Morningside Stud

On 22 April 2008 I received an email from Pamela Young, editor of Horse International, in which she invited me to become the magazine's columnist on breeding issues. Below is my first article, which will appear in the next issue.


IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
By Tom Reed
Horse International Vol 4 2008 page 37-38.


Does the word "World" really belong in the title of the Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final? Or should we rename it the "EU-USA and a Little Bit of Here and There Cup Final"? Where do the horses come from? And the riders? And the spectators? And what can be done to attract even more participation by show jumping riders, owners, fans and sponsors from around the world?

Let's start with the horses. It comes as no surprise that virtually all of the horses that competed in the World Cup Final are the products of European breeding programs. The thirty-nine horses in the first class at Gotëborg represent eleven studbooks, ten of which are European warmblood/sport horse studbooks while the eleventh is the Japanese branch of the General Studbook for Thoroughbreds. According to my reckoning 97% of the horses are European-bred and they come from a core group of six breeding nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and Sweden). A very small world, indeed.

Four dynasties may be found in the horses that competed in the World Cup Final. Quidam de Revel and his son Guidam, Nimmerdor and his son Heartbreaker, and Voltaire and his son Concorde each had one progeny in the competition. The Holsteiner sire Capitol had two progeny while his son Indoctro was represented by one progeny. A lot of breeders will be surprised by many relatively unfamiliar names among the sires and dam-sires of the competitors. In some ways this genetic diversity can be a valuable lesson for those breeders who are prone to jump on bandwagons of Top 10 sires and "next big thing" young sires while ignoring valuable but unfashionable bloodlines that might much better suit their mares.

Along these lines, chilled and frozen semen artificial insemination (AI) has been around long enough that we should be seeing top international show jumpers sired by European-based sires and out of mares bred through AI in countries that are on the periphery of top-level show jumping breeding. But this is not the case. Unless my analysis is incorrect (which is possible because it is very difficult to obtain details about the breeders of competition horses) none of the World Cup Final competitors was born outside of the core EU breeding region. More troubling is that nations such as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Italy should be producing top-level international horses both from imported semen and from imported and home-bred warmblood stallions. But none of these nations show up as the source of World Cup Final horses.

All of the usual suspects are on the list of studbooks represented at Gotëborg but what is interesting to me is whether each studbook's representation, measured by the number of horses it had competing in the Final and its success in the competition, is commensurate with its size. The KWPN, with 10 horses, had the largest number of competitors but this studbook registers approximately 6,000 jumping-bred foals per year so its representation was balanced (three of the top 10 placings went to KWPN horses). On the other hand the Belgian Warmblood Studbook, with a much smaller breeding population, was over-represented with six horses. The Holsteiner studbook, which is in fact quite small, was also over-represented with five horses (actually six horses, since Richard Spooner switched horses after the first competition). Although the World Cup Champion Shutterfly is a Hanoverian, this large studbook had only three horses while the very large French studbook had only four representatives; both were under-represented. The small Swedish Warmblood and Westfalen studbooks were well-represented with three horses each while three of the top six placings went to Westfalen horses – a truly excellent achievement. Oldenburg had two and Zangersheide only one horse. Although the Irish studbook's sole representative did very well, coming in second place in the Final ranking, by virtue of its size one would have expected a half-dozen horses competing under the tri-color. And that fact that its sole representative, the stallion Flexible (an Irish Sport Horse stallion by the great Cruising), has no recorded damline is particularly troubling for this breeder. Sometimes it seems Not Recorded/Unknown is the most fertile sire in Ireland!

What about the riders, where did they come from? Ten riders represented the USA -- a fantastic showing by the US Equestrian Federation, the riders, and the owners. Germany and Sweden each had four riders; the Netherlands three; and Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada each was represented by two riders. Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates each sent one rider.

So is the "World" Cup Final a global competition? Unfortunately not. While the FEI can do nothing to encourage better breeding throughout the world -- and should do nothing since it has no expertise in this area -- it should explore with experts changes in the World Cup Final format to encourage greater participation by riders, owners, spectators, and sponsors throughout the world. There were 15 World Cup leagues spread throughout the world but riders from only 8 leagues were present at the Final. And fully 32 of the 39 riders represented the Western European League countries (20 riders) and the three North American (USA and Canada) leagues. I guess the FEI has not yet figured out that Mexico is indeed part of North America.

How could technology be employed to make the World Cup Final more global? How can the FEI leverage and build on the great interest and excitement that everyone saw at the World Cup Final in Malaysia?

I have an idea that I'll toss out and I leave it to the event planning experts, show organizers, and course builders to determine if it has any merit. The World Cup Final could be held simultaneously in a number of venues around the world connected by satellite transmission. The number of venues would be agreed by the FEI and the national governing bodies. As a default each league would be eligible to host a venue but for financial and logistical reasons it would make more sense for leagues to collaborate. For example, the four leagues in the USA, Canada and Mexico may come together in one venue in North America. The Asian/Pacific countries may agree on one or two venues.

Each venue would create its own entertainment program, suitable for local tastes, to complement the live show jumping that would take place along with the satellite transmission of the simultaneous live show jumping in the other venues. The huge crowds that attend the Olympia Show in London each December and the Danish National Stallion Show in Herning each March prove that individuals and families who may not be keen equestrian enthusiasts will attend horse shows, have a great time, and become loyal customers if the sport is sandwiched into spectacles that delight the crowd.

Each venue would be required to build arenas and courses to the exact specification of the supervising course builder and supervising footing expert, and each venue would have a course builder, footing expert, and technical team to ensure compliance and uniformity.

With multiple venues the competition can take place simultaneously so the European riders, for example, could jump at the same time as the North American, South American, South African, Arab, Central Asian, Asian/Pacific, and Australian/New Zealand riders. Only during the jump-off against the clock would each rider take his or her turn in sequence and all eyes in the multiple arenas around the globe would be fixed on the big screens.

Technologically this idea should be feasible. From a viewpoint of fan and sponsor interest it would have the advantage of allowing people to see world-class show jumpers from throughout the world without leaving their home country or region. For riders and owners the expense and risk of transporting horses long distances would be greatly reduced.

Sure there would be technical and practical difficulties. Time differences are important. But the advantages that will accrue to the sport and its sponsors from a truly global competition far outweigh the logistical challenges. At this time the World Cup Final is not a true global competition but with creativity riders, owners, fans and sponsors from throughout the world could be joined together – in a bigger world made smaller through technology.

Click here to download Morningside Stud's 2008 Stallion Catalogue

Selecting Fillies and Mares for a World-Class Breeding Programme
Tom Reed

In the last few months I've had several conversations with two new breeders. One man, let's call him Fergal, is from Northern Ireland and the other, let's call him Liam, is from the Republic. Both Fergal and Liam aspire to build world-class breeding programmes to produce showjumpers that will compete at the highest international level. Unfortunately both men made wrong decisions as they began their breeding programmes and have wasted a lot of money. Let's see what mistakes they made and how we can learn from their mistakes.

Fergal purchased two mares last year and both were in foal. Unfortunately the mares were sired by rejected stallions so both mares carry the dreaded Blue Passport issued by the Irish Horse Board. No matter how many generations of foals are bred from these mares their descendants will not receive entrance into the Main Studbook and receive a Green Passport.

Why is this important? Unless one is talking about a gelding under saddle and showing good form, sophisticated Irish and foreign buyers do not want fillies and colts that are not entered into the Main Studbook because these horses have inferior genetics, inferior pedigrees, and cannot be used for breeding in the main studbooks of Ireland or other countries.

