Founded in 2014 by Belgian breeder and entrepreneur Koen Terryn, Hippomundo’s current mission is to connect the equestrian world.

Prior to Hippomundo’s creation, the sport horse sector’s breeding and performance data was stored with more than 350 different organisations throughout the world, most of whom were not connected to one another.

This made it incredibly challenging to obtain a reliable overview of the breeding, or sport data, of a particular horse and its family.

Hippomundo was created to bring all of this essential data together, in one central database, and make it easier for the equestrian world to find the verified information they required.

Getting connected

What does ‘connecting the equestrian world’ entail and how is it achieved?

Through official collaboration with several studbooks, individual breeders submitting their horse’s passport details and the manual entry of official pedigree data from competition horses, Hippomundo currently boasts well in excess of one million horses in the database. For horses not currently appearing in the database, breeders and owners can submit passport details to Hippomundo and they will be added free of charge.

In order to provide the maximum value of these horses’ pedigrees and damlines, the team at Hippomundo began compiling all international results, from 1 October 2014 onwards, while also back-dating a considerable number of historic events.

In addition to this, higher-level national results from several countries throughout the world are inputted into Hippomundo each week. These have also included Spring Tour and National and Premier Series Grand Prix classes from Ireland in recent months. In 2021, Hippomundo collected a total of 629,312 sport results worldwide.

New competitions and classes appear daily on Hippomundo. The results listed include the breeding of the horses and the breeder’s name. Any horses that feature in the results can be clicked on to bring you to their extended pedigree.

Hippomundo wants to make it possible for potential buyers from all over the world to easily contact breeders, owners and riders. The Hippomundo ‘contact pages’ allow breeders, owners and riders to create a visible profile with their desired contact information. They can then link this profile to their horses in the database. This creates an icon that gives interested parties an instant way to come in contact with you when viewing one of your horses in the Hippomundo results or pedigrees.

What is black-type and why does it matter?

Black-type is a term that those in the thoroughbred sector are au fait with, but it is a relatively new addition to the sport horse sector.

The British Horse Racing Authority (BHA) describes black-type as follows: “Group/Graded and Listed contests can be referred to as ‘black type’ races. The phrase refers to the system of printing in bold type within the pedigree charts of sales catalogues the names of those horses that have won or been placed in Group/Graded races. This is designed to highlight quality performers within a horse’s family tree.”

While various sport horse black-type equivalents have been used in recent years, Hippomundo has created a standardised system, which offers clear, transparent and reliable performance denotations. A horse’s highest sporting level is given, where results are available, and in 2021 Hippomundo took that a step further by also stating the number of wins and placings of that horse at its highest sporting level. This makes assessing the calibre of performers in a damline a much simpler task.

In an era where damline performance is carrying increased weight in the marketplace, especially at public auction, it is important that the necessary tools and information are available for breeders to access and research verified black-type pedigrees for current, or prospective, breeding stock. Similarly where owners and riders wish to invest in proven pedigrees.

Auctions can also avail of Hippomundo’s black-type pedigrees, offering the organiser, seller and buyer increased confidence in the information provided. Hippomundo have provided black-type pedigrees for over 100 auctions worldwide to date.

Staying informed

It can often take a while for information to reach a breeder regarding the success of a homebred horse, or a performer from a particular damline. Via the ‘Horses to Follow’ feature, Hippomundo enables members to receive automatic emails when the selected horses have had a result in an international competition, or in a high-level national class that has been included in the database. A breeder is therefore more informed and better positioned to market their breeding programme.

Hippomundo users can enjoy a whole range of informative rankings, based on objective, verified data. These include rankings for stallions, mares, young horses, studbooks, breeders, etc. In 20201, the late Ita Brennan of Mill House Stud (MHS) in Kilkenny was the top-ranked Irish breeder in the show jumping breeder rankings. Cavan’s Peter G Brady took the top slot in the Irish Breeder eventing rankings, and Kildare’s Heike Holstein was the leading Irish breeder in dressage.

Interested parties can also subscribe to Hippomundo’s mailing list and receive regular features and interviews from the sport horse world.

Supporting breeders

Much of what the team at Hippomundo has created to date has been fuelled by an ongoing desire to support and inform breeders. In 2021, Hippomundo created a think tank which brought together a small group of breeders from around the world to discuss global ideas affecting sport horse breeders, and to come up with ways of addressing these issues.

Hippomundo has been very strong on the idea that the sport horse sector needs to do more to give back to its breeders. Founder and CEO Koen Terryn has previously voiced the idea of giving five per cent of prize money back to the breeders. Now, it looks like Hippomundo has found the solution that it has been looking for. Koen Terryn says: “The Hippomundo Breeders Premium will refund millions of euros per year back to the breeders of sport horses all over the world, in the disciplines of show jumping, dressage and eventing.”

Full details of the Hippomundo Breeders Premium will be announced at a later date, via the Hippomundo website and social channels.

Joining Hippomundo

On Thursday 14 April, the Hippomundo team will be hosting a free international webinar, where the equestrian world can learn more about the tools and services currently available.

Special offer for readers: new subscribers to Hippomundo can currently avail of a 20% discount when using the promo code BIG20 at registration. This discount applies to first time subscriptions only. Visit www.hippomundo.com/en/subscription to learn more.

As Ben Franklin put it: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”