Henry and I have now been at the farm I’m barnsitting for since last Friday. It’s a small private barn with lovely Trakehners that the owner does dressage with. Her ring is super nice, a lovely long dressage court with rubber and sand footing.
I’ve had a couple nice dressage rides since we’ve been here, and hacked out in the fields a couple other days. But yesterday I decided we really wanted to jump. A quick perusal found a few standards but no jump cups or poles here in Dressageland. Then as I was out in the ring picking up the letters that the wind had knocked over, it suddenly hit me. Put a bunch of dressage letters together and what do you get?
No, not kvepf. You get a jump, people… you get a jump.
Poor long-suffering Henry has been with me long enough to not be even remotely phased by any of my bullshit or harebrained ideas, so naturally he didn’t bat an eye when I pointed him at it.
spare dressage letters also make good cell phone holders too, btw
I’m pretty sure Henry’s face says “How did I draw the short straw and end up with this dumb human?”
Every time I think I’m being clever about jumps or courses he’s like “whatever lady, you bore me. But I’m cute and I haven’t killed you yet, so give me cookies!”. Touchè, Henrypants… touchè.
This is what happens when you leave a crazy eventer alone at a dressage barn for a week. Next thing you know I’ll be dragging out the patio furniture. I’m kidding! Be reasonable, I can’t lift that stuff over the fence by myself.
Although I am not a breeder, I have worked for breeders, bred one horse of my own, and been avidly interested/semi-involved in the breeding industry for over a decade. Often when I see a horse at a show that I particularly like, I will approach the owner and ask what it’s bloodlines are. 9 times out of 10 I get a blank stare. Once I even had to tell the person that their horse was registered BWP (according to it’s brand) because they had no idea what that “wagon wheel” was. Serious facepalm moment.
this is not a wagon wheel
I understand that sometimes papers are lost and people just don’t know anything about the horse, but the amount of people who also just don’t care in this country is pretty shocking to me. If you ride sporthorses, and have any interest in riding them in the future, you should care! The breeders are the ones that produce the horses, but the riders are the ones that end up with them. We wonder why Europe outproduces us? Do we just enjoy paying 10k+ on top of purchase price to import their horses?
I think what a lot of people just don’t understand is how heritable many traits are. It’s no coincidence that certain lines are known for producing a certain temperament, or requiring a certain type of ride, or being slow to mature, or jumping over themselves in front. If you ride a horse that was purposefully bred for sport, someone somewhere planned that breeding with an end goal in mind. They picked out both parents and considered traits that they hoped both would bring to the table. The results may vary, but they are no accident. You can often tell a lot about a horse just by looking at the papers.
Even those of us sitting on OTTB’s (or QH’s, or Arabs, or Morgans, or or or) should not consider this a reason to be uninterested in pedigree. In the same way as sporthorses, any breed has lines that have become known as standouts for certain abilities (or lack thereof) in sport. Study well enough and eventually you’ll be able to look at a pedigree and make a guess as to what the horse might be suitable for, even though it was originally bred for something else. Sure, there are exceptions, but you’ll be right most of the time.
Mytens (Spectacular Bid x Hoist the Flag) – producer of upper level eventers, show jumpers, and even some hunters.
Dr. Ludwig Christmann did a really interesting study on heritability with the Hanoverian registry many years ago. Want to know the two things that were found to be MOST heritable? Head and jumping ability. What ranked lowest? Legs and correctness of gaits. If you want to read more about it, go here. Of course, some stallions pass on certain traits more than others (for good or for bad), but those little nuances are the things you learn along the way.
Kannan (Voltaire x Nimmerdor) – #1 sire of show jumpers in 2014
Really I cannot wrap my head around why anyone just plain wouldn’t care about breeding. Even if you say “I don’t need a top level jumper or an amazing mover, I just want something that is enjoyable to ride!”. Guess what else is highly heritable – temperament, character, rideability, and willingness to work. Guess what some of the qualities are that they evaluate at stallion testings – ding ding ding, you got it.
Quando Quando, an Olympic veteran who also scored perfect 10’s on character and willingness to work at his stallion testing.
I know it can be mind boggling at first, but in the internet age where we have so much information at the tip of our fingertips, it’s easy to learn. Be that weirdo that sits in the stands with me at horse shows and looks up bloodlines on USEF, only to be super frustrated when there’s nothing listed. If we want to get better we have to fix this, and it starts with changing people’s minds about how much it matters.
