Chris Hector looks at the World Breeding Federation Rankings…

This year’s dressage top listing in the World Breeding Federation is a sad joke, dominated as it is by stallions with only one outstanding representative to their name. At least half these top ten would not be welcome anywhere near my mares - even if they came free of charge and - worse - with a live foal guarantee.

The problem starts right at the top. Rusty is a magnificent horse, and no doubt his sire, Rebus (pictured above) has something to offer, but we really want a bit more evidence of that most important quality of all for a sire, prepotence, before we mark him down in my breeding book, much less tout him as the best dressage stallion in the world! For a while there, Rebus’ country of origin and pedigree seemed to change with each new account but there now seems some agreement that he is Latvian bred, and by the Thoroughbred stallion, Referatt.

The second on the list is Argentinus (above). To tell the truth, he is not my favourite style of horse. A bit coarse, bit heavy, bit up behind and a bit out behind in his way of going. But the Hanoverian stallion is certainly a very respectable sire of both dressage and jumping horses. In the period 1992 to 2001 Argentinus has produced five horses that have competed at Grand Prix level in internationally recognized competitions; Albano, a member of the German team at the last European Championships with Heike Kemmer, two ridden by Isabell Werth - Amaretto (who died when he had just entered Grand Prix ranks) and Alleppo, German born US team member Gunter Siedel’s Aristocrat, and Canadian Evi Strasser’s Just in Tyme. That’s a fairly classy team of jockeys - and that is something you have to take into account when considering dressage breeding, how much is the performance the result of a brilliant trainer/rider and how much due to the genetic make up of the horse?
Coming in at number three is the Trakehner stallion, Argument. Despite being heavily promoted in the German equestrian press, the striking black stallion, has only produced one Grand Prix performer, Isabell Werth’s Antony. Not enough for this cautious breeder.
The progeny of the third horse, another Hanoverian, Cavalier are likewise a bit thin on the ground but still as we will see later, three Grand Prix horses in the past decade is not a bad score, especially when his front-liner is the wonderful Blue Hors Cavan, ridden for Denmark by Lars Petersen (left). The other two are Ingeborg Fisher’s Charmant and Klaus-Martin Rath’s Cadiz. Cavalier is by the Thoroughbred stallion, Cardinal and out of a Ferdinand mare. He is also the sire of Cordoba (out of a Bolero mare), a stallion that I really like, and one that has produced a couple of lovely young horses.
In fifth place is the Westfalien stallion, Freudentänzer, the sire of the extraordinary Farbenfroh. Freudentänzer returned to the competition arena after a couple of years as a breeding stallion, and competed Grand Prix with Nicole Uphoff. He was an extravagant mover but seemed a handful even for that mega talented rider. In fact, my friend, Thomas Hartwig the press officer at the German FN remembers when Nicole was riding him at Warendorf, where Thomas’ office is located. Thomas said he feared for Nicole’s safety: "He was so terrible that you would only give him to your mother-in-law to ride." Freudentänzer has produced only one Grand Prix performer, but what a performer! You might just give him a try and hope that your foal got his dad’s movement and his mother’s mind.
Western Star (pic below) is another horse with an attitude problem. The one time I saw him trotted out it was a toss up if the young man running him up was more scared of the horse he was leading or his father who was in charge of the stallion station and directing proceedings. In the end dad reigned, but it was a fair job keeping out of the way of Western Star’s teeth and front legs! Western Star is represented on the standings, by just one horse, the very impressive Weyden. Still Western Star is nicely bred on the dam’s side, she being by the Thoroughbred Valentino, and his dad, Wenzel has been a consistent sire of good dressage horses. Plus he was a good looking horse, okay mark him down as a possibility.
The stallion is seventh place also represents Hanover’s influential ‘W’ line – Weltmeyer. This is a stallion that people either love, or love to hate. Me, I think he is fabulous. I’ve bred five Weltmeyer foals and loved them all – and they could all really dance with that distinctive clear move of the hock under the centre of balance. There are others who think he is over promoted, and that his progeny will never handle collection. I’ve seen enough to believe that they will be great at the highest levels, and we will start to see many more following our own Kristy Oatley’s Wallstreet into the ranks of the world’s best.
Eighth place to Tiro, a Selle Français stallion that owes his place to the exploits of the wonderful Kennedy – born in Germany (in the Bad-Watumberg studbook) but ridden for Denmark by Lone Jörgensen.
Ninth place to Maykel and this to my mind perfectly illustrates the way a brilliant trainer can manufacture a stallion. Thanks to the brilliance of Anky van Grunsven, Idool has put his dad into the top ten, but I don’t think any of us who have seen the battle Anky has with Idool in the collecting ring would be in a great hurry to find his father. Maykel has produced no other Grand Prix dressage horses in the past ten years. Even as a jumping sire Maykel does not seem to have been a roaring success. In the period 92-01, he produced four international level jumpers (three ridden by pretty good jockeys: Ian Millar, Jos Lansink and Jerry Smit) to rank 449th in the world.

