[QUOTE=Fred;8050062]
Exactly, LaurieB.
There are a few pages on FB where fabulous pictures of great hunters and jumpers are posted - most of those horses were Thoroughbreds.
Whenever I see those pictures I just shake my heads at the ignorance of those who say things like “TBs kill the jump”.
Those horses - and by that I don’t mean those actual individuals - but those Thoroughbred horses are still out there.[/QUOTE]
Seeing is believing, however.
It would be immensely helpful, if we could refer to TB horses currently in those big rings as examples, rather than recite the same old names. Trainers and riders won’t find what they aren’t looking for, and it seems that most who are looking at TB’s are on small budgets, there to ‘rescue’ and ‘re-home,’ and even if they find the athletic and capable ones, don’t put them on a career track that will see them reach the big rings.
Joe Fargis has a student, Grant Chungo, in Virginia, whose OTTB, Ballinore, has started doing the smaller Grand Prixs. My daughter Anna (a couple years younger than Grant) was just starting to ride our TB mare Camille, when Ballinore was started. Ballinore, a gelding, kept going, but we chose to breed Camille, who has since had an ‘every other year’ carreer.
To keep on topic, Camille has a pretty long croup, and is a a nice, classic hunter -type, while Ballinore is much more lanky and angular. Camille is expecting her 3rd foal by As Di Villagana within the next few weeks…As Di Villagana is a compact and rather square horse at 16 h.
Conformation-wise, the first, As Di Ani Z (2008 m), is pretty much a feminine version of her sire, and the second, As Di Valentia, is a masculine version of his dam. Both are very attractive, and croup-wise, I’d say all 4 horses (sire, dam, and offspring) are fairly similar in angulation.
Both offspring jump beautifully, plenty of scope. We kept the mare, bred her once, and have begun to compete her in the jumpers; As Di Valentia (sold to Diane Halpin, and now belongs to Bill Schaub) made his made his WEF debut in the hunter ring two weeks ago, with winning rounds and a Res. Ch.
The stallion we chose for As Di Ani Z was Jaguar Mail (SF, 3/4 TB, Haras Brullmail, via Hilltop) and we have gotten a very different type from the others out of that cross. Now 3, he is tall (closing in on 17h), lanky, and very much the athletic jumper type. So far his croup is rather sloping; whatever the angles, he has a very powerful (and careful) hind end, and shows phenomenal scope in his free-jump.
His nicely line-bred pedigree drew quite a lot of attention, but not a lot of interest in him as a stallion prospect. Swimming in mares that are related to him (and with the chance to produce another stallion with the same cross), I had him gelded last month, and he will begin to work under saddle shortly (he was backed late last year).
My point here is that we have used our (Han approved, high-score outside mare at MAHB, 2010) TB mare as the basis of our program, with great results, have gotten very nice horses, and maybe one phenomenal one–TB has not killed anything at all, and the croups are not just one type.
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