KOEN Terryn is the dynamo behind the Belgian-based Hippomundo database, which started seven years ago and at the last count, employed a dozen people.

“The Hippomundo calendar is from the first of January until 31st of December,” he said, explaining their operation and objectives. “Our rankings are mostly based on prize money but you also can select on points, on number of offspring or average prize money per offspring.

“Our intentions are to collect all international and national sport results, (including national USA results) and connect the sport results with the breeding data off the horses of all the studbook members of the WBFSH.

“We need to do this. If not, we will never be able to do this in the future because of continued multiplying incorrect and double information in the more than 75 different studbooks members of the WBFSH. Making such a global database project is the aim of Hippomundo.”

He also mentions another example of how Hippomundo differs from the WBFSH rankings. “The breeder of, say, the best eventing horse in the rankings is not always the best breeder for us. The best breeder for us is the breeder whose total offspring win the most.

“So if ‘Eventing Breeder A’ has one horse who won €200,000 euro and ‘Eventing Breeder B’ has four horses winning €205,000 in total, the best breeder for us is breeder B. Whereas, the WBFSH rankings will show Breeder A as the best breeder.”

Far from a pet project, Hippomundo has to pay its way with the successful launch of a new Pro subscription last November. “We are very, very pleased with the result of the launch of our new payment system (€70 per year or €7 per month) to see all results, rankings and pedigrees. Since we launched it on the 1st of November, the future of Hippomundo is ensured.”

See: www.hippomundo.com

NEXT WEEK: Hippomundo’s eventing and dressage leaderboard.