![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Alme_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWith the retirement of Bernard Le Courtois, a page turns for the Brullemail stud farm and French breeding<\/p>\n
In 2024, Bernard Le Courtois will see the fruit of his latest crosses born. To almost everyone’s surprise, the successful breeder and stallion, at the origin of the Mail affix to the plethora of champions and the discovery and promotion of several very good males, announced his retirement and the sale of his superb property, located in Orne.<\/p>\n
Bernard has bred many wonderful horses, but his name will always be linked with the great Alm\u00e9, who he rescued and brought back to France…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1966 \u2013 1991, 165 cm Bay<\/strong><\/p>\n Served France 1971-74; Zangersheide 1975-85, France 1986-1991<\/strong><\/p>\n Breeder \u2013 Alphonse Chauvin<\/strong><\/p>\n The greatest single influence on showjumping breeding has been the French stallion, Ibrahim (The Last Orange \/ Porte Bonheur) and his most influential son has been the great Alm\u00e9, who was out of a mare, Girondine by the Thoroughbred, Ultimate.<\/strong><\/p>\n Alm\u00e9 in the competition arena\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n Thirty years after his death, Alm\u00e9 continues to influence showjumping at the highest level. The most successful sire at the Tokyo Games was Chacco-Blue with five representatives, but the most successful of those\u00a0representatives, \u00a0Explosion W, is out of a mare by the Alm\u00e9 grandson, Baloubet de Rouet.<\/strong><\/p>\n Explosion W out of a mare of Alm\u00e9 breeding<\/em><\/p>\n The stallions with the next largest group are Casall (Caretino \/ Lavall I) and Kashmir van Schuttershof (Nabab de R\u00eave \/ Tenor Manciais) with three each. Nabab de R\u00eave is a great grandson of Alm\u00e9.<\/p>\n In the 2007-2008 edition of\u00a0Monneron<\/em>, Bernard le Courtois, after spending many hours on his computer, produced a list of the top 75 jumping stallions in the world, on the basis of the FEI list of the top 2515 jumping horses in international competition. This survey confirmed Alm\u00e9\u2019s pride of place, for he was responsible for 17 of the 57 leading stallions on the leaderboard. Four of these stallions were by Jalisco, the most important of which is Quidam de Revel, who headed the standings with 48 representatives. Quidam himself had two of his sons on the leader board, Nabab de R\u00eave and Guidam. Another Jalisco son, Papillon Rouge is ranked equal sixth in the world with 26 winners. Jalisco B, despite his death at a relatively young 19 years of age, was in 30th place on the leaderboard with 10 representatives.<\/p>\n Quidam de Revel<\/em><\/p>\n Alm\u00e9 was also influential in Germany and The Netherlands. His grandson, Acord II (by Ahorn Z) was in 13th place with 16 winners. In Holland, Alm\u00e9\u2019s son, Animo ranks 19th with 12 winners. Animo\u2019s son, Andiamo Z is ranked 64th with 5 winners.<\/p>\n Bernard has every reason to be proud of the Alm\u00e9 legacy, since he was the one who rescued the great stallion from the clutches of Belgian breeder, L\u00e9on Melchior \u2013 hence the \u2018Z\u2019 sometimes tacked \u2013 wrongly \u2013 to his name since. Melchior had nothing to do with his breeding, he was already an established sire in France when Melchior acquired Alm\u00e9 in 1975.<\/p>\n Let Bernard tell the tale, since he is not only a leading breeder of jumping horses, but he is also an accomplished writer\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThe French breeders and riders became aware of the enormous loss represented by Alm\u00e9\u2019s exportation, but few breeders were prepared to go abroad to have their mares covered. However some made the effort in 1991 and thanks to them we have several five and six year olds in competition. In the meantime Alm\u00e9 had been operated on for an inguinal hernia and in 1984 became mon-orchid. The Dutch then sold him and he returned to Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut what, I hear you say, were the French doing? What were they waiting for to bring their stallion home? Particularly when they had several opportunities to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAn offer had been made by the UNIC on behalf of the National Stud Farms, I remember the offer being F350,000. A ridiculous sum (double the price of a 3 year old at the St L\u00f4 Stallion sale) for the best stallion in the World, even if he was 18 years old and mon-orchid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time I was the Chief Editor of the magazine L\u2019Eperon<\/em>. I had heard of this offer and of Alm\u00e9\u2019s return to Zangershiede, and decided to go there myself to see this dream stallion at last, having been too young to have seen him in France.