The sires of Fergal's two mares are unapproved stallions with no competition careers and no success in the breeding shed -- they have produced no athletes of note in showjumping, eventing, or dressage. Even more important, neither of Fergal's two mares has a damline that is the least bit distinguished: the damlines have produced no athletes.

Now let's turn to Liam, who purchased two filly foals earlier this year. Liam's fillies are both in the Main Studbook of the Irish Horse Board so they have Green Passports. But like Fergal's mares neither one of Liam's fillies has a damline that has produced any athletes. Liam's mistake was concentrating solely on the sires in the pedigree: he was seduced by the high-profile sires in the pedigrees and did not investigate whether the females in the pedigree were superior.

This way of thinking about bloodlines is so ingrained is us that we often refer to a horse as being a Cruising x Clover Hill, for instance (meaning that the horse was sired by Cruising and out of a mare that was sired by Clover Hill). But this is not the way to think about selecting breeding stock. Instead we need to thing like Holsteiner breeders (who give each damline a number, such as Stamm 104A) or Trakehner breeders (who name each horse's damline based on the foundation mare in the line, such as the "Schwarze Schwalbe" line). Even more familiar to Irish breeders is the use of the term "Black Type" in thoroughbred breeding to denote damlines that have produced winners of big stake races. What "Black Type" -- meaning international showjumpers -- has been created by your damlines?

What do I mean by damline? Let's use as an example the pedigree of one of Morningside Stud's stallions, Ulysses M2S, the 2006 5-year-old Indoor Showjumping Champion and now successfully jumping 6-year-old international classes with a Belgian young rider, his half-owner Rossella de Simone. Ulysses M2S is by Ekstein and out of the mare Gudrun. Let's examine Ulysses' pedigree and damline ( see: http://www.morningside-stud.com/Images/UlyssesKWPNregistration.jpg).

Gudrun received two important honours from the KWPN studbook: she was designated a Keur mare because she was one of the top 3-year-old fillies in the Netherlands, passed a performance test under saddle, and later produced a very good first foal. Gudrun also received the predicate Prestatie in recognition of having four progeny that have excelled in sport. At the
time of her early death Gudrun had already produced two Ster mares; if she had produced one more she also would have earned the predicate Preferent.

Besides the international showjumper Ulysses M2S, Gudrun also produced the approved stallion President (given as a wedding present to Olympic showjumping rider Princess Haya of Jordan, the President of the International Equestrian Federation) that was Champion stallion in Italy and Belgium and surely would have been an international showjumper if the Princess had not retired from competition. Gudrun also produced the mare Kretienne, the Champion Mare of the KWPN studbook and among her progeny is the approved stallion Taloubet du Rouet *Pleville*, who surely will begin jumping internationally in the next year or two. Gudrun also produced the mare Orashi, an international showjumper by Cruising that competes with a young rider under the sport name Cruisly.

Gudrun's dam Adriana also produced the Ster mare Deborah that was successful in both showjumping and dressage and is the second dam of the approved stallion Ringo G, the 2004 6-Year-Old Belgian Showjumping Champion. Deborah is also the second dam of the international showjumping mare Pepita G and the third dam of the Vice-Champion of the 2004 Italian Stallion Performance Test, Temptation van Herikhave. Adriana also produced Evident, a Keur Preferent Prestatie mare that was a successful dressage horse and is the dam of the Danish Warmblood approved stallion Mercurius, the International Grand Prix dressage mare Independent, and the Elite mare Konvident, who received the Sport-Showjumping and Sport-Dressage predicates from the KWPN. Fontaine 861, a stallion approved in Sweden and later exported to the USA, was another progeny of Adriana along with Justice, a winner in both showjumping and dressage.

The dam of Adriana is Sunia, a Keur Perferent mare who is the foundation of this extraordinary damline.

Look at the pedigree of one of your horses. Forget about the males in the pedigree -- focus only on the females in the bottom of the pedigree. Start with the dam of your horse. What notable horses did she produce? Did she produce any national-level competitors? International level? Any sons that became approved stallions? Any daughters that produced international competitors or approved stallions? Now go to the dam's dam (that is, the second dam or grand-dam of your horse). What notable horses did she produce? Did she produce any national-level competitors? International level? Any sons that became approved stallions? Any daughters that produced international competitors or approved stallions? Now go to the third dam (the great-grand-dam of your horse). What notable horses did she produce? Did she produce any national-level competitors? International level? Any sons that became approved stallions? Any daughters that produced international competitors or approved stallions? If like Fergal and Liam your mare's damline has not produced national or international competitors and/or approved stallions, then you are breeding from the wrong mare.

So what are the lessons that Fergal and Liam have learned?

1) The basis for breeding excellence is the mare, and the basis for the success of a particular mare is the consolidation of high performance genes in her damline. Yes, the males (that is, the sires) in the pedigree must be excellent. But even more so the females in the pedigree must be excellent.

2) Don't be distracted by high-profile sires in the pedigree. What have the females produced?

3) It is better to have one excellent mare than any number of average mares. If you don't have an excellent mare, sell your mare, save, and buy one – or buy a filly foal or yearling that in a short period of time will be your foundation mare.

(First published in Ireland's Horse & Pony, August 2007)

Next Big Thing

The worst kind of breeding is what I see so often: the breeder who uses the "Next Big Thing" (NBT) each year.

The NBT is usually the licensing champion of one of the major studbooks. This will be a horse that has not even had a person on his back yet (although he has been force-fed and maybe given steroids and hormones to look more mature than he really is) but the "marketing machine" crowns him as the NBT and people become hysterical about the horse. We are seeing this phenomenon in 2007 with a 4-year-old dressage stallion where, on one internet bulletin board, people were publicly fighting over who had rights to sell his semen in the USA. And his stud fee is probably going to be higher than Weltmeyer's!

I don't see how except by pure luck a breeder who hops on the bandwagon each year can produce a top athlete. He or she might as well buy a lottery ticket.

But many people are band-wagon breeders. The breathless enthusiasm by some breeders for some of these NBT stallions -- and each year there is always one or two, usually a champion that was "bought" for a ridiculous sum of money at an auction -- is amazing to me. That's not breeding, it is speculating like we saw for dot com stocks and tulip bulbs in Amsterdam.

Take any NBT stallion and we can make arguments for why he should be used -- in general. But successful breeding is about specifics, not generalities.

If someone wants to do a "fun breeding" and use NBT stallions each year who am I to complain? But it is the stallion owner who is sure to win and the hobby breeder most likely to lose.

How Do I Assess My Skill as a Breeder?

One way I assess my skill as a breeder is whether what I am producing on the ground could have been predicted by the genetics I've employed.

If the foal/horse on the ground is worse than what could have been predicted based on the genetics of the sire and dam then I have made a "destructive" breeding decision.

If the foal/horse on the ground is what could have been predicted based on the genetics of the sire and dam then I have made a "neutral" breeding decision.

If the foal/horse on the ground is better than what could have been predicted based on the genetics of the sire and dam then I have made a "positive" breeding decision and I have added value to the genetics.

I then try to figure out whether that added-value was a happy accident or indeed if I have discovered a potential nick. I do this by repeating the breeding and making new (and ongoing) assessments of the combination.

What is a "blood" horse?

For me there are three dimensions of "blood": genotype, phenotype, and athletic expression.

