![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Sandra-Auffarth-and-Opgun-Louvo-Eventing-World-Champion.jpg\")
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Christopher Hector goes looking for answers – pic is World Champion for Germany in 2014 at the Normandy WEG, Opgun Louvo<\/em><\/p>\n Roz Neave, Rebecca Ashton, Eric Knoll and Dirk Caremans took the photos<\/p>\n The French Eventing Team won the Gold Medal in Rio in spectacular style. A tough, coordinated team effort that kept pushing right to the line, right to the showjumping where they snatched a gold medal, and their number one rider, Astier Nicolas took home silver on Piaf de B\u2019Neville. How has the French team ridden to the top? Our horses,<\/em> is usually, the reply, our French horses are so good… and there are also so many of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, the number of saddle horse foals born came to just on 16,000: French blood counted for 13,780 (down from 18,000 in 2011) and foreign blood for another 2094. It means that even though the Sport Horse business is in something of a decline, as it is world-wide, in France it is still a major industry.<\/p>\n There are two million riders in France, of whom 700,000 are registered with the French Equestrian Federation. With 8,600 clubs, horse riding is the number one employer in the sports world: 38,000 managers, managers\u2019 wives, husbands and salaried workers. On the competition side, there are for FFE and FEI events, 2,500 organizers, 160,000 competitors and 15,000 competition days.<\/p>\n The equestrian industry in France is large enough to support its own semi-government organization, UNIC, whose charter is to market the French horse throughout the world. This article would not have been possible without the assistance provided by\u00a0UNIC.<\/p>\n (article continues\u00a0below)<\/em><\/p>\n Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo<\/em><\/p>\n The French Breeding Industry has taken note that their eventers are in demand all over the world, indeed half the German team at Rio, was sitting on Selle Fran\u00e7ais horses, including Sandra Auffarth, and her world champion, Opgun\u00a0Louvo.<\/p>\n \u201cOpgun Louvo was the first French horse I rode.\u201d<\/p>\n Was he very different?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNo, I got him when he was very young, so I started with him, and everything was good. A woman from Belgium went to France and bought him when he was three years old, and when he was five, she rang me and asked if I would like to ride him because it is a small horse and I am not that tall. I tried him and I liked him.\u201d<\/p>\n On their way to gold in Rio – Qing du Briot and Thibaut Vallette. The horse is the real French eventing melange –\u00a0he is by Eolien II who combines the blood of Grand Veneur and Furioso, and is out of a Selle Fran\u00e7ais\u00a0branded mare who is 7\/8ths Anglo Arab\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Did he feel as special as what he became when you started with\u00a0him?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAt first he was just a nice, sweet horse, nothing totally special, but he jumped very good. I liked the way he jumped from the start, and I thought, it is fun to go on with, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then you have had more French horses?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI have another mare, by Parco out of a Diamant de S\u00e9milly mare, and the one I brought to Lion d\u2019Angers, Viamant du Matz (Diamant de S\u00e9milly \/ Voltigeur le\u00a0Malin).”\u00a0(article continues\u00a0below)<\/em><\/p>\n Yves Berlioz – this is the birthplace of Opgun Louvo…<\/em><\/p>\n Are you now a French horse fan?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOf course I am a little bit a fan because my Opgun is a French horse, so I have to be. I like the jumping bloodlines, with quite a lot of Thoroughbred, mixed with Anglo-Arab – it\u2019s very interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Opgun Louvo is by Shogun II who is by the Thoroughbred, Night & Day out of an Anglo-Arab mare by Garitchou. Opgun is out of a mare by the Selle Fran\u00e7ais J\u2019T\u2019Adore, a grandson of the great Thoroughbred, Furioso, out of an Anglo mare, by the stallion, Pancho by the great Nithard. All that adds up to 75% \u2018blood\u2019 by which we mean Thoroughbred or Arab blood.<\/p>\n Yves and Opgun’s sister – what a mare!<\/em><\/p>\n The World Champion has said it\u2019s interesting, so let\u2019s go and find the man who bred the chestnut eventing machine, Yves Berlioz at his stud farm, the Haras des\u00a0Louveaux.<\/p>\n One of the delightful things about writing about breeding, is the breeders themselves, the real breeders, the ones who think outside the square, tend to be passionate, and, well, slightly\u00a0eccentric.