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I went to Belgium, between Liege and Aix La Chapelle, and realised that despite his age and far from calm life, Alm\u00e9 was still an admirable horse. I also learnt that two offers had been made for him, not from France, but by Americans and Venezuelans. On one side there was an offer of big shiny dollars and on the other, thousands of acres of Pampas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat could I, a modest stud farmer, a passionate but poor breeder, do faced with such superpowers? I knew no rich patron as fanatic about breeding as myself, and no bank would have lent me enough money to repatriate Alm\u00e9. But the idea became a target and then an obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA few months beforehand, on my return from the Olympic Games at Los Angeles, I had managed to retrieve a 17-year-old stallion I liked a lot, the Thoroughbred, Laudanum. He had been forgotten and sent to the south west of France and had only covered nine mares in all in 1984. To acquire him I had applied a principle common to the racing world, ie. sale to Shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLaudanum\u2019s syndicate had succeeded and the following year he had covered 63 mares. Pleased with my success I decided to use the same principle to save our genetic heritage and bring back Alm\u00e9 to French Breeders. Negotiations were long and difficult. I often grew depressed about the attitude of the people I was dealing with, who did not keep their word and refused to sign any contract.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1985 breeding season was wasted for us, Alm\u00e9 stayed in Zangersheide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans were willing to pay a lot of money for Alm\u00e9. It should be remembered that his son, Galoubet, had been bought by syndicate in the USA one year before, for the sum of $2,000,000. At a time when the dollar was worth 10 Francs, this represented 20 million Francs. They could afford to be stubborn. However Alm\u00e9\u2019s weaknesses were to my advantage. I won the first round of the fight. Alm\u00e9 could not go to the USA because he showed positive on a biabose test. Unwilling to give up completely the Americans decided to leave Alm\u00e9 in Belgium and import his frozen sperm. Second round won, Alm\u00e9\u2019s sperm could not be frozen!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans gave up the fight leaving the Venezuelans and their acres of Pampas. Here dialogue won the day. To export a stallion like Alm\u00e9 to South America was nothing less than a burial. I was left with three points to argue with: French breeding, international commerce and the financial structure that was to repatriate Alm\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe person with whom I was negotiating accepted the principle but still would not sign the contract allowing Alm\u00e9\u2019s return. Negotiations had been going on for nine months. I was furious and about to abandon the idea when, whilst at the Fontainebleau European Championships in 1985, I issued a deadline. After several heated discussions I left Fontainebleau with my contract signed.\u201d<\/p>\n Alm\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n Even with Alm\u00e9 safely back on French soil, Bernard had a battle to establish the elderly stallion:<\/p>\n \u201cAlm\u00e9 was to return to France. His official comeback was to be a month later at the Dinard European Championship. My incredible gamble had been won, I announced in the magazine Alm\u00e9\u2019s amazing and unhoped for comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n Alm\u00e9 and Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAlm\u00e9\u2019s comeback must have disturbed quite a few people. I heard so much rubbish, either directly or repeated to me, from people who are meant to be authorities in the horse world and who I believed to be intelligent or at least reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to them Alm\u00e9 was little more than a rocking horse, and sterile to boot! Obviously, as a tenderfoot, I was made out to be a fool, if not worse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHowever Alm\u00e9\u2019s presentation put things in place and silenced more than a few. Alm\u00e9, then 19 years old, was on dazzling form. I\u2019ll always remember his presentation and the admiring gaze of hundreds of people passing the message, \u2018It\u2019s Alm\u00e9\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccompanied by Handel\u2019s magic Saraband, Alm\u00e9 made his comeback on the grounds at Dinard in front of thousands of spectators entranced by his beauty and the charisma of the horse whose reputation was at its peak.