
By Jenneke Smit / KWPN
Photography: © Dirk Caremans/HippoFoto
The saying ’from a good showjumper, comes a good showjumper’ is proven week after week by countless international horses from proven damlines. However, an analysis of international sport results and the KWPN database reveals that the majority of horses still come from dams that have not performed at the high levels themselves.
This underscores the importance and validity of the small but critical breeder, and half way through 2024, American horse enthusiast Reece Miller shared a post on social media, using the three five-star Grand Prix classes of Ocala, Wellington, and Miami as the basis for a small study. Among the top 10 finishers in these Grands Prix, one horse came from an international 1m50-performing dam, three horses were bred from dams that competed at the 1m45 level, one from a 1m40-performing dam, with the remaining 25 simply bred from broodmares without noteworthy sport performances.
KWPN database
Of course, this is not a complete study and does not hold up scientifically, but it does provide an interesting basis for this article. At the auctions and in the stallion selection there is rightly much attention and appreciation for the performances of the mothers themselves, but in practice it turns out that it is not a requirement to breed good showjumpers. This offers hope for the critical breeder who wants to breed the top sport horses of the future, even in these challenging times.
At the time of extraction, the KWPN database contained 15,467 showjumpers with performances at a minimum of 1m40 level. Of these, 2,290 come from dams with the sport predicate, meaning they have performed at a minimum of 1m30 themselves. This equates to 14.8%. Interestingly, this percentage hardly differs from the percentage of showjumpers at the highest level. Of the 1,606 1m60 showjumpers registered in the KWPN database, 240 come from a dam with the sport predicate, which is 14.9%.
Tested mares
Of the mothers of these 2,290 international showjumpers, 82 have achieved both the sport predicate and the EPTM predicate, and 191 mothers have passed the IBOP in addition to the sport predicate. Of the 2,290 showjumpers at a minimum of 1m40 level, 241 come from dams that only passed the EPTM, and 410 come from dams that only achieved a good result in the IBOP. This totals 651 (4.2%) showjumpers at 1m40 or higher, whose mothers have passed a talent test. Of these 651 showjumpers, 273 (1.8%) have a mother who has both passed the talent test and obtained the sport predicate. Thus, the KWPN database shows that of the 15,467 showjumpers at a minimum of 1m40 level, 2,941 come from dams with performances in a talent test and/or sport at a minimum of 1m30. This amounts to 19%, meaning that 81% of the horses are bred from mares without noteworthy personal performances... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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