I’m looking for any opinions and references to other resources about the relative merits of these two breeds as dressage horses.
I understand that horses are individuals and specific pedigree is important. I have some understanding of the SF but am just beginning to read about the Trak.
Please assist my education …
If you are looking at one of these two breeds/registries specifically for a dressage horse, your best bet would be to look further into Trakehners. That’s not to say that SFs can’t be dressage horses, but in general they are bred to be top level jumpers and eventers; you don’t see many SFs at the higher levels of dressage. Trakehners, on the other hand, are bred to do dressage primarily (and eventing secondarily). They tend to have more compact, modern dressage body types than SFs which tend to be longer backed jumper types. Both tend to be more refined than other breeds because they have considerable TB and Arab blood.
Some Trakehner breeders can probably weigh in for you and provide more insight.
I love my selle francais mare, and have known several more. They are awesome, but not what I would call refined, and the breed in general is seen more competing in jumpers and eventing.
I think you might be confusing some terminology.
Trakehners are considered a refining BREED. ie you breed them to a warmblood in order to minimise/lose/whatever some traits from the draft origins. TBs are used in the same way as over time, you will lose blood. Trakehners and TBs are used because as BREEDS they are pure and you get a, for want of a better phrase, standard, expected, result.
SF is not a breed, but a Registry. As a general philosophy they use a greater percentage of TB, Arabian and especially Anglo Arabian in their breeding philosophy. As a result, they may look more refined than say, a Holsteiner, but that doesn’t necessarily make that individual a refiner.
Does that help at all?
As far as merits of breeding a dressage horse, then I’d choose Trakehner over SF.
My SF mare was anything but refined. Lol. She was broad backed, and long, bred for jumping. But the RPSI inspecters loved her, calling her the old school style of WB.
Yep, I surely was!
At first glance it looked like the Trakehner closed book was like the SF closed registry.
Thank you for your replies!
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