Dressage Academy

Buying a Dressage Horse [Jan 2017]

Buying a Dressage Horse

by Brugs Nicholls

These are the 6 most important things to look for when buying a dressage horse...

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The list:

The horse should ideally be built "uphill" with the hocks underneath them and a strong back.

A bounce or some suspension in trot is helpful but it is not always about the big trot with horses.

The horses back end is their engine; so ideally you want the hind legs to be snappy and quick especially as a youngster.
This power is a good sign they will develop greater collection in the future.

That should give you a clear sign how you are going to manage them.

Read up on traits and look up breeding indexes (see a previous post on bloodlines).

A good brain and a trainable horse is always more important than the movement.
If the horse enjoys the work and is "onside" it makes the job of training your horse a lot easier and you can enjoy the horse more.

This is just the basics of what you should look for and there is no substitute for expert advise...

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Dressage Breedlines Explained [Nov 2016]

Dressage Breedlines Explained

by Brugs Nicholls

I expect you have heard people talking about the D, R, F, W, S, G, F and J Lines...

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These letters stand for the dressage foundation lines used with great success in Germany and Holland; they stand for:

**The German Lines**
	D-Donnerhall R-Rubinstein F-Florestan W-Weltmeyer S-Sandro Hit G-Gribaldi

**The Dutch Lines**
	F-Ferro J-Jazz

Rio Top 20 Dressage Horses and their breedlines...

The Rio Olympics Top 20 Dressage Horses mostly had all the breed lines mentioned, and only two horses Mister X and Cosmo were listed without the foundation lines.

This shows you cannot go wrong with descendants from the foundation lines.

It turns out that 10 of the top 20 Olympic horses had 2 or more of the top foundation sires in their pedigree.

Rubinstein progeny mixed with Donnerhall 4 times and Weltmeyer once.

Sandro Hit progeny Showtime FRH had Donnerhall and Rubinstein on the mother line and Weihegold with Donnerhall on the father line and Sandro Hit on the mother line.

Ferro progeny Dublet also carried Donnerhall on the father line.

Stallion	Started at the Olympics with his bloodlines (out of Top 20)	Father line	Mother line
Donnerhall	11	8	3
Rubinstein	5	1	4
Ferro	4	3	1
Weltmeyer	3	1	2
Sandro Hit	2	1	1
Florestan	2	1	1
Jazz	1	1
Gribaldi	1	1

In addition you can also look at the Dressage World Breeding Rankings for stallions (WBFSH):

Rolex WBFSH Top 10 Dressage Sire Ranking 2015

The Dressage World Breeding Rankings for stallions (WBFSH) gives a good insight into the success of the progeny of the stallion (including Jumping and Eventing Rankings).

The list is updated on a yearly basis.

The Stallions at the top of this list are there as their progeny have been so successful at FEI Grand Prix Level; making them proven producers of winners at the highest level of dressage.

Rank	Stallion
1	De Niro
2	Gribaldi
3	Jazz
4	Sandro Hit
5	Michellino
6	Florestan Io
7	Ferro
8	Rubin-Royal
9	Negro
10	Diamond Hit

Probably the best advice I could give anyone wanting to breed would be get a mother as good, if not better, than the father.

The Mother Line

What has been proven, to produce the horse you are after, is that when you read a pedigree you start with the Sire and work down on a line to Dams Sire and Grand Dams Sire.

This is highlighted below:

		Florestan I
	Fürst Heinrich
		Dawina
Fürst Romancier
		Romancier
	Ronja
		Edwina

		Sandro Hit
	Sir Donnerhall I
		St. Contenance
Gesina
		Don Schufro
	Gesina
		Gaby

This pedigree has all the ingredients of a super modern stallion called For Romance. He carries F line, S line and the D lines plus Romancier is by Rosenkavalier who is the sire of Rubinstein

The mare makes the foal and she is at least responsible for 50% of the foal born, in Europe many say more, you often find a mother line that produces top horses no matter what stallion is used. Take Poesie for example she produced Poetin with Sandro Hit and Passionata the mother of Quaterback or Maureen, Marella and Maradonna who time again produce top horses including Furstenball; so it is so important to have the best proven mare you can get to breed your foals of the future.

I hope this has helped you understand a little more about the European breeding program; but the good news is that some of these lines are available in NZ through Stallions such as Fugato SW, F,R,D lines, Wordly, W line, Swarovski, S,D,R lines, Donnerubin, D,R lines, Royal Mirage W, R, W lines, to name but a few.

You can also purchase frozen semen from many European stallions.

To Conclude; a good mare is just, if not more, important as the Stallion.

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