The necessary but not sufficient condition is that there MUST be a large percentage of thoroughbred blood in a relation in a forward position in the horse's pedigree. (A large percentage of Arab or Anglo Arab blood is also acceptable, and in my view sometimes more desireable than pure thoroughbred blood, if the Arab is of the sport horse type or the AA has a TB relation in a forward position in his or her pedigree.) A horse that has 50% TB blood by pedigree analysis, where the TB blood is dispersed far back in the pedigree, is not the same as a horse that is 50% TB by virtue of having a TB sire or dam (or a horse that is 50% TB by virtue of two of his grandparents being thoroughbred).

If a horse meets the necessary condition above, the next question I ask in determining if he or she is a "blood" horse is: Does the horse in his phenotype express the TB blood found in his pedigree? Consider this example: the old Irish formula for breeding showjumpers is to cross a TB sire with an Irish Draught mare to produce an Irish Sport Horse (ISH). Such a cross is at least 50% TB and meets the necessary condition because the TB blood is in a forward position in the pedigree (i.e., the sire). But in many cases the resulting ISH is not a "blood" horse because the horse's phenotype reflects more his ID ancestry than his TB ancestry. So genotype is important but phenotype is also very important: Are the TB genes clearly expressed in the flesh and bones of the animal we are examining?

If a horse meets the genotype and phenotype conditions, the next question I ask is: Does the horse express "blood" in his athleticism? I do not equate "heat" (a "hot" horse) with "blood", as I have seen hundreds of "hot" sport horses of all breeds that are not "blood" horses according to any conventional definition: they are just difficult horses to ride (and/or manage). What I expect in a "blood" horse's athletic expression is energy, stamina, toughness, courage, and quick reflexes.

In summary, for me a "blood" horse has three attributes:

He possesses a high percentage of TB/AA/Arab in the pedigree contributed by a parent (or grand-parents);

He looks like a horse with a high percentage of TB/AA/Arab blood;

He works like a horse with a high percentage of TB/AA/Arab blood.

For me, unless these three conditions are met, we have an ersatz "blood" horse. This is what we are seeing in many studbooks: highly elegant, refined horses with decreasing percentages of TB/AA/Arab blood in in the pedigree with each passing generation that do not express themselves athletically like a true "blood" horse does.

Finally, mares and stallions that meet the three criteria should be considered a "blood" horse for breeding purposes only if they pass on to their progeny in a pronounced fashion the "blood" phenotype and way of working.

Recently someone asked if stallion performance tests really matter. I believe they matter early in a stallion's career but over time their importance declines to irrelevance.

This is how I think about it. Five categories, 15 stars to allocate among the 5 criteria:

Stallions 5 years of age and under:
Importance of his damline: *****
Importance of his sireline: *****
Importance of his 70/100 day test: **
Importance of his results in open competition: ***
Importance of results of his progeny in open competition: -
(If no performance test was done and the stallion was approved on the basis of his performance in open competition -- the preferred method, in my opinion -- then the criterion "Importance of his results in open competition" is given a weight of *****.)

Stallions 6 - 9
Importance of his damline: *****
Importance of his sireline: ***
Importance of his 70/100 day test: -
Importance of his results in open competition: ****
Importance of results of his progeny in open competition: ***


Stallions 10 - 14
Importance of his damline: ****
Importance of his sireline: ***
Importance of his 70/100 day test: -
Importance of his results in open competition: ***
Importance of results of his progeny in open competition: *****

Stallions 15 and over
Importance of his damline: ***
Importance of his sireline: **
Importance of his 70/100 day test: -
Importance of his results in open competition: -
Importance of results of his progeny in open competition: **********

In November 2006 Morningside Stud purchased the Selle Francais stallion Desir du Chateau (Quidam de Revel x Cor de Chasse). Did we adhere to our own criteria when selecting this stallion?

Let's put Desir du Chateau to the test:


1. Do not use a stallion whose damline has not produced excellent competition horses.

The dam of Desir du Chateau, Javotte D, has produced 7 international showjumpers (Amande du Chateau, Carole du Chateau, Esther du Chateau, Etoile du Chateau, Horace du Chateau, Kartoom du Chateau, and Manuela du Chateau); she is also the dam of 2 approved stallions (Ulak du Chateau and Desir du Chateau). Daughters of Javotte D have produced, to date, an additional 6 international showjumpers.

The dam of Javotte D, Ballerine III, is the dam of 2 international showjumpers (Grand Coeur A and Nelson de Beine); her daughters have produced 14 international showjumpers and 3 approved stallions.

The dam of Ballerine III, Manuela, is the dam of 4 international showjumpers (Admiral, Graceful, Lumpur, and Moon Kiss); her daughters have produced 28 international showjumpers.

In total Desir du Chateau's dam, his second dam, his third dam, and their daughters have produced 28 international showjumpers.


2. Do not use a stallion that does not have at least one half-brother or half-sister that has competed internationally.

Desir du Chateau has 7 siblings that jumped internationally.


3. Do not use a stallion 15 years or older unless he has (or had) several progeny competing internationally.

Desir du Chateau was born in 1991, so he is 15 years old. He has 4 progeny from his first crop of foals that are competing internationally in 2006 as 7-year-olds and 1 from his second crop that is competing internationally in 2006 as a 6-year-old.


4. Do not use a stallion between 8 and 14 unless he is (or has) competed internationally with success.

Desir du Chateau is 15 so this criterion is not relevant. From age 15 it matters not what the stallion himself did in sport; what matters is what his progeny have done in sport.


5. Do not use a stallion 7 or under unless he is competing well at the national level at a level appropriate for his age (in showjumping, 1.10 - 1.20 m. as a 5-year-old, 1.20 - 1.30 m. as a 6-year-old, 1.30 - 1.40 m. as a 7-year-old).

Desir du Chateau is 15 so this criterion is not relevant.

Desir du Chateau did qualify for the French 4-Year-Old Showjumping Championship but an accident involving a gate at his rider's yard resulted in three knee operations over a span of three years that forced his retirement from sport and delayed his stud career until he was 7.


6. If a stallion is 7 or older do not use him unless he is approved by a full member of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH).

Desir du Chateau is approved by the Selle Francais Studbook of France and the Belgian Warmblood Studbook; both studbooks are full members of the WBFSH.


7. Do not use a stallion that is marketed on the basis of its color or the exotic colors of its progeny.

We do not buy Desir du Chateau on the basis of his lovely coat color!


Conclusion: Desir du Chateau meets all the criteria!

Going Nowhere Fast?
by Tom Reed

Exactly five years ago I wrote an article for one of Ireland's equestrian publications about the state of breeding in our country. I highlighted problems and offered specific steps that breeders and the Irish Horse Board (IHB) should pursue to reverse Ireland's downward spiral in sport and breeding. At the time I wrote:

"The pop singer Billy Joel has an album entitled, "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player". I feel a bit like that troubadour as a write this article about how the Irish studbook compares to our competitors. The news is not good. In fact, it is dismal. But I believe we stand at a crossroads, and if we make the right choices in the next few years we can return to the top of the showjumping rankings. It's going to take clear analysis, skillful implementation, and much courage and sacrifice from all of us. But we can get to the top again."

Let's review each of my proposals and see how much progress has been made.


Five Point Action Plan for Breeders

Only breed to top quality mares.
Ireland has lost ground on this measure. More and more "Blue Book" mares -- mares that descend from rejected but sound S1 and Supp 1 stallions and rejected but unsound S2 and Supp 2 stallions – have entered the breeding population and are producing even more Blue Book foals. This trend is a disaster for the Irish studbook because inferior mares produce inferior athletes and inferior breeding stock.

