This was Bruce’s Lion King
http://www.lanefieldfarm.com/lionking.htm
Baynut/wild bay. You don’t see that too often!
I meant the eq horse, not the hunter.
And I’m sure there are some people doing just that. There are also a lot of us that own horses (OTTBs) perfectly suited to do it as well but WE like to ride nice horses too. (And honestly to be competitive in eventing today takes a damn nice horse). And I don’t have to sell my horses regardless of price. I make my $$$ outside of horses.
But it is shocking to me the lack of ability in this country (in all disciplines, including eventing) in developing young horses. It is becoming a lost skill. Sure there are still some out there but certainly not as many good young horse developers as I saw in the UK and Europe. Goes hand in hand with reducing number of people growing up with horses in their backyards.
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Eagle Lion, not Lion King, was Davidson’s horse. He had a poster too 
It has to be if the date on the video is correct because the Lion King that was Bruce’s is USEF is #4047028 and it last showed in 2006. it only did the hunters, not eq.
Bruce also had Lion King. If you look at the USEF record the first few shows are Bruce eventing the horse before it got sold to be a hunter
Ah that could be why, because I’m looking at FEI records. Eagle Lion was a favourite of mine.
Bruce had a whole series of nice ones from that breeding. Lion King was not a bigtime achiever in eventing (not even close to FEI) in no small part because he got sold and stopped eventing entirely.
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I guess I’m skeptical. It’s like saying “I know how to pick all the correct lottery numbers and could easily get rich but you know, I don’t like to make money that way.” The logic of it all just doesn’t add up.
If plenty of people were making up TBs as successful Big Eq horses, we’d see at least a few cashing in rather than keeping all their nice horses to themselves. And it wouldn’t be such an oddity when a TB does compete at Finals. There is big bucks in Eq horses not just as sales horses, but in the per show/per season leases.
As for the bringing along a nice horse? 100% agree with you. I can’t do it. I have a friend that does an amazing job. Her current youngster is a TB that is drool worthy. Two horses ago, she had a lovely, lovely TB that was sold for Hunters/Eq. I almost bought one she brought along…but at that point, I didn’t really know to ride one…and he turned out to have some soundness issues.
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I know there’s a hunter Lion King and an eq horse Lion King (and maybe more!). I was asking, as in the post I quoted, about the eq horse.
The other fact to think about is how much TB blood is in the modern warmblood. In fact, it makes me think that these horses are really mostly TB, with a dollop of WB. There’s no sensitivity over this post, so please correct this statement if not accurate.
But if it is accurate – that WB breeding is mostly TB blood – then we can all feel good that the TB is very alive and very well, and ruling the show ring ??
I wouldn’t be as skeptical. Over here on the east coast of Canada, I mean the very east coast, not Quebec, we have a fair number of people who train up their own horses. Some both breed and train. These people and horses can (and have been able to) hold their own when they’ve intermittently traveled down to WEF, Ocala, and to the ON/QC circuits. I can think of:
- a Dutch WB breeder who's regularly selling young stock to the US and back over to Europe.
- A team listed dressage rider who partners with a local wb breeder and has trained several up to the FEI level from scratch.
- Pony jumper rider that swept the pony jumper division at the RAWF a couple years ago. We don't even have true pony jumper divisions here, not enough people.
- A couple farms that routinely go to the RAWF and come out with top 4 hunter placings, off a fraction of the competition practice of ON/QC.
- Another young rider who's family is trying to breed his GP horse while he brings other's they've bred and or bought as babies along through the jumper ranks. Highly competitive in the FEI young horse classes and the U25s.
All of this reinforces my suspicion that there are a LOT of people with the development skills like this with unbelievably talented OTTBs but not the $$$ to campaign them where they would get ‘scouted’.
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I think that’s an overstatement when it comes to H/J. Anecdotally, i’ve owned three horses -
my first horse was 1/8th TB (maybe a little more going back further). potential TB starts showing up more with his trakehner ancestors…but man, I would wager his lines were more Arab. It would explain why people were always asking me if he was one. 
Second is 100% TB. He’s my heart.
My mare is 1/2 TB and the WB sire was 1/8th. She’s built like a brick house but doesn’t have that ‘bottom’ a lot of WBs have. She will go for days.
I think it is very true when it comes to event horses.
Wait, you just started your list with a WB breeder, a dressage rider partnering with a WB breeder, and A pony jumper (yes there are small TBs…one just won at Pony Finals in the jumpers, but…). The other two are unclear. I’m confused as to your point??
This thread isn’t about training up your own horses. It’s about training up OTTBs for success at the top of Equitation. If those you mentioned are doing that, apologies. If they aren’t there is no reason for me to not continue being skeptical.
As far as not getting exposure - my friend is not probably not going to get her TBs out there nationally, but she’s sold them to people who could…because they are nice. She could build a program that leases into a big barn and then go from there. Yes, you have to have money to take them a certain distance, but the rest is connections.
And those money grubbing H/J trainers are not going to turn down flips to make more money. Nice horses WILL get sold and will move up until they are no longer competitive.
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Not a TB, but Boyd Martin’s ISH Trading Aces became an eq horse just a few years ago: http://eventingnation.com/trading-ac…in-wellington/
My point, tangential is it might appear, is those who tend to pick up an OTTB are typically less affluent. Those who are in the less affluent population selling horses often struggle to get their value recognized, even when selling the most easily marketed of the marketable.
Due to the lack of ‘status symbol’ value and therefore limited ability to increase the price tag, tons of trainers pass over TBs that would otherwise be suitable or re-brand them as ‘wb of unknown breeding’.
shrug I know what I’ve seen, I know what I’ve heard trainers say and shop for. No skin off my teeth if individuals here don’t get what I’m talking about.
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This is a very good point. I do not have the money to campaign my mare. Does that mean I should sell her to someone who can? Does that mean I shouldn’t get to ride a nice horse because I do not have the funds to show? If I had the money, yes I would take OTTBs and bring them up the levels of whatever discipline they fit best in as individuals.
Everyone saying we should put our money where our mouth is WRT to getting OTTBs in the Big Eq, I am more than happy to spend your money doing just that.
I find it interesting that we are now 9 pages into this discussion, it has taken MANY tangents and still there isn’t one post giving an example of a OTTB currently competing in the Big Eq classes.
Wow, I never thought that this was going to get this much attention. I really appreciate everyone’s opinion. It’s interesting to hear what everyone has to say. The reason I asked is because I just recently just bought a 16.3 hd chestnut OTTB gelding with a lot of knee action and big stride. I wanted to know it any other OTTB has been able to make to the Big Eq level. Ultimately I want to compete in the Maclay with him. Thank you to everyone who gave me insight to a whole new perspective. But I never really got my question answered.
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You don’t have to do anything; the point is that if OTTBs were generally well-suited to become big eq superstars, SOMEONE would have tapped into that resource by now, and then SOMEONE ELSE would have noticed it and done it too, and then SOMEONE ELSE would have noticed and joined the bandwagon, and so on and so on and so on until we wouldn’t see special articles from ten years ago being posted here about a TB that made it to the big eq finals as evidence that TBs are in fact equally suited to big eq when compared to warmbloods.
Wasn’t there a small movement in the hunter community a handful of years ago where a couple of well-known riders decided to bring along a thoroughbred or two in the hunter divisions to promote the breed? I think Jennifer Alfano was one of them. I wonder how that went.
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