Hans van Gaal

This is about finding a young, green horse with the attributes for dressage more prominent in its genetic makeup than the general equine makeup.  Just like some humans have an aptitude towards certain sporting activities we are looking for a horse with even a minutely greater aptitude for dressage than the norm but we are not talking about a partially trained competition horse.

Years ago we bought a couple of horses of medium plus standard but will never do so again. The reason being, that we purchased someone’s mistakes and these horses most likely have issues and training problems. Whatever the difficulties, they present a loss of time in re-education of the horse.

Firstly, a paragraph about becoming a dressage rider/trainer. The equestrian who wishes to become involved in dressage, immaterial of the standard they wish to reach, must keep some thought in their mind at all times. As you will be on the horse you cannot see what is happening beneath you on the ground with the horse’s legs, nor can you see the overall picture of horse and rider as a whole. What is needed is a set of extra eyes on the ground from time to time to see what is correct and what needs addressing.  Thus you will need a coach with a fair bit of knowledge and experience on a regular basis to help you advance.  The best way to evaluate a coach is to watch him give a lesson and school a horse, for how they ride is usually the way they will teach you. Asking a few friends who are involved in dressage may well save some time in finding a suitable coach and a good one will save you from making a lot of time consuming errors. This will save you a lot of lost time over the next few years.

So, back to where we started – how and where to find a horse suited to a higher level of dressage, as all horses are capable of dressage at a low level. You should study the ancestry or pedigree of horses to find a bloodline or stallion and mare line with the genetic makeup that shows a tendency towards dressage. I do not claim for one moment that it is going to be easy or quick, more than likely it will take days if not weeks to get the information you are looking for, but then what is a couple of weeks when trying to make sure the horse that you purchase is right, for most likely you will be working with this horse for more than a decade. This makes the time spent researching and looking worthwhile.

To start with you can go back 20 or 30 years and look which horses were performing at the highest level in dressage at that time. You might find a couple of them with a common bloodline or parentage. You can follow that through to this day and see if there are any horses of that bloodline competing in an associated sport. On the other hand you can see if any horses competing  come from bloodlines that have produced a number of dressage horses directly related and may have younger siblings not as yet started under saddle or perhaps just broken in. I do not want to give an impression that this article is solely written to promote our horses. We have kept records which will stand well in our stead, forming theories and examples of ancestral inherited tendencies, genetic makeup, compatibility with other bloodlines and breeds as well as years of growth and behavioural records.

So of course I am going to use them as a formula or template to get closer to what I am looking for in the quickest possible way. Someone in QLD or WA may find it useful to help them search for a horse up there. Whatever there is on our website, it is there as an example or reference for anybody to use if it will help them in their equestrian endeavours in any way.

Between 20and 30 years ago there were a number of Brokeford Park horses competing at PSG and GP dressage levels.  Mountbatten, Romboli, Roanoak, Rubens, Rousseau, Rommel, Rembrandt, to name but a few.  These were all stallions by our imported Holsteiner stallion Romedio. There were also some geldings who of course leave no offspring and a number of mares. Females of course do leave offspring but to trace them is far more difficult and time consuming than tracing the get of stallions. Now we are producing quality horses by Romedio’s grandson Riptide and by international performing stallions covering his granddaughters and the last breeding daughters. We make sure that the outside stallions carry the R line in order to perpetuate the genetic strength and suitability for performance in our bloodlines.

We are not going to be naming dozens of our upcoming young horses because it turns this article into a giant advertising blurb which is not intended. The idea behind the article is that readers may see that we are trying to show them a general formula or template which helps them recognise some of the requirements for dressage in one horse more than in another. As all horses can do dressage up to a certain level, finding one that can go beyond this is not easy. The horse you look for should have as near to perfect conformation as possible. It needs to have good, rounded even paces with, at the very least, a little more than average elevation. The horse needs to have a very good temperament and a physique of substance sufficient to carry a rider in collected and diagonal paces. These are the basic requirements.