Only breed to top quality stallions.
Ireland has lost ground on this measure. In 2000 78.6% of foals were sired by Approved stallions; in 2004 the figure had fallen to 68.9%. Meanwhile there has been a 75% increase in the percentage of foals sired by S2/Supp 2 stallions, from 5.2% of foals registered in 2000 to 9.1% in 2004. There is no serious horse breeding country anywhere in the world that has nearly 1 out of 10 foals sired by unapproved stallions that have failed a basic veterinary examination, such as Ireland's S2/Supp 2 stallions.

Consider forming a partnership with like-minded breeders to upgrade your mares.
I see no evidence that mare owners are collaborating with other mare owners and/or stallion owners to acquire and retain top-class mares and fillies for their breeding programmes.

Become active in the Irish Horse Board.
In the last few years there seems to have been an increase in the number of elections that have been contested (although nobody put their name forward for election in the Clare/Galway region last month and the IHB had to go back to the membership and plead for nominees) and the IHB has done a much better job inviting breeders to stallion inspections. However the IHB is still neither sufficiently transparent in its policies and practices nor sufficiently responsive to its members.

Buy and study the "International Breeding Guide".
Many breeders, IHB officials, and especially stallion inspectors remain unfamiliar with both foreign bloodlines and how the policies and procedures of competing studbooks (such as those in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Denmark) differ so dramatically from what the IHB does here in Ireland.


Ten Point Action Plan for the Irish Horse Board

Benchmark our studbook's policies, procedures, and programmes against the top 5 showjumping studbooks.
I see little evidence that the IHB is benchmarking its studbook and/or management policies and procedures against the world's top studbooks. There has been some progress (for example, the IHB now requires x-rays of stallion candidates), but we are not competing against a fixed target. The Dutch and other progressive studbooks are adopting policies and procedures on issues that the Irish studbook does not even recognize as being important.

Cull mares that are not suitable for breeding.
I see no evidence of increased culling of unsuitable mares and the IHB has instituted no policy, procedure, or incentive programme to encourage the culling of below-average broodmares. And the explosion in the number of Blue Book fillies being produced each year – many of which will be tomorrow's brood mares – means that the proportion of unsuitable mares in the gene-pool will increase dramatically over the next ten years.

Grade mares.
The IHB has not instituted a mare grading scheme.

Establish a quality mare purchase incentive scheme.
The IHB has created no new incentives for breeders to purchase and/or retain high quality mares and fillies.

Reform the stallion approval process.
Except for the institution of mandatory x-rays for stallion candidates and a long-overdue clarification of the criteria to pass the wind test, the stallion approval process remains amateurish and vacillates between cronyism and incompetence. Whereas our competing studbooks each have a small group of experts (for example, 4 - 6) who serve fixed terms on the stallion inspection committee, here in Ireland we use ad hoc inspectors – some of whom have little if any knowledge, expertise, or experience to bring to the job.

Reform the stallion purchase incentive scheme.
This scheme has not been reformed and continues to provide the financial incentive for stallion owners to "purchase" mediocre foreign and thoroughbred stallions.

Launch an annual Irish Stallion Show that will bring in foreign buyers from throughout the world.
No annual showcase for IHB-approved stallions has been launched and we continue to lag behind the Germans, Dutch, Danes, French, etc.

The Horse Board should collaborate more with the UCD Veterinary School.
There has been some improvement on this measure as several years ago the IHB finally made public the criteria necessary for a stallion to pass the wind test. However the system for evaluating x-rays is still extremely problematic because the decision is left in the hands of one individual rather than to a committee of veterinary experts knowledgeable about what x-ray changes are meaningful (or not) for breeding and sport purposes.

Institute term limits to bring new blood into the Board of Directors of the Irish Horse Board.
No term limits have been introduced and in a very undemocratic manner the Government is still permitted to appoint members to the Board and to effectively determine who holds the position of Director-General and Chairman.

The Department of Agriculture and the Board of Directors of the Irish Horse Board should conduct an independent review of the top management of the Irish Horse Board to assess its performance in running the Irish Studbook.
I am not aware of such a review having been done although I do note that the individuals who were Director-General and Chairman of the Board of the IHB at the time I wrote the article subsequently left their positions.

So where do we stand? Ireland is losing ground, and losing it fast.

Were it not for the contributions of Cavalier Royale the Irish studbook would not be in the world's top-fifteen list of showjumping studbooks (and as of today's date the Irish studbook is ranked 11th). And with the changes in international eventing that will lead to a reduction in the importance of thoroughbreds, I expect that three years from now Ireland will no longer be the undisputed leaders of eventing studbooks. Traditionalists who wish to ignore the contributions of world-class warmblood stallions to Irish breeding should note that the world's #1-ranked sire of international eventers is the Holsteiner Cavalier Royale!

Is Ireland going nowhere fast? No. Unfortunately Ireland is heading backwards as a breeding nation and change is needed now by breeders and the IHB.

Morningside Stud will continue to pursue its independent path of buying and breeding world-class stallions and mares to produce world-class athletes for the three Olympic disciplines. We've never followed the party line and we will not start now.

How Do We Sell Horse on the Internet?
by Tom Reed

About 75% of the horses Morningside Stud sells are purchased by clients who have contacted us over the internet, and about 75% of those internet clients buy horses from us on the basis of emailed photos and video clips -- meaning that they do not come to Ireland to inspect horses before purchase. We have sold many horses this way to clients as near to Ireland as the UK and as far away as the Netherlands, USA and South America.

Selling horses over the internet places a special responsibility on us because we never know in advance if a client will come to Ireland or make the purchase decision from home. We have never had a client be disappointed when his or her purchase arrived at its new home. We believe this is because of several values that guide us:

-- We offer only our best horses for sale on the internet. The internet is our shop window and we want the world to be impressed by what we are producing through our breeding program.

-- We only offer for sale on the internet horses in which we have 100% confidence that a new owner will be absolutely delighted when his or her horse arrives at its new home. We assume that prospective purchasers will not be travelling to Ireland to inspect horses, so we only offer on the internet horses that our clients need NOT see before they buy.

-- We list the price of each horse offered for sale on the internet. We do this to assure clients that they are being offered a fair deal irrespective of which country they come from: there is no mark-up for international clients.

These values have guided our internet marketing and sales activities from the beginning, and they have allowed us to build an excellent global reputation. We will keep the trust of our clients by holding to these values in the future.

How Do We Price Foals?
by Tom Reed

I start in my mind with a price of euro 0.

Why euro 0?

Because the market does not care how much the broodmare cost. The market does not care how much the stallion (or his stud fee) cost. The market does not care how much it cost to feed and care for the mare during the pregnancy and nursing period. The market does not care how much it cost to care for the foal prior to weaning. The market does not care about vet bills, feed bills, farrier bills, dentist bills, advertizing bills, etc.

All these costs have no impact on how I price a foal because they have no impact on how sophisticated purchasers will determine the probability that this foal will become a super athlete, a super stallion, or a super breeding mare.

And since sophisticated purchasers will value the foal based on the potential he or she perceives in the foal as an athlete, stallion, or broodmare this is how I price each foal.

I assess potential in two ways.

The first way is the paperform: the foal's bloodlines and the breadth and depth of its genetic endowment. Since I require evidence of performance in sport in the motherline of all my mares and stallions (except in special circumstances when the right kind of TB blood is being infused) each foal's potential ON PAPER is high. The greater the breadth and depth of the foal's genetic endowment, the higher the potential price of the foal.

