|
The Thoroughbred
Having been bred solely for speed on the racetrack, Thoroughbreds are often dismissed for general riding, although prejudice against them is far from being as virulent as that against Arabians. While it is true that Thoroughbreds in general may often be too highly-strung and sensitive to make good riding horses for nervous or inexperienced riders, their very sensitivity can, if properly channelled, make them wonderfully responsive to ride. Because of the emphasis on breeding for speed above all else, Thoroughbreds can vary in appearance much more than is usually the case in breeds with a closed stud book. Some are quite angular and rangy, while others appear much chunkier and rounder. Unfortunately, breeding for one quality at the expense of others has resulted in a high level of wastage, as for every Thoroughbred that is successful on the race track, there are many that are not. Some of the unsuccessful ones are those which have broken down in training; these are often the weedy ones that have put so many people off Thoroughbreds as riding horses. This is not a recent development; in the mid-nineteenth century Captain Roger Upton deplored the number of weedy Thoroughbreds to be found both on and off the race-track, while Wilfrid Blunt, who with his wife Lady Anne established the famous Crabbet Arabian Stud, thought the Thoroughbred far from beautiful. ‘There is a meanness about their quarters and style of action,’ he wrote, ‘which strikes one continually. They look as if they had been made in sections and clumsily put together.’[1] However there are many others that are far from weedy. One of the most beautiful horses I have ever known, of any breed, was a thoroughbred mare, whose action was free and elastic, straight and true, and whose temperament was as sweet and willing as any rider could wish for. She was by no means an exception. Any breed that is produced in large numbers will have its fair share of sub-standard specimens; a reduction in the number of foals being bred, and greater attention to qualities other than winning bloodlines and speed at all costs, would surely help to reduce the number of weedy, potentially unsound horses within the breed.
As it is, a thoroughbred with good overall conformation, not too tall and with enough breadth of chest and barrel to make a fairly substantial horse, can make a superb riding horse. Horses with a high proportion of Thoroughbred blood (or in many cases pure Thoroughbred), especially those bred in Australia and New Zealand, have been enormously successful in eventing, and although their performance in show-jumping has been somewhat eclipsed by that of the European Warmbloods, many of those do in fact carry a high proportion of Thoroughbred blood. It is rather ironic that, while many people in the horse-world will insist that the Thoroughbred’s conformation and temperament make it unsuitable for dressage, many of the most celebrated dressage bloodlines in Warmblood breeding are saturated with Thoroughbred blood! In fact, one of the greatest dressage stars of all time, the late Dr Reiner Klimke’s Ahlerich, independent and team gold medallist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, was half Thoroughbred, by a German Thoroughbred out of a Westphalian mare.[2] One of the most successful sires of both dressage and event horses in the United Kingdom in the 1990s was the grey Thoroughbred stallion Java Tiger, who at the time of writing still stands at stud at Park House Farm, near Harrogate in Yorkshire. In 2000 he won the British Horse Foundation award for the leading TB and Leading British-Bred Sire of Dressage Horses. Thoroughbred versatility is epitomised by the Russian Thoroughbred stallion Beg II, who was first of all a winner on the race-track, then went on not only to compete successfully in the equivalent of Grade A showjumping, but also to win Grand Prix dressage competitions in Germany!
The Thoroughbred’s sensitivity and reactivity mean that, as with Akhal-Tekes, Arabians and the Iberian breeds, they need sensitive riding and training to bring out the best in them. All of these breeds will work best with people who regard them as friends and partners rather than simply as servants, or as inferior beings to be dominated and rendered obedient. Baron Biel, in his book The Noble Horse (first published in Germany in 1830), expressed the opinion that any breeder would be lucky to have his horses trained under the same principles as those used at the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Then, said Biel, no-one would dare to state that the noble English horse[3] was not suitable for the art of riding. Modern trainers and riders, please note! Description
Back to The Ancestors of the Modern Horse Back to Xenophon
[1]quoted in The Crabbet Arabian Stud, p.55 [2]Westphalians themselves have a great deal of Thoroughbred blood. [3]as the Thoroughbred was then known
|
