Elles, most successful jumpers have 40-60 percent Tb. That is common knowledge. This thread is beyond frustrating as most people do not think that no Tb can jump or they are not important.
It isn’t about them being a Tb, it is about what they are bred for.
Clear and simple.
You are on a Sport horse breeding forum, and most people come here to talk about breeding because they believe that you select horses with certain traits, that have generations of ancestors with those same traits to produce a better than average outcome for the next generation. Tb people do the same to produce race horses.
But in NA, Tb’s are not bred for jumping! They are bred for racing.
In the history of using Tb’s to improve the Wb, they select, amongst thousands of Tb’s, the one that has the qualities to improve the registry at that time. They see if that stallion reliably throws the qualities they are looking for. Lots of those hand picked stallions did not make the cut, and very few went on to be pivotal to their registry. I think when they do find a Tb stallion that throws consistently, the traits that improve the best mares, then you have something special as that horse by chance, not by design, ended up with the right traits. The few Tb stallions that have this should be appreciated and I hope their are more people that bred Tb’s for jumping and eventing.
But finding a special horse in a population of horses bred for something else is not the same as that whole population being suitable. This is silly, it really is. Of course there is Tb’s that can jump well, and there are a very few of those that can even pass on those traits reliably. But that doesn’t mean that as a breed they should be used to breed jumpers that can compete at the top of the sport in the first or second generation.
Look at the list of the top 300 jumpers right now and you see very few or none Tb’s or 1/2 Tb’s. You see the 1/4 Tb often, as that is usually the generation that the Tb adds the desirable qualities but the jump is brought back. Breeding is an equation, and most Tb’s, like 99.9% do not fit into that breeding equation for top jumpers. The few that do are exceptional and handpicked most of the time. But they are the exception, not the rule.
I admire Fred from this forum, she stood behind her boy and gave him a chance to prove himself. He is exceptional. He is not common, as any horse that can produce UL jumpers is rare, even in horses that are breed for it for generations.
Gem Twist clone should be interesting. He was the icon of Tb jumpers BUT “TB kills the jump” is a statement about breeding, not competing. He would be an invaluable asset if he could pass on his jump and has other qualities that would benefit an UL breeding program. If he could improve on the mares that are producing top horses. Or even in the next generation. Most registries are looking and try out Tb stallions to see if they are the next Lady Killer. It is a breeding equation, not an “how high can they jump”. They must be able to improve the current breeding stock of jumper mares.