But the paperform is not the only issue.

Even more important is the actual foal before you: the realization or expression of the genetic potential possessed by the sire and dam. If based on its athleticism (the absolute first priority), type, and conformation I believe the foal has a very high probability of being an exceptional athlete (or it has a very high probability of becoming a sire or dam of exceptional athletes) then I price the foal high.

If I believe the probability is low, I price the foal low. (And re-read my blog essay on culling.)

No formulas, no simple metrics, just critical judgments about potential.

In practice my decision-making process is a bit more complicated when pricing foals by our young stallions. If I am using one of my own young stallions for the first season I may sell his foals to very good homes that will produce the foals correctly for sport and/or breeding for less than what I think their real value is. I did this in 2005 with two foals by Ulysses M2S and this year with two foals by Conspiracy M2S. So for these first-crop foals my compensation is the sales price + the value of the expert care, attention, and education the foals will get -- which hopefully will bear fruit a few years from now when these youngsters are old enough to compete and/or be used in breeding.

In practice in our dressage breeding program I also will price super colt foals low because I am not interested in owning a dressage sire. If I use an outside sire in my dressage breeding program I am hoping to produce a filly foal. If I get a colt I price him low to move him on. We did this is 2006: we had a super dressage filly sired by our stallion Ulysses M2S and a super colt sired by a Trakehner stallion. Both foals were superior. But I advertised the filly at 3 times the price of the colt. Both foals sold at the advertized asking price (we don't negotiate on price) to an international dressage rider based in Germany. The rider paid a fair price for the filly and got a real bargain on the colt.

The Importance of Culling Mares
by Tom Reed

Morningside Stud's mission is to breed and produce world-class competition horses for the three Olympic disciplines of showjumping, eventing, and dressage by crossing world-class warmblood sires with mares that possess world-class performance bloodlines and outstanding athleticism. Morningside Stud's Mission Statement

The goal we have set for ourselves of breeding and producing world-class athletes is a tough one. If we are to achieve this goal on a systematic basis we must use world-class stallions and mares in our breeding program and make informed, creative, and bold choices about which particular genetic endowments to combine each year to produce a foal. That's the fun part: analyzing bloodlines, genotypes, phenotypes, and the actual production of mares and stallions to decide which stallions and mares are paired each year.

The not-so-fun part is deciding which mares (and stallions) to remove from our breeding program.

Each year we cull a minimum of 10% of our female herd (in practice we have been culling 10 - 15% each year). How do we decide which mares and fillies to cull?

If a mare produces a foal that is in the bottom 10% (10th percentile) of its cohort in terms of athleticism, type, movement, and conformation the mare is put on a "watch list".

The following year if she produces a foal that is in the bottom 10% of its cohort the mare is culled. If she produces a foal that is between the 11th and 25th percentile of its cohort the mare is maintained on the "watch list" for another year.

The next year if the produces another foal that is below the 25th percentile she is culled.

If the foal she subsequently produces is an extraordinary filly -- and apparently superior to its dam in terms of athleticism, type, movement, and conformation -- we cull the mare from the breeding program and keep the filly foal.

What do we do with our culled mares?

If the mare produces correct foals but they are simply not good enough for Morningside Stud's breeding and competition program we give the mare to a good friend whose breeding aspirations are not as high as ours.

If the mare produces incorrect foals she is removed from the breeding population through euthanasia.

We never sell culled mares to other breeders.

Should I Breed My Mare on the Foal Heat?
by Tom Reed

The Necessary But Not Sufficient Condition:
Has it been at least 10 days after foaling and the mare has not yet ovulated?
If yes, continue to Question 1;
if no, skip the foal heat and set the mare up for insemination during her next cycle.

1) Did the mare have an "easy" foaling (for example, no rips or tears, and the placenta was passed easily and timely).
If yes, score a 1;
if no, score a 0.

2) Is the mare free of discharge while fully in season during the foal heat?
If yes, score a 1;
if no, score a 0.

3) Is the mare fairly "young" (chronologically and/or in the number of pregnancies)?
If yes, score a 1;
if no, score a zero.

4) Does the mare have no history of urine pooling, putting up fluid in reaction to semen, or developing infections in the uterus either pre- or post-insemination.
If yes, score a 1;
if no, score a zero.

5) Is the mare coming into season "late" (8+ days after foaling) or "early" (7 or fewer days after foaling?
If late, score a 1;
if early, score a 0.


If the mare meets the The Necessary But Not Sufficient Condition and scores a total of 5 or 4 on the subsequent questions, we definitely try to put her in foal in the foal heat.

If the mare scores a total of 3, we handle, scan, and possibly swab her as if we were
going to inseminate her but only do so if she is looking super inside. If she is not right we skip the foal heat.

If the mare scores a total of 2 or 1 we let her recuperate and try to put her in foal during her next cycle. But we handle, scan, and swab her as if she were going to be inseminated on the foal heat.

In all cases -- whether we inseminate or not -- we give the mare oxytocin injections as soon as she comes into season. We give .5 ml (1/2 of one ml) every 6 hours until she ovulates. Then we give 1 ml every 6 hours during the 48 hours after ovulation.

Choosing Mares for a Breeding Program
by Tom Reed

(An earlier version of this essay was originally published by http://www.muensterland-pferde.de/conceptofbreeding.htm in 2005)

The basis for breeding excellence is the mare, and the basis for the success of a particular mare is the consolidation of high performance genes in her damline. It is better to have one excellent mare than any number of average mares. If you don't have an excellent mare, sell your mare, save, and buy one – or buy a filly foal or yearling that in a short period of time will be your foundation mare. Make sure your mare has "quality" and some "blood" (Anglo-Arab, Shagya Arab, or thoroughbred but the right kind of thoroughbred blood) not too far back in the pedigree.

It is not the job of the stallion to "fix" conformation problems your mare has and I would not let this drive your breeding decisions. Most conformation traits are determined by a multitude of genes and cannot be manipulated easily (such as I'll breed my long-back mare to a short-back stallion to get a medium-back foal -- it does not work like this). If your mare is so conformationally-challenged that she needs to be "fixed", get yourself a better mare.

Everything else equal, I prefer a mare with correct conformation. But I will also take risks on a mare that has a conformation issue if it has a superior motherline. Why?

First, conformation traits are often determined by multiple genes. Even if the conformation issue the mare has is due to genetics, there is no guarantee that she will reproduce it in her progeny.

Second, a conformation issue may be the result of a developmental process and not directly a result of genetics. Developmental processes can be related to genetics, but they can also be related to feeding practices, management practices, etc.

The bottom line is:

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THE MARE LOOKS LIKE...
WHAT MATTERS IS WHAT SHE PRODUCES AS A BROODMARE.

Here is a question that is useful for mare owners, and I often ask it of my clients:

Identify several qualities possessed by your mare that must be passed on by the mare to her foals or you will be very disappointed.

If you have a hard time identifying qualities or attributes -- or if you can only revert to that old-time favorite "temperament" -- then ask yourself if this mare should be in your breeding program. What qualities does this mare possess that make her a compelling prospect as a broodmare?

For my breeding program the most important characteristic is athleticism, which can be expressed in a number of ways (and the way the athleticism is best expressed will determine which Olympic discipline the horse is pointed to in his or her sport career). The goal of sport horse breeding is to produce athletes. If one starts out with an unathletic broodmare, the chances of her producing a top-class athlete are very small.

