Does anyone have any Selle Francais/TB crosses? What are they like temperament wise? Thoughts, opinions on this particular cross?
Well, because there’s been no replies so far…
I have a Selle Francais/arab cross. Her dam was an arab race horse; arabs bred for racing are basically like little TBs with high tail sets. :lol:
My girl has a tricky temperament; she’s all mare, and a sensitive one to boot. When she’s in her zone, she’s basically a kick ride, then other days she’s a keg of dynamite. She’s quite talented cross country. Oh, and she’s smart-- too smart. She likes to use her intelligence to give me gray hairs when I’m in the saddle. Otherwise, she is about the sweetest horse you will ever meet.
Selle Francais traditionally have been TB crosses. They used both TB mares and TB stallions, unlike the rest of the continental WB books. SF have so opened their studbook/registry in the past decade or so that they are no longer “special” for their reliance on TB blood.
If the horse in question is a traditional Selle Francais, a TB cross is in keeping with how the SF was developed and shouldn’t make much difference in the final product. If the SF is one of the modern “universal” warmbloods, you can expect (per experts) that the F1 product won’t be as good for a particular purpose as a purpose-bred warmblood foal.
My old trainer had a small breeding operation. He had a beautiful Selle Francais stallion who was a bigger/heavier dressage type and very athletic. He did quite well in dressage as a young horse, then when on to eventing. He made it to prelim before a bone chip from an accident when he was a baby started acting up. At that point I took over the ride on him and spent a season in the AA hunters, just proving how quiet and versatile he was.
IMO his nicest babies were out of finer warmblood mares or TB mares. All of them were amateur friendly, but the lighter bone gave them the hunter movement vs dressage. A couple of them showed successfully on the A’s and at the RAWF. A couple of them he kept for himself to play with. A couple went to juniors and amateurs for eventing. He only bred to a couple outside mares, they stayed with their amateur owners as far as I know.
Bloodlines go back to Voue de Bonneville, Narcos II, and Fair Play III.
I have 2 imported SFs with high percentage TB blood (65 and 68%). As a whole they tend to be a bit lighter and bloodier than a lot of warmbloods. Both of mine have been sensitive, a bit on the hot side, but fairly amateur friendly and very careful to the jumps.
Up until recently (the 80s, I think) the studbook was still infusing TB blood into the breed. Like Viney said, I don’t think an F1 cross will create a very different horse than a “purebred” SF.
Just to clarify, selle francaise is not a breed, it is a registry. It encompasses many different lines/breeds/compositions.
so better responses would be possible with I have (bloodline) x (bloodline) horse.
Thanks everyone for their responses!
