these horses:

Orange Peel (1919), Foxhunter (1929), Umidwar (1931), Owen Tudor (1938), Furioso (1939), Ultimate (1941), Cottage Son (1944), Rantzau (1946 - sire of Cor de la Byrere), Ladykiller (1961), Lucky Boy (1966), Sacramento Song (1967).

The disappointing truth is that many do not realise that these horses are thoroughbred. The same horses also continually feature in event horse pedigrees, as do these 20 Irish Sport Horse TB breeding supersires:

Water Serpent (1941), Battleburn (1949), Nordlys (1951), Prefairy (1954), Bahrain (1957), Awkward Brief (1957), Highland Flight (1958), Final Problem (1958), Ozymandias (1961), Imperious (1964), Golden Beaker (1965), Chair Lift (1966), Carnival Night (1966), Bassompierre (1968), Sky Boy (1970), Rhett Butler (1970), Regular Guy (1971), Stan The Man (1982), Master Imp (1987), Ghareeb (1990), Cult Hero (1991), Watermill Swatch (1999).

TB BLOOD AND DRESSAGE

What the Thoroughbred needs is a specific breed society to champion their advantages in the sport horse world. One surprising champion of the TB for dressage is another leading German breeding expert, Dr Thomas Lehmann, head of the Westphalia State Stud from 1966 to 1995 – “You must have TB blood to have elasticity.”

Tina Cook's Star Witness, a full Thoroughbred, was among EquiRatings list of top horses last autumn (Photo: Kit Houghton/Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials)

It is also a fact that dressage horses are getting more quality and the Hannoverian dressage sire of the year in 2006 was a full TB called Lauries Crusador.

In eventing, the two horses that were first to score multiple dressage 10s in international eventing were both Irish and both four-star legends – Bettina Hoy’s three-quater TB Ringwood Cockatoo, who was by the TB Peacock, and Pippa Funnel’s Supreme Rock who was seven eighths TB by Edmund Burke out of a Bassompierre mare.

But the real test of good dressage in event horses and proof for the role of the TB in modern times is to look at the results in the big competitions, because you won’t win without a good dressage. Here are another 10 brilliantly successful short format full TB four-star horses in recent years:

Miner’s Frolic (Tina Cook), Arctic Soul (Gemma Tattersall), Clifton Promise (Jock Paget), Clifton Lush (Jock Paget), TS Jamaimo (Chris Burton), Cadeau Du Roi (Cedric Lyard), Koyuna Sun Dancer (Wendy Schaeffer), Inonothing (Paul Tapner), Crackerjack (Boyd Martin), Haruzac (Chris Burton), Donner (Lynn Symansky).

THE LONG FORMAT ERA

It is very difficult to compare horses and riders from different eras. However when talking to those riders and coaches who bridge these years, from long to short format, there is a general consensus that the best TBs of the long format era would still be competitive today. Here are 10 of the best:

Good Mixture (Mike Plumb), Bally Cor (Tad Coffin), Plain Sailing (Mike Plumb, Don Sachey), Better and Better (Mike Plumb), Might Tango (Bruce Davidson), Worth The Trust (Karen O’Connor), Upstage (Karen O’Connor), Biko (Karen O’Connor), Messiah (Blyth Tait), Reddy Teddy (Blyth Tait), Sunburst (Wendy Schaeffer).

I was lucky enough to ride Better and Better when I was coaching his owner Carol Lavel, and Biko, who I bought as a three-year-old with my brother John, so I know well the superb athleticism and especially the brain of these elite performers.

There is much to be learnt from studying the breeding of all these successful international event horses. What one finds are not only all the TB sires already mentioned but also these 20 TB legends that many will recognise:

Tourbillon (1928), Hyperion (1930), Fair Trial (1932), Precipitation (1933), Djebel (1937), Big Game (1939), Chanteur (1942), My Babu (1945), High Hat (1957), Welton Gameful (1961), Master Spiritus (1962), Ben Faerie (1968), Aberlou (1970), Julio Mariner (1975), Brilliant Invader (1978), Hand in Glove (1978), Bohemond (1981), Heraldik (1982), Mytens (1983), Primitive Rising (1984), Mayhill (1984), Condrieu (1987), A Fine Romance (1991).

EVENT HORSE KING

So, do I think the full Thoroughbred is the ideal event horse? No, because the statistics at the highest level show that the three-quarter TB horse is king in the eventing world. This is why some warmblood stallions with plenty of TB blood have done so well when put to a quality mare.