<\/p>\n The welcome was warm from both Yves, and his wife, Elisabeth, who is a member of the famous Brohier horse breeding family. As I was soon to learn, you need pedigrees for the breeders as well as their horses, since the family ties are strong and complex.<\/p>\n We are lucky, the mares have been brought up to a paddock close by, for the benefit of some German visitors later in the day. It\u2019s a magnificent group of mares, mares that are so well proportioned, that it is only when you get up close to them, that you realise just how tall they are. One of the biggest, and classiest, is Opgun\u2019s full-sister, and of course, therein lies a tale…<\/p>\n Yves purchased the Opgun\u2019s dam, Vanille du Tertre for \u20ac500, she was a horse no-one wanted, except Yves: \u201cShe was beautiful, and her bloodlines were good. She had a beautiful face, and I fell in love with her…\u201d<\/p>\n Quick Louvo, out of Vanille du Tertre and by Quick Star<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy family had nothing to do with horses, but I was a rider of young horses, and my wife\u2019s family are in horses. She is the daughter of Mr Jean Brohier, the breeder of many horses, including Narcos II. His father, Alfred Brohier, was another famous breeder. I stopped riding because of back problems, and we started our stud in 1989 with not very expensive mares, but mares with a lot of\u00a0blood.\u201d<\/p>\n Were you always trying to breed\u00a0eventers?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy breeding program involves a lot of blood, so naturally our breeding is directed towards eventing.\u201d<\/p>\n Yves and his young stallion, Dingo Louvo by Ugano Sitte out of a Thoroughbred mare. Licensed in Zangersheide<\/em><\/p>\n Why did you want this blood when everyone else in France was moving away from the Thoroughbred?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou need a certain percentage of blood to have good horses, blood brings speed, intelligence, there are lots of qualities that come with blood. I don\u2019t need to breed big horses, especially with today\u2019s courses that are very technical. Modern courses are very good with my sort of horse.\u201d<\/p>\n You are always looking for the right mix of Thoroughbred, Anglo-Arab and Selle Fran\u00e7ais….<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt is difficult, it takes a lot of research – I have a maxim, diversity, and blood proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n And now you are introducing the blood from Holstein with Ugano\u00a0Sitte…<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis is what I mean about diversity, I want new blood from new breeds.\u201d<\/p>\n What will the Holsteiner bring?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe stallion was born in Belgium, but the sire\u2019s blood is from Holstein. The Holsteiner can offer a style and good locomotion. The minus is that they don\u2019t have the good temperament of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais. It is a m\u00e9lange we are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Ugano Sitte is by the famous Clinton, who is straight Holsteiner but his dam, Ialta Sitte, is a right m\u00e9lange all of her own. Dutch on the top line, she is by Avontuur, a son of Hugo Simon\u2019s Little One (Jasper), she is out of Insel Sitte by the Selle Fran\u00e7ais stallion, Major de la Cour, out of the famous Hanoverian mare, Gute Sitte (by Grande). Gute Sitte was a bronze medalist at the Montreal Games with Eric Wouters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to introduce the Holstein, but not too much, we must keep the characteristics of our French horses.\u201d\u00a0(article continues\u00a0below)<\/em><\/p>\n Alcatraz’Jac – the ex-steeplechaser is now a breeding stallion<\/em><\/p>\n Where did you find your Thoroughbred jumping stallion, Alcatraz\u2019Jac?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I bought the mare, Tip Top\u2019Jac, the breeder told me he also had a stallion, a out of the same mare as Tip Top, but he was racing. When the stallion was injured, he rang me and said to go and buy him. He was a steeplechaser, but he was injured early in his career. He has been with me two years.\u201d<\/p>\n Tip Top and her Anglo-Arab foal<\/em><\/p>\n Has the market for eventing horses\u00a0grown?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe international market has grown a lot, our horses are very intelligent and the international demand is very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n It is interesting that you have made your own Anglo-Arab stallion, by a Thoroughbred out of a pure Arab – is this because there are no Anglo-Arab stallions left?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI will breed with that colt, there is a lot of blood in that horse and he will add strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Drouot Louvo, son of Quick Louvo and Kannan at the Selle Fran\u00e7ais stallion testing<\/em><\/p>\n Why do you do it? Why do you breed horses?