Another thing I ask breeders to do is to go through their mare's extended predigree -- let's say three generations -- and tell me about each and every mare in the damline. Start with the dam of your broodmare. Did she produce any international competitors? Any national competitors? Any approved stallions? Next consider the second dam? Did she produce any international competitors? Any national competitors? Any approved stallions? Finally consider the third dam and ask the same questions.

If you cannot tell a compelling "story" about the mares in your broodmare's damline then you are probably breeding from the wrong mare.

Selecting a Stallion for Your Mare
by Tom Reed

(An earlier version of this essay was originally published by http://www.muensterland-pferde.de/conceptofbreeding.htm in 2005)

Assuming you have a very good mare with a very good damline, how do you choose a stallion that will give you the best chance of breeding an international athlete?

Rather than answering that question, here's how to avoid the 99% of stallions that you do NOT want to use:


1. Do not use a stallion whose damline has not produced excellent competition horses.
Excellence is not determined by predicates (premium broodmare in Ireland, ster mare in the Netherlands, state premium mare in Germany, etc.) or high scores in foal or mare inspections or success in showing classes. Excellence is determined by the goal that is driving the breeding program: producing horses that have excelled in sport in one or more of the three Olympic disciplines. An additional indicator of excellence is that the stallion's damline has produced other approved stallions. If the stallion you are considering does not descend from an excellent damline, do not use him in your breeding program.


2. Do not use a stallion that does not have at least one half-brother or half-sister that has competed internationally.
A damline that has produced excellent competition horses is important but make sure that at least some of those high performance genes have been expressed in horses very closely related to the stallion you are considering, namely the stallion's half-brothers and half-sisters (with half-siblings being defined as horses that have the same dam).


3. Do not use a stallion 15 years or older unless he has (or had) several progeny competing internationally.
Of course an exception to this rule is a stallion that has been used exclusively or primarily in sport rather than breeding: he simply will not have enough older progeny on the ground to make this a fair test.


4. Do not use a stallion between 8 and 14 unless he is (or has) competed internationally with success.
If a stallion has not proven his own athleticism, rideability, and soundness in international sport than there is no reason to risk using him in your breeding program.


5. Do not use a stallion 7 or under unless he is competing well at the national level at a level appropriate for his age (in showjumping, 1.10 - 1.20 m. as a 5-year-old, 1.20 - 1.30 m. as a 6-year-old, 1.30 - 1.40 m. as a 7-year-old).
In this day and age when stallions are expected to prove themselves in open competition, questions must be asked about stallions that are retired from sport when they are 4- or 5-years-old.


6. If a stallion is 7 or older do not use him unless he is approved by a full member of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH).
If a stallion is 6 or under only use him if he is approved or licensed by a WBFSH-member studbook. These studbooks are the ones with serious inspection regimes and these are the stallions that have proven their genetic value, athleticism, and soundness on a basic level. To use a rejected stallion -- that is, an S2 stallion that has failed the veterinary exam – is a serious mistake in judgment. Likewise, if an S1 stallion has not achieved full approval by the end of his 6th year then there is no reason to select him over an approved stallion.


7. Do not use a stallion that is marketed on the basis of its color or the exotic colors of its progeny.


I believe if you follow these rules then you will come up with a relatively small universe of stallion candidates. Then you need to analyze your mare's bloodlines, conformation, and type and look for proven "nicks". This is where art meets science.

Finally, the rules I suggest can guide you in the initial years of your breeding program. As you become successful you will need to violate some of these rules to achieve other goals (for instance, to introduce more "blood" into your breeding program). But that's down the road.

Marketing Irish-Bred Showjumpers
by Tom Reed

(Originally published in Ireland's Horse & Pony in March 2006.)

Each year the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) calculates a ranking of international showjumpers. To understand the central problem Ireland faces marketing showjumpers to foreign buyers we must understand the rankings, how their are computed, and their implications.

For the year ending 30-09-2005 (the most recent annual ranking) the Irish Horse Register (IHR) earned 2726.35 points and is ranked as the 8th best studbook. The studbook ranking is based on the results of the IHR's six most successful horses. Of the six best Irish-bred horses, three were sired by Cavalier Royale, a German Holsteiner.

Let's conduct an experiment. Let's see what would happen to the rankings if foreign stallions had never sired Irish horses. We need to remove from the ranking McGuinness (the best Irish-bred showjumper), Royal Charmer (3rd best), and Two Mills Showtime (6th best) – all sired by Cavalier Royale -- and replace them with the next three Irish Sport Horses (ISH) sired by an Irish sire: Ado Annie (9th best), Church Road (10th best) and Eezy (12th best). The IHR would now have 2012.25 points and be ranked 11th in the world. So without Cavalier and Animo (the other foreign sire) the IHR would have fallen from 8th to 11th place.

Among the top 300 international showjumpers in the world how many are ISH stallions approved in Ireland or in any other studbook in the world? Not a single one. How many are foreign-bred stallions approved and standing at stud in Ireland? Only one – the Holsteiner stallion Condios, who competed with Dermott Lennon in 2005.

These facts clearly reveal that the central problem Ireland faces in marketing showjumpers to the international market is that we simply will not produce enough international-quality showjumpers if we do not incorporate the very best foreign bloodlines into our breeding programme. And since there is not a single approved Irish-owned stallion in the top 300 international showjumpers other than the German-born Condios, I believe that ten years from now we will have even fewer ISH jumping internationally and the IHR will be even lower in the rankings.

So what are we to do to build a better market for Irish-breds? Here are some suggestions:

1. Support the RDS' "Irish-Bred" Initiative.
The RDS has budgeted euro 200,000 for its campaign to support the breeding and marketing of Irish-bred horses. The RDS has wisely chosen a definition for "Irish-bred" that will permit us to make real progress in the next decade. According to Pat Hanley, Deputy Executive Director of the RDS, "The definition of Irish bred adopted by the RDS is 'an animal foaled in Ireland with appropriate documentation to
verify this fact.'" The RDS does not care what kind of passport a horse has – IHB, Dutch, Anglo European, French, etc. What it does require for the national showjumping championships is that the horse was born in Ireland and its passport proves it was born in Ireland. So breeders are free to register their foals in whatever studbook makes the most sense to them.

2. Amend the Stallion Classification System.
On the continent there is a big market for young stallions and progeny of young stallions. Stallions are inspected at the age of 2 and 3 and the best are "licensed" and must complete performance requirements under saddle to be approved.

The IHB's system of granting all sound young stallions S-1 status (and some "S-1 Performance" status with a grant) and requiring them to be completely re-inspected when they have achieved the minimum of 30 showjumping points means that our best young stallions cannot compete on a level playing field with the continental stallions: they are not "licensed", they cannot compete against other licensed or approved 4- or 5-year-old stallions in stallions shows, and their progeny receive the dreaded blue passport.

The IHB should amend the system so that young stallions are "licensed" rather than given "S-1 Performance" status. And these licensed stallions should be automatically approved once they have met a clearly defined performance standard such as a top three placing in the 4-year-old class at the Dublin Horse Show or successfully completing a 70-day stallion performance test. If this were done then young licensed stallions -- and their progeny -- could be marketed to foreign buyers and breeders would be more likely to use these young stallions in their breeding programs.

3. Require Performance from Approved Stallions.
Approved stallions should be required to compete as 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds to maintain their approval. Breeders and buyers of Irish-bred horses should be able to evaluate the athleticism, soundness, and rideability of young stallions on an ongoing basis until progeny of these stallions can be seen in sport.

