british Vs european....

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show_jumper

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hi there.

i was just wondering - how many of you prefer horses from the continent to our very own british breds????

only - i remember when all the untouchable horses were irish sport horses combining the draught with something more athletic and how we used to win everything ....

now however its a different story -

look in the top SJ classes for exapmle and you'll find them bursting at the seems with horses from the continent!!!!!!

dont you think its aobut time we turned our attention back to british breeding and showed the world what the best of the british can do - on the best bred british horses???

what do you think?? or suggest???? would you favour one over the other?? or am i talking nosense!?!?!?
 
I don't care how the horse is bred as long as it does what we want. At home we have a british bred US Appaloosa, a french, a dutch and an irish horse and they are all good at what they do.
 
I thought it was very interesting to watch at the last Olympic games, where the fences got very high and wide. For me that is when I forgot about british bred horses and went for European horses. The majority of the German, Dutch and Belgium horses made those fences look like a walk in the park and soared over them. I can't actually remember who it was in the british team, but there was only Nick Skelton who was anywhere near and he was riding Arko which has european bloodlines too! I am afraid that the European have such an established breeding program for Sport horses today that they are hard to beat which is why they win the majority of the time, you only have to look at the placings and the nationality and breeding of the horse at any top level competition. The one thing where British breeding is still at the top and that is eventing with the well-bred or half-bred Thoroughbred. But now eventing is short plan, the focus is more on the sj and dressage stages not the endurance needed for the steeplechase and road and tracks, so I would imagine the lighter-bred european warmbloods will start to come out in this field too.
The irish sport horse was very popular a few years ago for showjumping as if crossed right, could win at the highest level too. Nowadays, compared to the european warmblood, they are too heavy, don't have enough power or agility, and are too slow to win at the top level. They can look a little clumsy alongside top branded horses. For example, jessica kurten had an irish sport horse at the last europeans and it really struggled and climbed through the fences. I think Irish sport horses are great for national level showjumping and can be the best, but for top international they are outclassed. Go to the Zangersheide website and watch some of their stallions, they are unbelieveable, I have never seen a british bred horse jump like they do!!! They make 1m80 look like a warm-up fence, this is the future in showjumping breeding unfortunately not some of the british bred- things that are being turned out.
 
i totally agree that what is being produced in the uk is a POOR standard of british breeding with regards to sport horses....
however - this is just what i mean - we need a boost!!!!
thr brits used to be unbeatable on BRITISH horses -when we were making an effort with our breeding - and thats what we need to do because right now our homebreds just dont cut the mustard!
 
i remember when everyone wanted cruising lines, clover hill, king of diamonds, special envoy - pessoa's irish horse etc etc..............
 
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