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know… it is very interesting, there is a lot of luck in breeding horses. I am not trying to breed horses that are fashionable. Commercial breeding is short term, but Breeding with a capital B is long term. At the beginning I started from scratch with very few horses, then I opened up, and now I have a lot of solutions because I have a lot of different blood. If you are a fashionable breeder you have lots of solutions at the beginning, but then you can\u2019t do anything else because you have done it all at the beginning. I will explain with this image:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAt first my way is difficult, the commercial breeders start with the fashionable horses, Diamant de S\u00e9milly, Kannan… but then they are stuck. My way is to make\u00a0options…\u201d<\/p>\n It was a great privilege to meet Yves and his wife, Elisabeth, but on this trip there was no rest, time to drive deep into that fabled horse country, La Manche, to catch up with Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, the breeder of France\u2019s hero of the Rio Games, Piaf de B\u2019N\u00e9ville at Haras de B\u2019N\u00e9ville.<\/p>\n Jean-Baptiste Thiebot and the Haras de B\u2019N\u00e9ville<\/strong><\/p>\n Now I had been warned by several people that the interview would be difficult, Jean-Baptiste does not talk<\/em>, I was told. It must have been my lucky day, because he talked and talked, so much so that I had to hold up my hand to stop him, to let our minder, Elise Bourdin from UNIC, catch up with the translation.<\/p>\n Jean-Baptiste and his\u00a0young son of Kannan,\u00a0Cristal de B’N\u00e9ville<\/em><\/p>\n Jean-Baptiste\u2019s farm is beautiful, wonderful old stables, a gracious mansion and a lovely garden, but you can see that inside the house is far less important than the exterior. Papers cover almost every available surface, and a microwave seems to have taken over the traditional French\u00a0kitchen. His friend, Catherine Delpierre, who is helping take care of the visitors, remarks that \u2018all Jean-Baptiste cares about is his foals, the rest of his life is not very important.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n It seems Jean-Baptiste was headed for the more conventional life of a lawyer, before horses took over: \u201cI was studying law, and I came here for a holiday with my uncles, they had cows and six mares. Before the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook, it was the Anglo Norman studbook. Here in Normandy there were always a few places with Thoroughbred mares, and these mares were mixed with the Anglo-Normand. This breeding base came from Ireland and the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter my law studies, I started to think about the future, and I decided to become a farmer and a horse breeder so I came back to this farm in Normandy. I started breeding some horses, and it grew, I had eight mares, so it started.\u201d\u00a0(article continues\u00a0below)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The star Piaf de B’N\u00e9ville – silver at Rio<\/em><\/p>\n You breed for showjumping rather than eventing because there is more money in showjumping…<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAbout thirty years ago, there were as many eventing competitions as there were showjumping, now it is very different. Then the great equestrian families of Normandy – Navet, Leredde and Pignolet – were eventing. Then the direction went to showjumping because you can make a lot of money in showjumping.\u201d<\/p>\n Mares and foals, left to right: Lady de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Cellebrio\/Eve de B\u2019N\u00e9ville\/Qredo de Paulstra); Graine de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Urquino\u00a0<\/em>du Hamel by Quinoto Bois Margot\/Lady de B\u2019N\u00e9ville); Sonate de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Qredo de Paulstra\/Ecume by Rosire); Genial de\u00a0<\/em>B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Kapitol d\u2019Argonne by Apache d\u2019Adriers\/Nuance de B\u2019N\u00e9ville); Galaxie de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Othello du Phare by Kannan\/<\/em>Sonate de B\u2019N\u00e9ville); Nuance de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Talent Platiere\/Vigie de B\u2019N\u00e9ville by Dear Patrick); Gloire de B\u2019N\u00e9ville, (Giovani\u00a0<\/em>de la Pomme by Shindler de Muze\/Onde de B\u2019N\u00e9ville); Onde de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Talent Platiere and Eve de B\u2019Eeville by Qredo de\u00a0<\/em>Paulstra); Gandhi de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Othello du Phare by Kannan\/Oceane de B\u2019N\u00e9ville); Oceane de B\u2019N\u00e9ville (Quiniou\/Griffe de\u00a0<\/em>B\u2019N\u00e9ville by Rosire)<\/em><\/p>\n Will this change after the success of the French eventers at Rio?