4. Inspect Progeny of Approved Stallions.
All newly approved stallions should have their progeny inspected. Twenty foals, randomly selected by the IHB, should be evaluated and those foals should be re-evaluated when they are 3-, 7-, and 11 years of age. If foals are not excellent, or if the progeny are not well-developed when they are 3, or if some progeny are not jumping with a modicum of success when they are 7, or if at least some of the stallion's 11-year-old progeny are not jumping internationally or at high national level then the stallion should lose his approval.

5. Only Provide Pedigrees in Green Passports.
A few years ago about 25% of foals in Ireland were sired by S1 and S2 stallions. In the 2004 foal book published by the IHB the figure is close to 33%. We are the only breeding country anywhere in the world that has a substantial number and percentage of foals born each year to rejected stallions.

This trend is likely to continue because of the proper and sound policy of the IHR that all foals out of blue-passport-mares will themselves get a blue passport, even if the foal is sired by an approved stallion. Since about half of all foals are fillies, about 17% of foals registered in 2004 are fillies with blue passports. Many
of these fillies will be used for breeding in the future and they can only produce foals with blue passports. And since serious foreign breeders will not buy blue passport fillies but instead will buy green passport mares or Irish-bred mares with passports from other studbooks, the proportion of blue passport mares in the IHR will
likely increase over time and the international market for Irish-bred fillies will shrink.

Under EU and Irish law all horses are required to have passports; however passport issuing authorities may not be required to include pedigrees or bloodlines in passports. Therefore I recommend that the IHR exclude all pedigree and bloodline information from newly issued blue passports. The foal will have a unique identification number, a marking chart, and a microchip but the sire and dam and extended breeding will not be noted in the passport. This policy would provide a very strong incentive for breeders to stop using stallions that are not good enough to be approved.

Challenges and Choices for the Irish Breeding Industry
by Tom Reed

(Originally published in Ireland's Horse Review in the summer of 2001.)

The pop singer Billy Joel has an album entitled, "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player." I feel a bit like that troubadour as a write this article about how the Irish studbook compares to our competitors. The news is not good. In fact, it is dismal. But I believe we stand at a crossroads, and if we make the right choices in the next few years we can return to the top of the showjumping rankings. It's going to take clear analysis, skillful implementation, and much courage and sacrifice from all of us. But we can get to the top again.

In this article I'm first going to present the bad news. The picture I'm going to paint for you is not a pretty one. But we need to know where we stand before we can get to where we want to go.

Next, I am going to give a few thoughts on how we got into the situation we're in.

Finally, I am going to offer a 5-Point Action Plan for Breeders and a 10-Point Action Plan for the Horse Board for getting the Irish studbook back to the top of the showjumping rankings.

I know I don't have all the answers. But maybe this article will help us to find some answers that most of us can agree on.

First, the bad news. In the advertisements I recently ran, I stated that "Ireland has been losing competitiveness against the Dutch, the Germans, and the French for the last decade, and in the last 12 months the Irish Studbook has dropped like a stone from 5th place to 10th place." I understated the problem in those ads. The situation has become even worse in the couple of weeks since I wrote those words.
Our studbook is in a free-fall.

Below are eight tables that contain very important information about how the Irish studbook performs as a producer of international showjumpers. Four of the tables (Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4) rank studbooks by the number of points earned by showjumpers in international competitions. This is the measure used by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses to rank studbooks. The other four tables (Tables 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A) rank studbooks by the number of horses in each category.

Using recent data (the year ending 28/02/2001), Table 1 takes the 100 top showjumpers in the world, organises them according to the studbook they were born into, and then ranks the studbooks according to how many points these horses earned in international competitions. The KWPN (the Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands) is ranked
first; the Holsteiner Studbook (German) is ranked second; the Selle Français Studbook (French) is ranked third, the Hannovarian Studbook (German) is ranked fourth, and the Oldenburg Studbook (German) is ranked fifth. The Irish Studbook has dropped all the way to 14th place.

Table 1A presents the studbooks ranked by the number of international jumping horses in the top 100 horses in the world. The top five studbooks remain in the same order as in Table 1. The KWPN, the top-ranked studbook, has 21 horses in the top 100. The Irish Studbook has only one horse (Abbervail Dream, by Chair Lift, ridden by Di Lampard for the UK) in the top 100 showjumpers in the world. We share the bottom of the list with four other studbooks that have only one horse in the world's top 100.

Table 2 ranks the studbooks according to the points earned by the top 200 showjumpers in the world. The KWPN retains its top ranking, and the Irish Studbook moves up to 9th place.

If we look at Table 2A, which ranks the studbooks by the number of the top 200 showjumpers that were born into each studbook, Ireland moves up to 7th place with 12 horses in the world's top 200 showjumpers.

Table 3 ranks the studbooks according to the points earned by the top 300 showjumpers in the world. Once again the KWPN is the top studbook, and the Irish Studbook drops to 8th place.

In Table 3A, which ranks the studbooks by the number of the top 300 showjumpers that were born into each studbook, Ireland moves up a level to 6th place with 18 horses out of the world's best 300 showjumpers.

Finally, Table 4 presents data on the world's top 400 showjumpers. The KWPN retains its domination over other studbooks, and the Irish Studbook moves up a level to 7th place.

Table 4A shows that the KWPN has 87 horses in the world's top 400 showjumpers, while Ireland has 25. Ireland remains at 6th place.

So what can we learn from these tables and other analyses I have done? These are the conclusions that I have drawn:

1.) Ireland has lost its competitiveness in producing top-class showjumpers.
Only one out of the world's top 100 showjumpers is Irish-bred (1% of the total), only 12 out of the world's top 200 showjumpers are Irish-bred (6% of the total), only 18 out of the world's top 300 showjumpers are Irish-bred (6%), and only 25 out of the world's top 400 showjumpers are Irish bred (6.25%). Given our country's distinguished history of breeding top-class showjumpers, these results are very distressing.

2.) We not only have lost competitiveness in producing a sufficient number of horses in the top 100 and top 200, but the quality of the horses that we do produce in those groupings is not very high.
For example, the one horse we have in the top 100, Abbervail Dream, is ranked 88th. If this great gelding were to suffer an injury, he could quickly drop out of the top 100 and leave Ireland ranked last in the world. In the top 200 rankings, consider the Swedish Warmblood Studbook (SWB), which is emerging as a very strong competitor to the Irish Studbook. The SWB is ranked one below the Irish Studbook in Table 2, in 10th place. But if we divide the number of points Ireland and Sweden have, respectively, in Table 2 by the number of horses they have in Table 2A, we will see that the average Irish horse has only 334 points (4,012 / 12 = 334) while the average Swedish horse has 575 points (2,875 / 5 = 575). In other words, the average Swedish horse has 72% more points than the average Irish horse in the top 200. This leads me to conclude that, on average, the Swedish horses in the top 200 are of higher quality than the Irish horses.

3.) Another way to look at these data is that the KWPN has about twice as many foals born each year into its studbook as the Irish studbook (approximately 12,000 for the KWPN versus 5,500 or so for the Irish studbook).
If we take into account that the KWPN produces about twice as many foals as does the Irish Studbook, then we would expect the KWPN to achieve about twice as many points as the Irish Studbook earns in the top 100 and top 200, and about twice as many horses as the Irish Studbook has in the top 100 or top 200. So let's double the number of points earned by our Irish horses in the top 100 and top 200 (Tables 1 and 2), and double the number of Irish horses in the top 100 and top 200 (Tables 1A and 2A), to get estimates of where we would stand if we produced as many foals as the KWPN does. Even after making these adjustments, the KWPN still has about 16 times as many points as the Irish Studbook has and about 10 times as many horses as the Irish Studbook has in the top 100. In the top 200, after making these adjustments the KWPN has almost three times as many points and almost double the number of horses as the Irish studbook has. Thus the KWPN has many more excellent horses than we do in the top 100 and top 200, and the average quality of these horses is also much higher. Clearly we are in trouble.

