Interesting article about what 4* riders want.

Does anybody remember the "Rushall" prefix horses? They had a lot of success many years ago eventing. I read that they were turned out in a herd in a very large area with various natural obstacles (not sure if they were put there by the breeder) to negotiate before they could get to their feed. I'm sure these included tree trunks, ditches etc. They were all supposed to be tough, sound and very good thinking across country. A lot to be said for this method if you have the acreage!
 
i be grateful to hear from competing eventers as to thier opinions on the this subject of temperament, because i am breeding horses for eventing using my own stallion and my 4 th genereration home bred mares.
i had a young stallion of top breeding who i rejected at 3 years because he was nervous of life in general, he did go on to become a good performer, in showjumping and is now in belgium. the next colt is one i have retained for breeding, what i liked about about him is his bold attitude to most things, including girls, but he seems to try to please all the time and is very intelligent, with loads of stamina to keep on trying, impervious to all large vehicles i
including coaches, jcbs etc he is the opposite of the first colt, and totally different in breeding.
what i want to know is how do you interpret a good temperament especially in relation to performance? and what qualities can you see in a youngster, (because most eventers buy young 3 - 4 years), which would attract you most, and how do rate intelligence, and are these things you value? thank you
my youngsters are out all day in large hilly paddocks mostly with older horses, who seem to instill respect as opposed to with other youngsters and trying to kill each other, they are not overfed on cereal have lots of grass, the best homemade hay, feeding is governed by weight and development, i do remove all overhanging branches and obstacles due to the need for them to gallop around safely at speed, they grow slowly but are not immature.
i don't consider it neccessary to feed lots of cereal i think its the cause of many problems.
this is not an ad i don't sell my youngsters thankyou
 
Riders are another factor as the riders of yore learned stickability by the seat of their jodphurs in rough-and-tumble pony days or the hunting field. Tommy Brennan's swift response to one earnest breeders question as to how to breed another Murphy Himself was 'Breed another Ian Stark!'. For some 'X Factor generation' riders who may not have the time, skill or experience of producing young horses, a flashy mover may seem almost like a short cut to good dressage scores. How many of the flashy movers and young event horse class/championship winners progress to and then remain at 4* level is another debate entirely.
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I think from what I remember of a passing remark from the commentator at the 2010 Burghley Young Event Horse classes, very few of those placed in the top 6 have made it to international level competition in the past. But of course that begs all sorts of questions like did they get the right riders/owners/opportunities/quality of training ....
 
Sadly I'm not surprised the top horses at the Burghley young event horse classes aren't going on to be top eventers. Most of them aren't bred to be top eventers are they? If you look at the 4**** horses the overwhelming majority of them are 75% TB or more. If you look at the burghley young event horse finalists most of those are warmbloods with very little TB in them. Wasn't the winner this year by a dressage stallion??? Says it all really.
 
On giving youngsters a decent chance of soundness by 'growing' them on rough ground, I think I have that cracked! Mine live in a 20 acre scrub, on the side of a steep hill, with rocks bursting out of the ground at the top, forest in the middle and bog at the bottom with a variety of natural 'water jumps' actual stone walls, ditches and bushes to scrape through when they are weaned. they live in a group of about 5 (depending on how many have sold etc.) youngsters 6 months to 4 yrs with occasional visits from the 19 yr old ex broodie 'supernanny' to keep manners on them when they get a bit bolshy. I don't ever rug young ones, not even in the recent snow an frost, they stop getting hard feed at 1 and a half/2 yrs old and get silage or hay if it's snowing or there's no feeding in the grass mostly only in winter. They are pretty much left to their own devices. If they aren't sold from the field by the time they're 4 they get broken and sold from home. Green they may be, but by god they will cross any country over any sort of ground!!
Too many are rugged, pampered and fed to the eyeballs with too much 'handling'. IMO they need to learn how to be horses first before they learn to interact with humans. I have yet to have a 'hard to handle' one.
Sorry for rant, over do-ing youngsters is something I feel strongly about!
 
mine are 60 - 80 percent tb or 75 anglo arab (1/8 th arab), a basic necessity i think for galloping motion.
i do think that trying to over handle youngsters and make them too mannerly is a recipe for frustration, respect yes, but i don't expect too much! they're all different, but i find with the blood they are too high as foals /yearlings and find controlling their natural exuberance hard, better to ignore them a bit and around 2 years old they can take the discipline and have longer attention span, although i do insisit on standing for the farrier and kicking, biting etc is not allowed and repremand any potentially dangerous behavior.
 
I couldn't agree more about over-doing it with youngsters, but it's amazing how feral they get, and how quickly, when they've not been touched for a week or two! I've had a few from a breeder in Yorkshire (edge of the moors), most had been showed in-hand up until they were 3 but their preparation was minimal and they all seemed to behave well enough, ditto when they came in for backing. All have done BYEH and gone on to event successfully, being especially good xc horses, sometimes to the detriment of the other phases admittedly.:rolleyes:

I shall be trying to emulate this upbringing with my two home-breds (One More Tiger and Grafenstolz fillies) although flat Lincolnshire land is hardly conducive to challenging their ability to stay upright! Maybe, for event horses, Michael Jung's methods are the way forward?
 
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