We’ve all got them to some degree. You know those things that you’re just really particular about? Some people might call it obsessive, or persnickety, or… well… anal-retentive. I was thinking about this today after I did stalls, because I couldn’t just walk away from the shedrow without raking a crosshatch pattern into the dirt in front of the stallion’s stall. When I was a working student all the shedrow barns had tiny pea gravel in front of the stalls, and when we raked it every day after cleaning, we always did a nice neat crosshatch pattern. Granted, it didn’t last, but it sure did give a sense of satisfaction and made the job feel complete. It was very zen, like Japanese sand garden style.
Just leave me alone and let me rake things
Besides my weird raking fetish, there are a few (million) other things I’m kind of nutty about. I can’t polo wrap a leg without doing a perfect upside down V at the front of the fetlock. That’s how I was taught as a kid, it’s how I’ve always done it, and any other way looks horribly wrong. Don’t make me look at a badly done polo.
Do you pay attention to how you’re tightening your girth and make sure that you’re on equal holes on each side? I do. Because being on the lowest hole on one side and way up on the other is just lopsided. CHAOS.
You know what else is chaotic? Bridle straps not contained in their keepers. If I see loose straps flopping around I find myself hypnotized by them. Yes I’ve put a random person’s cheekpiece back in it’s keeper at a show. You’re welcome, random person.
only using this picture because I’m obsessed with the new PS of Sweden Olympic Revolution bridle
I also have a texture issue with tack conditioner. I don’t like thick and sticky, or really thin and greasy, or super waxy. Hopefully I’m not the only person that has stood in Dover and opened every conditioner to touch it. I would say sorry but I’m not. I’m just weird.
Anyone else get twitchy when a horse’s mane gets too long? I have a friend who I’m pretty sure didn’t pull her horse’s mane for years because she knew if she let it get long enough I would do it for her while she wasn’t around. I’m looking at YOU, Stacy. Way to benefit from my craziness. It continues to this day.
Dear God someone get me a pulling comb and some clippers.
What are your crazy person issues? Surely I’m not alone here. Honestly, I could probably keep going all day…
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since I got back in the States. Between getting caught up at work and the weather finally being decent enough to get some rides in (hallelujah) there hasn’t been time for much else. Then on Friday I started barnsitting again, this time for 9 days. Poor SO… I was gone for a week in Europe, home for 3 days, and then gone again. I enjoy barnsitting though, I like the quiet and the solitude and working in the barn. Or at least – NORMALLY it’s quiet.
Since it’s such a long period this time, the barn owner invited me to bring Henry along so I don’t miss any riding time. Her place is pretty far out of town, it takes me an hour to get to work, so I wouldn’t otherwise have time to go to the barn to ride him. On Friday night Brandy brought Henry out to stay with me here in the land of the black Trakehners. Right away the older broodmare Quinnie took a serious shine to him, and she has basically been winking at him and screaming for him ever since he arrived. Henry is super confused. He knows that he’s supposed to love her but I don’t think he really knows quite why. Every time she neighs, or if he can’t see her, he gets a little upset and starts pacing and neighing back. In the meantime, I just want everyone to shut the hell up and stop being dumb. Surely after a few days they’ll get over each other right? RIGHT? Poor Toni (the actual stallion) is just standing over in his stall like “Hello!!! I’m STILL HERE!!!”. Sorry Toni, Quinnie has chosen.
Quinnie is the bay, who was whispering sweet nothings across the alley to Henry…
who was happily grazing, oblivious to her intentions.
Quinnie watching Henry eat, because she’s creepy
I’ve ridden Henry a couple times and he’s been fine once I’m on him, but only half of his attention span is present because the other half is focused on Quinnie, the love of his life. Irritated. I am very irritated. And it’s supposed to start raining again tomorrow, so that’s super. Since when did Texas become the PNW? Agh.
Henry saying hi to the mini, who he thought might be deadly
On the bright side, the fact that the Euro and the dollar are almost equal right now is kinda fun. Just for giggles I perused all my favorite European sites to make sure there wasn’t anything I “needed”. The first perusal turned up nothing so I thought I was safe, then someone mentioned Calevo, which I had somehow forgotten. So over I marched and immediately fell into The Trap of the Calevo Sale and nabbed an Equiline coat and Pikeur breeches for $300 shipped. I can live with that. The coat is exactly my colors – navy with golden yellow trim – and the breeches are exactly what I was looking for color and style wise as well.