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI admit that the emotion brought tears to my eyes. A moment of great satisfaction and pleasure: pleasure in the beauty of the scene and the satisfaction in the work accomplished. False modesty aside I was also very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe follow up was just as exciting. Shares in Alm\u00e9 were a great success. There were 70 \u2013 80 shares for sale at F20,000 (today this seems cheap but in six years horse prices have greatly increased). Within a few days all the shares were sold and the money raised to buy Alm\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the space of a few weeks I received almost 400 requests to buy shares. Real Alm\u00e9 fans contacted me unfortunately too late. Every day I had to return cheques arriving too late. Some were even signed blank accompanied by a note to say: \u2018I\u2019ve heard that Alm\u00e9 is for sale to a syndicate, I don\u2019t know the conditions but please keep me one or two shares and fill in the enclosed cheque\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIncredible, this enthusiasm and confidence were a great comfort to me. It was without doubt this owners association which made me decide to make the move to Normandy and set up as a stallion breeder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDuring 1986 \u2013 87 Alm\u00e9\u2019s fresh sperm was used for artificial insemination, 100 mares per season. Mares came from all over France as well as from Belgium, Holland, Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy. In 1988-89 I limited him to 80 mares and in 1990 to 60 because of his age and state of health. Out of the 420 mares covered during five years, with an average fertility rate of 78%, many products were exported and roughly 20% of the mares covered gave birth abroad (foreign mares or mares in foal exported) added to these are the dozens of Alm\u00e9 foals of all ages exported to Italy, Belgium and Sweden over the past five years\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt should also be noted that Alm\u00e9 foals are not precocious, needing to be patiently conserved and not shaken around at the age of four. Observe their elders, Galoubet, I Love You or Jalisco who were hardly out at the age of four. Only at five years old were they beginning to be noticed. The future will smile at those who are patient with their mounts. However, despite the numerous exports and mares kept for breeding at three years (some of whom will appear the late five year olds next year) there were 12 Alm\u00e9 products in the 1991 Fontainebleau Final.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlm\u00e9, once named by a journalist the \u201cGolden Goose\u201d was retired in August 1990.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt gave me the great satisfaction to see him finish his days with me at the Brullemail stud farm. From my office, where I sit to tell you this story, I used to see his head over his box door every day, so expressive despite his age. I could hear his high pitched neigh, so unusual, like a dolphin, as the mares crossed the courtyard or came in from pasture.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Alm\u00e9 still relevant? Just a month or so ago, I was in s\u2019Hertogenbosch for the 2023 KWPN stallion show. A new face in the sire\u2019s lineup this year was the seven-year-old 1.40m jumper, La Costa. Out of his first crop, La Costa ES presented five at the pre-selection, with four getting the nod for the second round.\u00a0 All four are owned by La Costa\u2019s breeder Egbert Schep who had a total of nine colts qualified for den Bosch.<\/p>\n La Costa<\/em><\/p>\n And sure enough, there\u2019s Alm\u00e9 blood flowing in the new star\u2019s veins. La Costa is by Mosito van het Hellehof, by the Diamant de S\u00e9milly son, Elvis ter Putte who is out of Ukas ter Putte by Darco out of a Quidam de Revel mare. Mosito is out of a Nabab de R\u00eave mare, who is out of a mare by Gratanus (Grannus \/ Pilot).<\/p>\n For a long time you were a critic of the French breeding establishment \u2013 through your campaign against the use of the BLUP, through your campaign to open the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook to outside influences, but here you are president of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais association\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNot for long, I will stop being the president in May next year. I am very busy with my stud farm, I have to work, and I have spent too much time working for the Selle Fran\u00e7ais over the past two years. I have to go back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n But there has been a big change \u2013 a critic in the past to become a president\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cTalking about the BLUP, we had that in the Selle Fran\u00e7ais selection only when the National Stud was the manager of the studbook. After that, when Philippe Curti was the president before 2007, we still had the BLUP in the breeding program but when Yves Chauvin, who was the president from 2007 to 2012, took over, we stopped using the BLUP in the breeding program. And this year we have asked the National Stud, to stop publishing the BLUP, because we don\u2019t want to use it, and we don\u2019t want it published. We asked the National Stud to give the information to the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook, and we can decide what to do with it. It could be interesting for the overall population of the horses but not for the horses individually. We consider the publication of individual BLUP figures is too dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Nankin You have long argued for the introduction of outside blood, that has certainly happened now\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen the National Stud obliged the breeders to use the BLUP for the selection of the stallions and the broodmares, we had a problem \u2013 the studbook was closed and the new genes came only from the Anglo-Arab and the Thoroughbred stallions, and sometimes Thoroughbred mares and Trotter mares. But because of the BLUP we used only four sire lines, Ibrahim and Alm\u00e9, the most popular, then the line of Nankin \/ Uriel, and the third was Grand Veneur, then a few from the Thoroughbred Laudanum.