By Britt Carlsen / DWB
Photography: Ridehesten.com /Kristine Bojsen

During the FEI-WBFSH dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses, Danish Warmbloods celebrated with nine of their 12 horses qualifying for the final, and no fewer than three of the nine medals.

Danish Warmblood is allocated a quota of four horses in each age group (five-, six- and seven-year-olds) for the FEI-WBFSH World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in dressage... Of the approximately 1,800 foals – both jumping and dressage – registered each year with the Danish Warmblood Studbook.
For the 26th consecutive year, Danish Warmblood chairman Jan Pedersen has also served as president of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses. He closely follows international developments in sport horse breeding and expressed both pride and admiration for Danish Warmblood’s outstanding results at the WBCYH. “It is a particularly strong achievement to have nine out of 12 horses qualify for the finals. This demonstrates a high quality and a well-functioning selection system,” Pedersen stated.
“In dressage, Danish Warmblood is one of the strongest breeding associations in the world. And it is impressive when you compare the relatively small number of foals born in Denmark with the much larger numbers in Germany and the Netherlands. These results prove that breeding success is no coincidence – it requires far-sighted, knowledgeable breeders working within a modern selection system. Today, we have high-performance mare lines that form the foundation of the breeding progress we are seeing.”

Two-step selection process

In Danish Warmblood, selection for the WBCYH takes place over two stages. The first is open to all; from there, the selection committee forms a preliminary squad around one month ahead of the championship. The final team for the WBCYH is then chosen from this group.
The selection committee comprises dressage judges Gunilla Nymann and Birthe Lyder Nielsen, along with professional rider Jens Holm Kristensen. Nymann was present in Verden, offering riders valuable advice and guidance. As she emphasized, the committee’s task is to select horses capable of reaching the finals where, as she noted, “anything can happen.”...

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