Plus the retail therapy slightly eased my irritation at the horses, at least temporarily. If anyone needs me I’ll be in the barn chanting the Serenity Prayer.
After a couple days in Paris, a day in Brussels, and a day touring the Belgian country side looking at horses, we were finally to the main purpose of our trip: the sBs stallion selection show. For those who don’t know, sBs is the Belgian Sporthorse studbook. Despite being one of the smallest warmblood registries it still ranks #3 in the world for show jumping – pretty damn impressive for a humble little studbook in south Belgium when compared to all the glitz and glamour of the “big guys” like Hanoverian, Holsteiner, KWPN, and Oldenburg. Wondering what sBs horses you may have heard of before?
how about Rothchild?
or Hello Sanctos with Scott Brash – #1 in the world
Lucy Davis’ superstar Barron
Anyway, you get the point. Small registry, big quality.
Their stallion approvals every year are held in conjunction with a stallion show. This is awesome if you’re a spectator because not only do you get to see the young stallions that are being presented for approval as breeding stock, you also get to see the stallions that are already licensed and showing. Since we had the “in” we were at the VIP table reserved for the USA, so our seats were literally ringside. No joke, I got both dirt and horse slobber on me at various points during the weekend. The true mark of great seats.
There were a total of 40 stallions being presented for approval, ranging in age from 3 to 6. Saturday morning kicked off with in hand presentations, followed by free jumping.
It’s not JUST a jumping registry! This is a 3yo stallion by Totilas.
Diamanti van de Helle Z
my personal favorite, Mercy Van’t Ruytershof by Arko III
Then the stallions that were 4, 5, or 6 years old came out and did a jumping round under saddle. They showed against the already approved stallions of those ages, in classes divided by age, much like our young jumper classes are here in the US. These pictures are all from the 4yo class:
One of the best parts of being VIP is that you get free champagne and vouchers for the food. And we’re not talking sandwiches here, we’re talking awesome catered meals. It was, no joke, some of the best food I’ve had in a long time. The desserts deserve their own shoutout too.
How to get fat at the stallion show and REGRET NOTHING
On Sunday they free jumped the 3yo’s again, then announced who had made the cut. As you can see from the short “approved” list, most didn’t. These guys are very selective.
But the ones who did make the cut were all really nice young horses. After the new approvals were announced it was back to horse show mode, with more classes for 4, 5, 6, and 7yo stallions.
Being a good little tack ho, I did keep vague track of what I was seeing tack and apparel wise. Samshield definitely ruled for helmets, and I saw a LOT of Animo coats and breeches. It seemed like every other horse was in a CWD breastplate, but the saddles ran the gamut of mostly french brands. I did notice three Ogilvy pads and one Ecogold pad, although most were sheepskin types. Stirrups were almost all Jin, Freejump, or Royal Rider. Also the overwhelming majority of the horses were in simple snaffles. It also gave me the warm fuzzies to see so many Horse Pilot jackets, a french brand I mentioned on here a couple times last year. They’re beautiful in person.
this 6yo (by Diamant de Semilly out of a Papillon Rouge mare) was a little guy but boy was he quick and athletic
BOING in the 4yo class
my favorite of the older stallions, this is 6yo Jaguar van Paemel. He was really really impressive, I would not be surprised to see him on the world stage in a couple more years.
an actual nice picture of Jaguar – we were sitting just to the left edge of this picture
Unfortunately we had to pack it in before the 7yo’s started so we could make the train to take us back to Brussels, but by then my butt was pretty tired of sitting anyway. If you’re really interested you can go back and watch the entire selection show here: https://www.clipmyhorse.tv/en/archive/detail/1045/all/sbs-selection-show and probably catch glimpses of us in the crowd, most likely drinking and eating.
I really want to thank sBs for their hospitality – they were all super friendly and showed this American a really great time. It was also fun to get to mingle with some of the most successful breeders in Europe at dinner, and I admit I giggled a bit at how fascinated they were with the American Thoroughbred. They looooved looking at pedigrees, and they were very willing to share their knowledge about their own native bloodlines. It was such a wonderful experience and I learned so much, plus fell completely head over heels in love with Belgium along the way. Not kidding at all when I say I could totally live there.
À la prochaine, Belgique! I’m already trying to figure out the next time I can go back… maybe if the SO is good he can come this time. 😉
breedrideevent.com 