At the request of the Canadian government, to ensure the integrity of the Canadian Warmblood studbook, the CWHBA implemented and has managed a unique and extensive pedigree traceback over the past seven years. All horses entered in the studbook as Warmblood breeding stock have been traced to 25 important European Warmblood stallions from the late 19th and early 20th century.

While it is well known that Warmblood horses are indigenous to Western Europe, and that prior to recorded pedigrees were bred locally and regionally, what is less well known is that there was significant movement of breeding stallions between regions.

Interestingly the prepotency of a few important stallions in each area and across regions was such that all Warmblood horses that have been studied can be shown to have one and often ten or more crosses to these influential stallions in their back ground. These stallions do not of course define the breed, however they do provide a useful benchmark when considering the development of  the modern Warmblood and the dominance of certain stallion lines.

The CWHBA pedigree database provides this unique information for every horse by naming the influential stallions in their pedigree. In addition, the database provides an inbreeding coefficient and a tool for calculating the inbreeding coefficient of proposed matings. Pedigrees can be examined back for up to 15 generations to the late 1800s.

Representative of this depth of pedigree is the recently approved Canadian Warmblood stallion Hiroko (Tacorde x Burggraaf) bred by Klondike Victory Farms, who completed our 2017 stallion performance test. Hiroko's pedigree traces to all 25 of the influential stallions the CWHBA has identified in our traceback research as contributing to the makeup of the modern Warmblood.