Left: Idool may have put Maykel into the top ten - but does he deserve the place?

The final horse to make this year’s top ten dressage stallions in the world is Lysander, another Hanoverian but not from one of the fashionable lines, perhaps with reason, since Lysander is there on the back basically of one very good horse, Livijno and one superstar trainer, Rudolf Zeilinger. If he is standing down the road, cheap, live cover, live foal guarantee, I’d go look at him, but from the photos, I think even then I’d pass him by (especially as he died in 1991!)
So how is it then that the WBFSH top ten jumping sires, all averaged better than 30 progeny that competed internationally, while the top ten dressage horses are largely there on the basis of one foal?
If we look through the progeny listed in the period 1992/2001 we find that the stallion with the most international Grand Prix competitors (and remember these figures do not lie, they are based on official FEI records) is Bolero with 11, followed by Purioso with 9, Donnerhall with 8, World Cup I and Sultan on 7, with a bunch on six: Grundstein I, Doruto, Roemer and Romadour II (and remember, these are the results from all the Grand Prix all over the world. What might pass for a Grand Prix horse in the wilds of ###### might not actually even get a start in competition in Germany or Holland. For example, the New Zealand based Hanoverian, Witzbold is right up there with the best of them with 5 representatives based on his Kiwi progeny but perhaps you might prefer to breed to say Wenzel whose five kids have had to cut it on the European circuit, and include a World Cup Champion.
The interesting thing is that the number of performers at Grand Prix for each of the stallions is so much fewer than is the case with jumping horses. To be a top sire of jumpers, you need at least 30 progeny out there competing. So why the difference?
My colleague, Jörg Savelsberg, who is the editor of the WBFSH Breeding Guide, believes that success at the highest level of dressage is basically an accident:
"The heredity of some dressage qualities (gaits etc.) is higher than those of jumping qualities. But, in dressage on the highest level – the basis for the rankings - a horse is asked for a performance, in which things clash; extension and collection, showing heart and being obedient. Jumping is more straightforward. All elements, ability, boldness, being careful, add — and don’t struggle with themselves. In top dressage the performance is not the sum of all the quality elements, it works according to a chaos system. It’s a question of compatibility. If you have a horse with an excellent trot — does that mean it has a regular piaffe or passage? You know it doesn’t. In short: you can’t breed a Bonfire, Gigolo or Rembrandt. They are amazing gifts (for their breeders, riders, owners). When we look to dressage horses (competing) on the lower levels, we maybe would find a lot of connections in their pedigrees, descendants from sires, which can/could move, are obedient. These horses are bred for dressage and they can do it. In top dressage we ask for qualities, which suit the Spanish horse or the Lipizzan, and for those, which suit the modern sport horses (fluent extended gaits etc.). These qualities are irreconcilable. Top dressage is an artificial business. You can’t breed for art. It happens. Nobody would think about ‘breeding’ a new Picasso. The next Picasso will happen."
Jorg goes on to say: "Good dressage horses are generally the product of in-breeding, of summing up qualities generation after generation. Top dressage horses are produced by accident. But you never know. There is the example of Ahlerich and Amon and Rembrandt and Rubinstein. But that is the exception. The rule is Gigolo, Bonfire, etc. We will never see ‘purpose bred dressage horses dominating the top ten’. We see sires as Weltmeyer in the top ten - because of the mass of children: until now around 3000! It would be bad luck if there are not some outstanding successful descendants. A last word to purpose bred: A lot of the current top dressage horses are by sires with jumping blood: Maykel, Silbersee, Landgraf I, Eiger I, Ramiro, Cor de la Bryère."
With due respect to Jörg who is one of the most thoughtful of equestrian commentators on the European scene, I disagree. He may be right about dressage in the past, but not in the future. What we have to remember is that breeding for dressage is relatively recent. The jumping breeders have been hard at it since the 40’s and 50’s at least, whereas breeders only started to realise that there was a big, and lucrative, market for dressage horses in the 80’s. I don’t believe that the requirements of dressage at Grand Prix level clash. The horses with really wonderful extended trots, also have wonderful piaffe, the movements of the Grand Prix are variations on a continuum. For this to happen, breeders had to produce horses that could move truly under themselves, and this they are doing.