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAll the money goes to the bigger showjumping competitions, but I do have two young horses in my stables that I think would be very good for eventing, so I hope that after Rio the market will go up for eventers. Eventing is a wonderful competition – dressage, cross country, showjumping – I would like to continue to sell horses foreventing, but the reality is sometimes difficult, and I will sell horses for showjumping because I need to live.\u201d<\/p>\n What have been the most important stallions that you have used?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cRecently it has been Kannan. He produces foals at every level, for amateur riders and top level riders. I have twenty five mares and I use about twenty different stallions.\u201d<\/p>\n Our super minder from UNIC, Elise Bourdin\u00a0makes friends with Genial de B’N\u00e9ville<\/em><\/p>\n Do you use some of the younger stallions, or only the established\u00a0stallions?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI use some younger ones. A lot of breeders in France are using Kannan and Diamant de S\u00e9milly, but I am also using sons of those two. The foals of Diamant are either top level, or nothing, so breeding with him is a risk. When I choose stallions, I prefer to choose stallions that are ridden by girls, or by rich amateurs. The amateur riders have the best horses because they are not such good riders – when the horse is ridden by Ludger Beerbaum or Kevin Staut, you can\u2019t be sure how good it is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have used the stallion, Kapitol d\u2019Argonne (Apache d\u2019Adriers \/ Galoubet) who was ridden by the Italian, Emilio Bicocchi, this was a very good horse because he wasn\u2019t ridden by the best rider in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Kapitol d’Argonne – Jean-Baptiste likes\u00a0horses ridden by not so good riders<\/em><\/p>\n You like to keep \u2018blood\u2019 in your breeding program – is that hard because people don\u2019t want to buy the foals of Thoroughbreds?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s complicated, it is hard to get good blood, there\u2019s no point in blood if it is bad blood, the foals need to be good in the head. My mares have blood. For example, with Piaf, one journalist said it was amazing that he looked like a horse with a lot of blood, when his pedigree didn\u2019t look like that, but there is blood in the fourth\u00a0generation.\u201d<\/p>\n (Actually Piaf de B\u2019Neville is over half – 57.42% – blood. He is by Cap de B\u2019Neville a grandson of the great Rantzau xx, out of a mare by the Jalisco son, Reve d\u2019Elle. Once you go behind that fourth generation you find all the great Thoroughbreds that influenced the French horse: Rantzau – who is the only one who appears in the fourth line, Ultimate (x 3), Furioso, Le Sancy, Fra Diavolo, Phalaris, l\u2019Alcazar and seven crosses of Orange\u00a0Peel.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI have a mare by Quick Star, which has a lot of blood and I bred this mare to Lam de F\u00e9tan (Ferger Mail \/ Le Tot de S\u00e9milly) who is quite heavy with not a lot of blood, but the foal is a blood type.\u201d<\/p>\n Right from the start was Piaf something special?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCertainly not. At the beginning he was nothing special. He was not very tall because he was the first foal of that mare. Finally when he was three years old, you could see he had very good movement. When he was three I presented him to some buyers, but they didn\u2019t like him because he was too young and too green. But then the coach of Astier Nicolas saw Piaf and another horse, but they bought the other one and they were training him for the Young Horse Championships at Pompadour for eventing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut six weeks before the Championships the horse was injured and the coach, rang me and said, Mr Thiebot, it is a catastrophe, she remembered Piaf and asked if I could sell the horse so the rider had something to take to the Championships. The rider started to work with Piaf and Madame Perrier liked him a lot, but a few months later the rider stopped riding, and her father rang me to say he didn\u2019t want the horse any more, and Piaf came back here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen Astier\u2019s mother rang to say that Astier had seen the horse and liked him, but then he was owned by his friend and he didn\u2019t want to interfere. So she came with Astier and after a trial, Astier bought him with the help of a friend. It is another example of the extraordinary stories of horses, if Piaf had stayed with the first rider, no one would have ever heard of\u00a0him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/THM_Bates_Advanta_Launch_May_2018.jpg\")
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