4.) Among living sires standing in Ireland and Northern Ireland, only Candy's Boy (Castletown Stud), Cruising (Hartwell Stud), Ekstein (Morningside Stud), Glidawn Diamond (Cahirwisheen Stud), Laughton's Flight (Eric Atkinson's stud), Master Imp and Slyguff Joker (Slyguff Stud), Touchdown (James Kernan and Knockrath Stud), and Western Promise (Robert Scott's stud) have progeny jumping in the top 400.
(The progeny of Ekstein, the KWPN-approved stallion I purchased this year, represent the KWPN studbook, not the Irish studbook.) This small number of stallions standing in Ireland that are siring top international jumpers is a serious problem that must be addressed.

How did a great horse breeding nation like Ireland get into this position? How did we go so quickly from the top of the rankings as a showjumping studbook to a third or fourth tier power? What do we, Irish Sport Horse breeders, and the Irish Horse Board need to do to make the slow climb back up the rankings?

Space constraints will not allow me to discuss in detail how we got ourselves into this situation. Briefly stated, the Dutch, the Germans, the French, the Belgians, the Danes, and the Swedes have been pursuing a rigorous and scientific approach to breeding top-level competition horses. These studbooks have clear mandates from their members to produce studbook rules, policies, procedures, and events that will yield world-class horses. They do this by rigorous stallion selection, careful mare grading, scientific research to support advances in sport horse breeding, and marketing strategies to attract foreign buyers to purchase these top quality horses. Our studbook is at least 20 years behind the times along all these dimensions.

What are we, Irish Sport Horse breeders, to do to help turn this situation around? Below is a Five Point Action Plan that each of us should think about as we make choices each breeding season.

1. Only breed to top quality mares.
Ireland has too many breeders using poor quality mares, and this is reflected in the low prices at the auctions and our free-fall in studbook rankings. Trade up to better quality mares and do not breed to mares with conformation problems and anything less than good temperament, very good movement, excellent jumping ability.

2. Only breed to top quality stallions.
If you are considering a mature stallion (15 years of age or older) he must have: (a) world-class bloodlines; (b) at least three offspring jumping internationally; (c) at least three sons approved as sires in leading studbooks; (d) a record of producing approved broodmares; and (e) clean x-rays with no history of bone chips. If the mature stallion does not meet these tests, then do not use him. If you are considering a young stallion (under 15 years of age) he should have: (a) world-class bloodlines; (b) a solid competition record that is improving with each year (avoid the very young stallion that no longer competes); (c) excellent movement and paces; and (d) clean x-rays with no history of bone chips. If you are using a warmblood stallion of any age, only use one that has been approved by at least one studbook on the continent. This is your only guarantee that the horse is a top warmblood stallion and is free of OCD disease, bone chips, and other problems. Approval by the Irish Horse Board is not good enough: The Irish Horse Board's stallion selection policies are at least a decade behind our competitors' policies.

3. Consider forming a partnership with like-minded breeders to upgrade your mares.
One of the keys to successful breeding in Holland is that the top stud farms form partnerships with breeders. The stud and the breeder own an equal share of a very high quality mare, and the stud uses its network to market the foal each year.

4. Become active in the Irish Horse Board.
This Irish Horse Board is a cooperative society that has a democratic structure in place. Unfortunately, positions on the Board of Directors of the Horse Board often go uncontested, leaving power in the hands of the same individuals year after year. Consider running for a position on the Horse Board if you have the time and energy to make a difference.

5. Buy and study the "International Breeding Guide".
This "bible" for breeders is published each year by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses. It will allow you to begin much of the research that needs to be done when picking a sire.


I offer below a Ten Point Action Plan for the Horse Board to return the Irish Studbook to the top of the showjumping studbook rankings.

1. Benchmark our studbook's policies, procedures, and programmes against the top 5 showjumping studbooks.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Let's do what businesses do all over the world and benchmark ourselves against the world's best.

2. Cull mares that are not suitable for breeding.
The Horse Board should petition the government for a one-year culling programme to
begin immediately. To be eligible for the programme, mares would have to be under 17 years of age, have produced at least one foal in the last three years, and have one or more serious conformation faults that render the mare unsuitable for breeding. The mares would be examined by a panel of independent vets and independent experts (such as professional riders with no ties to the mare owner). The owners of the mares selected for this voluntary programme would receive a £1,000 culling payment and be allowed to keep whatever money is paid for the mare by the knacker.

3. Grade mares.
Following the policies used by the KWPN, filly foals should only be entered into the main portion of the Irish Studbook after they have passed a basic inspection for type, conformation, and movement. Older mares should be graded as Star and Premium mares.

4. Establish a quality mare purchase incentive scheme.
The Horse Board should petition the government for a programme to encourage breeders to bring into the country world-class broodmares from leading continental studbooks. Many of these mares will have Irish blood in them through foundation sires exported to the continent such as Ladykiller, Furioso, and Water Serpent.

5. Reform the stallion approval process.
We should benchmark our stallion approval process against the best in the world: the KWPN. The stallion inspection committee should be selected by a vote of the membership. Only world-class stallions should be approved.

6. Reform the stallion purchase incentive scheme.
If warmblood stallions are to be brought into Ireland under this scheme, it should
be required that they have been approved for at least one year by a warmblood studbook on the continent. We cannot reach the top of the studbook rankings by bringing in warmblood stallions that are not good enough to be approved on the continent.

7. Launch an annual Irish Stallion Show that will bring in foreign buyers from throughout the world.
Our studbook competitors have annual stallion shows that feature stallion approval, auctions, and showjumping competitions. Breeders and buyers from all over the world go to witness and buy. We have to stop holding secret stallion inspections (the Irish Horse Board calls these "private inspections") and invite the world to see and buy the best that we can breed and produce.

8. The Horse Board should collaborate more with the UCD Veterinary School.
I propose a three-year project to upgrade the skills of vets in scanning and artificial insemination, using both chilled and frozen semen. We also need to upgrade the skills of vets in reading x-rays to detect hereditary diseases such as OCD, even after the bone chips have been removed.

9. Institute term limits to bring new blood into the Board of Directors of the Irish Horse Board.
Two terms should be long enough for anyone to serve.

10. The Department of Agriculture and the Board of Directors of the Irish Horse Board should conduct an independent review of the top
management of the Irish Horse Board to assess its performance in running the Irish Studbook.
The staff of the Irish Horse Board do an excellent job implementing the policies of the Board of Directors and the Director General of the Irish Horse Board. However, the studbook is in a free-fall in the international rankings and Irish-bred horses no longer play a role in breeding programmes on the continent. I recommend an evaluation of the Irish Studbook's performance under the current Director General should be launched immediately by the Board of Directors and the Department.

There is a saying in the States that "The show's not over 'til the fat lady sings." (Opera fans will know what I mean.) The fat lady is warming up her vocal chords, but she's not on stage yet. We can turn around our Irish Sport Horse breeding industry if we have the courage to make changes. What we don't have is another five years of time to waste.