Think about the most extravagant trot in the world - Farbenfroh. Now think about his piaffe? Sure he occasionally starts to get a bit deep in front, but when he is on song, his piaffe is perfect. So what is his problem (wow, we should be lucky to have a horse as Farbenfroh and welcome his ‘problems’) - his problem at the moment seems to be in his mind (just like his dad!). He starts a big competition, like he did at the Euro Champs last August with a sensational Grand Prix, then it gradually unravels over the next two tests. To my mind this doesn’t prove that you can’t breed Grand Prix dressage horses, just that whoever bred Farbenfroh got it 95% right, the task is to breed that movement, with a more stable mind.
This I think is starting to happen. The big three dressage sires - Donnerhall, Rubinstein and Weltmeyer - are, through their descendants, producing horses that consistently move with expansiveness and grace. Horses that can extend and collect - okay in the case of Rubinstein, he might be better at the collect, and Weltmeyer better at the extend, but the second and third generation sires are melding these characteristics together. Unlike Jörg, I do believe that by the time the WEG 2012 rolls around, we will be seeing the top competition dominated by specific bred horses. If I’m wrong, I’ll buy the wine. Time will tell, in the meantime, I feel that the World Breeding Federation needs to do a radical revision on how its standings are calculated if they are not to lose all credibility. Perhaps part of the problem is simply mathematical. The smaller the number of events being considered, the higher the chance of a random result. Strangely it is impossible to ask the WBFSH database how many horses competed in how many events to get the standings for dressage and showjumping. But my subjective feeling is that over the ten year period there were many more international level showjumping competitions with many more horses taking part than there were dressage Grand Prix. Perhaps to get more useful standings, results from say Prix St Georges upwards should be taken into consideration, or a loading applied when a stallion has more than one representative - and this loading would increase dramatically as the number of representatives increased.
The German FN rankings take into account dressage competition at all levels, and probably run the risk of including results from horses that will never make it to Grand Prix. I believe that with more dedicated breeding of dressage horses the old distinction between horses that looked good as young horses, and horses that went on to win at Grand Prix, will disappear. A good example is Rohdiamant, who was himself a winner at the Bundeschampionate as a five-year-old, and now a serious Grand Prix horse with Lisa Wilcox. In fact if we look at the 5 and 6 year old winners at the Bundeschampionate from 1991 onward, we see some pretty impressive Grand Prix competitors: Antony, Garcon, Rohdiamant, Farbenfroh, Duvalier - and there is another group moving at break-neck speed through the lower FEI ranks in the direction of Grand Prix: Cockney, Miss Holstein, Wahajama and Royal Diamond. Some of the winners did not get their chance because of stud duties, but Alabaster is already the sire of his first Grand Prix competitor - Apache with Isabell Werth, A Jungle Prince certainly went to Intermediaire, and Sandro Hit has been kept out of the competition arena largely because of the demand for his semen.
Currently the German Top 200 is headed by Don Schufro, followed by Wolkentanz I, White Magic, Royal Diamond, Welt Hit I 0, Fidermark, Hohenstein, Donnerhall, Wie Weltmeyer and Don Primero. I’d certainly rather breed to the ten on the FN list, than the WBFSCH list.
At the end of the day, it is pretty dumb to try ‘breeding by numbers’, all the rankings do is offer food for thought, which is really all this article sets out to do. Good luck - if like Jorg you believe excellence is a random fluke. But if you’re like me, you will believe that dressage lines are being refined to produce a generation of horses the like of which we can only dream about… it’s just a matter of picking the right stallions to go with the right mares.
And that might still take a bit of luck.