When breeding a foal for eventing, it used to be that the more thoroughbred you put in the better. But now, just as in show jumping, continental bloodlines are dominating the eventing world.

This trend is clearly evident in the five foals qualified for this year’s Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) Foal Championships. Not one of those in the eventing section is by a thoroughbred sire. All five are by continental sires. Also surprisingly, the dams of four out of the five are also from continental bloodlines. Only one of the five dams is by a thoroughbred.

Changes

Trying to make sense of all this, I spoke with Eventing Ireland’s high performance team manager Sally Corscadden, who confirmed that there have been dramatic changes in the sport itself that are causing this shift in breeding choices.

She notes that while old traditional events like Badminton, Burghley and Lexington have remained somewhat the same; the new four-star, short-format events feature more technicality, lighter fences and shorter cross country courses. This will also be the situation at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo.

It used to be that if a rider had a poor enough dressage test they could usually make up ground in the cross country phase and this is where the thoroughbred input came into play. But now all three phases of an event – dressage, cross country and show jumping carry just about equal weight. For example, at a four-star, short-format competition and at the Olympic Games, the time allowed for the many dressage movements has been cut from six and a half minutes to just under four minutes. This demands greater technicality in horse and rider.

The cross country is shorter and, for safety reasons, some of the fences are now lighter and knockable. The show jumping phase has also followed this trend, with greater technicality and lighter fences. As Sally puts it, all of this demands that horses must have “more power behind” them, and this means continental input.

Five finalists

The first colt in the HSI final is by Billy Daly’s Hannovarian Newmarket Venture which traces back to Polydore and Landgraf while the dam is by Touchdown who goes back to the French Galoubet.

Another colt in the final is by the show jumper Holsteiner Quality Time, who now stands with Marion Hughes. One filly is by the Dutch stallion Eldorado van de Zeshoek who also has a foal qualified in the show jumping section. Another filly is by the Zangersheide Ganesh Hero that stands at Belmont Stud in Co Offaly and has the great American jumper Gem Twist in his background. The final filly is by the Belgian sire Ramiro B and out of an Irish mare by the thoroughbred Good Thyne.