There are many other additional traits that would be welcome in a dressage horse, but the greater your list of what you want the horse to be, the more difficult it will be to find. Many young horses are advertised as having one of the world’s greatest stallions as the sire. This means nothing if there has been no genetic matching and combining with those of the mare. This is ok with name droppers and stature seekers who want to be seen and named by a horse of that type.  You may be inclined to look at a youngster by Briar or Don Shuffro or any of the competition dressage Olympic stallions.  In reality what is the point of having a horse, no matter who the sire is, when as an eight year old you are still fronting up to the preliminary dressage arena instead of making an entrance to the GP test arena. Most of these stallions do not have large numbers of quality performing offspring even though they have thousands of services sold around the world. The mares that have been impregnated are mostly not suited to breeding a good horse by them. Those few that are, and could produce a top quality offspring, are mostly not genetically matched to the stallion .That leaves very few that are suitable.

As you can see to obtain a genetic performance chart of a youngster can be extremely difficult.  I could write a 200 page book on selection processes to select a possibly suitable dressage horse. All it would do is drive people to despair.  A few months ago I went looking for a common denominator into the dam line of Ramzes. I found out why it had never been done or rather never been completed. Three weeks of preliminary work and by the sixth generation I had studied 48 horses and found 14 gaps that were completely unknown.  Of the 64 ancestors in the sixth generation only 16 were plausible, there were 29 gaps and the rest was gibberish. Suffice it to say that Ramzes produced over 160 quality stallions that left their mark on the performance horses.  As a lot of people have said to me, take advantage of the situation and thank the Lord that it happened and you can profit from it.

Now once again I must blow our own trumpet about the profile of our stallion Riptide which is shown on our website, it goes back several generations and shows bloodlines and combinations of them in breeding our horses. Profile of a stallion – Riptide -gives you a lot of information, showing lots of pedigrees as well as photos and videos. It has been built so the prospective buyers can have a clear picture of the ancestry of the horse that they are contemplating to purchase. At this time we are the only stud that has provided on the web an open profile of our resident stallion and gives a total cross reference about his bloodline.  It gives an enormous amount of information on many horses with cross references. The way he matches to other warmblood mares, how he breeds with tbs or other breeds, the horses he has produced from our bloodlines and how they are going under saddle, and how other outside selected warmblood stallions breed with some of his daughters.

At this time we are the only stud showing records of progressive development of a number of our youngsters. There are lots of videos showing the movement of our young stock, some of it in slow motion so that you can clearly see the correct footfalls of the horse which is of utmost importance in a dressage horse. A number of horses have their dams and granddams on record as well as on photo and on video

There are of course a number of free jumping videos that shows the horses are not only bred for dressage, quite a few are out there jumping and eventing. Why other studs have not made an open profile of their stallions or breeding and offered the information for anyone to see is entirely their affair. What information is not provided cannot be commented about. Our policy is to make all there is to know about one of our horses through the web once the horse is advertised.

Hopefully this article will give a number of potential purchasers an understanding that you must and can find out more about a horse that you wish to buy. Maybe it will give a few people the idea to look a little deeper into where their next dressage horse comes from. Young horses with all the right requirements for dressage and yes, also for showjumping and eventing are being bred. To find them among the thousands of non suitable horses is difficult, but they are there waiting to be discovered.  

Now last but not least, the best way of finding a suitable dressage horse is by going to the breeding studs directly and asking them what they have available or that has been bred from their stock. If they have anything, ask where on the web you may be able to see it on video.  If there is something to watch get someone to evaluate it if you cannot do so yourself.  If the paces are correct and true start asking more questions about the total background of that horse. Then a couple of weeks later ask for an updated video. If they agree well and good, if not go elsewhere.   I left this for last intentionally for if you have read the whole article and you have studied a few things on our website you will be well prepared to try it first.

However it will be the quality of rider and trainer who will be showing the ultimate standard and quality of the horse under saddle.