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Grand Veneur Just three Selle Fran\u00e7ais sire lines, that is very dangerous. The BLUP pushed all the breeders to use the same stallions with a very high BLUP \u2013 at that time, if a colt foal was born with a BLUP of more than 20 points, the rules said that it will be approved automatically as a stallion because of the BLUP. That was really stupid \u2013 it can have very bad legs, a bad back, but if it had more than 20 points, it was approved automatically. This was very dangerous. For ten years the national stud said, we stop using the horse experts to approve the stallions and we used only the BLUP, we stopped the conformation test for ten years, and the quality of the horses conformation went down\u2026 and all the other studbooks laughed at us!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Yves Chauvin arrived in 2007 as president, we decided to stop using the BLUP as the criteria for the selection of the horses. With only three sire lines, we needed new genes \u2013 the breeders were not even using the Thoroughbred blood because the BLUP for the Thoroughbred is zero, because they race they do not jump. We had no new genes to cross with the Selle Fran\u00e7ais mares, it was time to open the studbook to stallions from abroad. We had started to open the studbook just a little in the 90s.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Ibrahim \u201cMy opinion at the time was to have a connection with the Holsteiner Studbook because the pedigrees of the Holsteiner are very close because they used Selle Fran\u00e7ais, like Cor de la Bry\u00e8re, Alm\u00e9, Quidam, and they have a selection mostly for jumping horses, and I thought it made sense for us to combine with the Holsteiners. But at the time, our studbook had different ideas, and the three first stallions approved were Abdullah, Trakehner, Donnerhall, an Oldenburger for dressage, and Voltaire, a son of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais, Furioso II and no Holsteiner.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen around 1995 the studbook to all the stallions was approved in Europe, if it was in a studbook recognized by the WBFSH, it was automatically approved in France. And we saw many many young stallions, three years old, approved at the licensing, but without the performance test, coming to France to breed a lot. We thought that was very dangerous because it was not the job of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais to test the young stallions from abroad. We have our own stallions to test. So in 2008 we decided that the young stallions coming to France to breed had to take part in our championships \u2013 we wanted to see them jump in the Cycle Classique, and approve the stallions only after they had competed in Fontainebleau or Pompidou in the Finals. We did that for some years \u2013 with a Selle Fran\u00e7ais judge at the finals who also looked at the conformation, and the style of the jump.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis year we have made another change. We want to close the studbook and stop approving the 4, 5 and 6 year old stallions from abroad. In Fontainebleau and Pompidou this year, we approved only the Selle Fran\u00e7ais and some Anglo-Arab. And the championship show was only open to Selle Fran\u00e7ais and Anglo-Arabs, not the imported horses. Now we only approve foreign stallions after they are seven years old. Now the championship show is reserved for the horses from our selection program \u2013 horses from Zangersheide or Hanover, are not in our selection program, and therefore these horses do not come to our championship show, just horses from our selection program.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf a stallion comes from abroad, he can breed in France, because now Europe is very open, but not in the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook. There are two possibilities \u2013 the first is to produce foals called \u2018OC\u2019, they don\u2019t go into the studbook, it is a register and if the stallion is approved later, we can get back the OC foals and move them into the studbook, on the basis of the stallion\u2019s results in showjumping. The other possibility is to register in another studbook, like Zangersheide. But if they register the foals with Zangersheide, they cannot come back to our studbook. The stallion can become approved in our studbook on the basis of his jumping, and the foals registered OC can come back to the studbook on the basis of their jumping.