By Adriana van Tilburg
Photography: © Peter Llewellyn; FEI/Benjamin Clark;
One of this year’s standout performance horses is the 10-year-old Selle Français stallion Enjoy de la Mure (Vigo Cece - Carmen x Calvados/aka Sable Rose), bred by Béatrice Drigeard Desgarnier, St Just St Rambert, competing under the saddle of Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi.
Enjoy de la Mure made a powerful impact this year, reaching the individual final at the Paris Olympics and winning the prestigious Sires of the World event at the FEI-WBFSH World Breeding Championships for Young Horses n showjumping.
The legendary Thoroughbred breeder Federico Tesio once advised tracing a bloodline back six generations to understand its full value. In the case of Enjoy de la Mure, that heritage is exceptionally rich. His paternal fourth dam is the famous mare Ballerine III (Rantzau xx), while on his dam’s side, his fourth dam is Diablesse(Chabeli xx). Both mares were bred by the renowned Madame Rozell Empain, whose daughter, Diane, continues this exceptional breeding line today.
This is an ideal moment to reflect on the history, achievements, and future potential of these remarkable lineages, both of which have been shaped by the Empain family. Diane Empain provides valuable insights into how she and her family have made a lasting contribution to French breeding through several important dam lines.
Q How did your family become involved with horses?
Our family originates from Belgium and the family’s connection with horses began in Egypt. My great-grandfather, General Empain, was a visionary; he created the city of Heliopolis, and helped build the Paris metro. His son, Jean Empain, who later married my mother, Rozell Empain, stayed in Egypt, where horses were an integral part of our family’s culture. By 1931, our family was already breeding Thoroughbreds in Egypt. Jean bred Thoroughbreds there, built a racetrack, played polo, and more. This era ended with the 1952 coup that brought Gamal Abdel Nasser to power; Belgians were expelled, and everything was moved back to Bouffemont, near Paris.
My mother soon became passionate about showjumping, and we shifted the breeding program towards sport horses. She started with showjumping in 1953, and for our family, breeding became central to the entire equestrian discipline – a fertile ground for developing exceptional sport horses. Together with Georges Calmon, my mother searched for quality mares. At that time in France, Anglo-Arabs were common, so they travelled abroad in search of new bloodlines. They even went to Ireland to bring in Irish blood for the mares. Once, after returning by boat, they discovered the mares they had brought back weren’t the ones they had purchased... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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