Cavalier Royale (52% TB), Ramiro B (34% TB) and Courage II (43% TB) are three of the best modern examples. In the Irish Draught and Traditional Irish Sport Horse world, stallions such as Clover Hill (50% TB), Cruising (54% TB), Puissance (66% TB) and Jumbo (41.5% TB) have also been exceptional sires during this period. In addition, the Connemara-TB cross is probably the best of all for many riders.

We must keep finding TB breeding stock to cross with the best of both the traditional and warmblood herds.

THE HEART OF EVENTING

The new scoring system for the dressage slightly decreases the influence of the dressage and increases the influence of the show jumping and the cross-country. A top event horse needs to be good in all disciplines but the cross-country is at the heart of eventing so I welcome this increased emphasis and hope it will give a boost to the search for the right TB or almost TB blood for breeding event horses at all international levels.

After a period of unpopularity we need to redress the balance and not forget the good sense in seeking carefully the TB lines that have the temperament, jump and soundness we need.

ADDED VALUE

Poor William, he has great difficulty counting to 10, he has one extra horse in each group of 10! It is true, I have added one extra as a symbol of the added value that Thoroughbred horses bring. Added value in terms of pound for pound performance and especially brain, because at the end of the day the Thoroughbred horse is ultimately judged by who reaches the finishing post first.

This emphasis on maximum performance produces a beautiful athlete that is sound and most importantly willing. As Frederico Tesio so memorably said: “A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart, and wins with his character.”

50 thoroughbred north american show jumping champions:

Aberali (Kathy Kusner), Albany (Leslie Burr Howard), A Little Bit (Buddy Brown), Allegro (Norman Dello Joyo), Australis (Danny Lopez, Barbara Simpson CAN), Balbuco (Rodney Jenkins, Conrad Homfeld), Bean Bag (Katie Monaghan-Prudent), Big Dee (Thomas Gayford CAN), Branch County (Michel Vaillancourt CAN), Brother Sam (Ian Millar CAN), Canadian Club (Jim Day CAN), Chase The Clouds (Leslie Burr Howard), Circus Rose/Miss Budweiser (Joe Green, Arthur McCaskin, Bobby Egan), Coast Line (Rodney Jenkins), Czar (Rodney Jenkins), Democrat (Franklyn ‘Fuddy’ Wing, John William Russell), Do Right (Dennis Murphy), Fleet Apple (Diane Langer. Kathy Kusner), For The Moment (Rodney Jenkins, Lisa Jacquin), Gem Twist (Greg Best, Leslie Burr Howard, Laura Chapot), Good Twist (Frank Chapot), Hand In Glove (John Charlebois), Jet Run (Bernie Traurig, Melanie Smith, Fernando Senderos MEX, Michael Matz), Hollandia (Warren Wofford, Dawn Wofford GB), Heatherbloom (Dick Donnelly), Idle Dice (Bernie Traurig, Rodney Jenkins), Jacks Or Better (Ben O’Meara, Neil Shapiro), Johnny’s Pocket (Katie Monaghan-Prudent), Ksar D’Esprit (Bill Steinkraus), Night Owl (George Morris), Night Spree (Neil Shapiro), Number One Spy (Rodney Jenkins), Out Late (Carol Hoffman), Play Back (Rodney Jenkins), Philco (David Broome GB), Ping Pong (Beezie Patton) Riviera Wonder (Bill Steinkraus), San Lucas (Frank Chapot), Sandsablaze (Buddy Brown), Sinjon (George Morris, Kathy Kusner, Bill Steinkraus), Sloopy (Bernie Traurig, Neil Shapiro), Snowbound (Bill Steinkraus), Southside (Robert Ridland, Donald Cheska), Sun Beau (Bobby Egan, George Braun), Sympatico (Anthony D’Ambrosio), Tashiling (D.D. Matz), The Cardinal (Bernie Traurig), The Jones Boy (Katie Monahan Prudent), Tomboy (Mary Mairs Chapot), Touch of Class (Conrad Homfeld, Joe Fargis), Tuscaloosa (Dennis Murphy), Totilla (Franklyn ‘Fuddy’ Wing), Unusual (Kathy Kusner), Untouchable (Kathy Kusner), White Lighning (Mary Mairs Chapot) ….+ Eros (Australian TB - Ann Kursinski.