BY JEAN LLEWELLYN
In 2008, Christopher Hector, a long-time Breeding News correspondent, published his first book, ‘The Making of the Modern Warmblood’ – which sold out. So don’t miss this opportunity to secure a copy of his long-awaited, must-read tribute to legendary foundation sires.
◆ Your first book, The Making of the Modern Warmblood was published in 2008, why did you write this new one?
Sadly, I have run out of copies of ‘Making’. I wish I had more because people all over the world have kept asking if I have any for sale. I decided to go digital with my next book because the cost of postage had gone crazy, costing more than the price of the book.
The framework is still the same, but brought up to date, starting with the foundation sires, but looking at their descendants and influence today as well as discussing the major issues that confront sport horse breeding today. I have bred sport horses myself, with four of my foals going on to compete Grand Prix dressage.
I think I was born to be a writer, and trained to be an historian. As an historian I was amazed and saddened to find how quickly information could be lost. Years ago, I went to write an article on the World Breeding Championships for Young Horses, something you’d think was relatively recent, but the results of the first few had totally disappeared. Hopefully my couple of books preserve much of the true history, when there is so much false information floating about, especially on the internet.
The writer in me tries to make the book easy, even entertaining to read. I found that there were so many people with amazing knowledge and insight, great breeders with fascinating stories of how they found the horses that made their breeding programs come to life. Breeders whose knowledge could so easily be lost, for me, this is fascinating reading, and I hope there are others who share this fascination,
◆ What do you think breeders can best learn from it?
I don’t think the successful breeders need my book. It’s for the new breeders and the enthusiasts who just want to find out more about sport horse breeding. Hopefully they’ll also enjoy the words and appreciate the many hours that went into the design and the selection of photos, photos that might otherwise be lost forever...
<a href="https://breedingnews.com/current-issue-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE ONLINE EDITION OF BREEDING NEWS</a>