\u201d<\/p>\n How would that affect a stallion like Cumano?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe was approved at the time, when he was in France twelve years ago for one season. That season he bred about 60 mares for about 40 foals with amazing results, I think 25 jumped Grand Prix \u2013 amazing. The problem of Cumano was that he was a huge stallion, and the two French riders who rode him as a seven year old, had not good results in competition. They didn\u2019t like the stallion because he was too heavy for the French riders, especially these two riders who ride more with instinct than with work and dressage. Then when the stallion moved back to Belgium with Jos Lansink, he had fantastic results because Jos Lansink is a rider who will \u2018dress\u2019 a horse, and work strongly with the stallion \u2013 and I think Cumano needs that because he is so huge. He was not the type of horse for the French riders, but he crossed very well with the French mares.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think he was a very good stallion because if you look at the pedigrees of the French mares who bred these Grand Prix horses of Cumano, usually these mares were not exceptional, he didn\u2019t breed to the best mares in France. He bred correct mares but not the best ones, and he had very good results. His problem now is his fertility, the fertility is very bad\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Was he the best foreign stallion to come into the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe stallion who has the best result at the moment is Kannan, he is second in the world rankings as a sire. In the opinion of the Selle Fran\u00e7ais studbook, we have a problem, we have a few stallions who breed to too many mares. Kannan covers around 600 mares a year in France, and maybe the same abroad \u2013 more than 1000 mares a year world wide, it\u2019s incredible, but really too much. He is a good stallion, he produces easy horses to ride, good competitors, most of them in two star, three star international shows, some of them in five star, like Nino de Buissonnets, it\u2019s a really good stallion.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Nino des Buissonnets and Steve Guerdat \u201cWe have some problems with other stallions, not so successful with bad temperaments, and because of the promotion of these stallions, they are breeding more than 400, 500 mares a year, and the studbook would like to stop that. We consider these stallions could be interesting but not breeding so many mares, that is dangerous, some of them have bad temperament, bad technique, not very good conformation, but the promotion is so good that the breeders use these stallions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe board of the studbook considered the question of making a quota of 200 mares, like we did in the past, because we consider these stallions \u2013 who are not at the moment the best in the world \u2013 are too dangerous to use in these numbers. But we have a problem, if we say, next year we will have a quota of 200 mares. The stallion owners say, okay for the Selle Fran\u00e7ais quota of 200 mares, the price will be double, or three times more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut if they have a higher price for the Selle Fran\u00e7ais mares, then the price were the mares outside the quota will be much lower, and with the mentality of the new breeders, maybe they don\u2019t care to have a Selle Fran\u00e7ais. They would prefer to pay a cheaper fee and register the foal outside the studbook \u2013 we would be giving to other studbooks like AEA, or Oldenburg or Zangersheide, maybe 2000 foals every year. Every breeding association in the world has problems at the moment with the number of mares being bred, and it is not possible to give a big present like that to the other breed associations.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/almecompeting.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Explosion2-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Quidam-de-Revel-HERO.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1BernardMares.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Almes-last-public-apperance-at-Fontainebleau.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Alme-and-his-adoptive-father-An-Unremitting-Passion.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/2Bernard.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/BernardLeCortois.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/laCosta.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AlmeLeCourtois.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Sporthorse breeding world has many reasons to thank Bernard le\u00a0 Courtois, not least is his feat of saving the great stallion and bringing him back to France\u2026<\/h1>\n
<\/h3>\n
This is an interview I conducted with Bernard back in 2014…<\/h3>\n
![\"Nankin\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Nankin.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n