Sharon White and Rafferty’s Rules, owned in part by Wits End Eventing. Photo by Jenni Autry.
The movement towards developing and supporting U.S. event horse breeding programs is really beginning to take a strong hold in our community, and we hope that 2015 will bring even more enthusiasm to the subject. As part of our efforts to shine a spotlight on American event horse breeding programs, we’ve collaborated with Wits End Eventing to bring you a really exciting opportunity for education and insight into one of the most intriguing systems for creating four-star horses.
In December, we brought you an inside look into the Wits End Eventing breeding process, and their approach is certainly unique. In short, their aim is to produce horses only for the highest level of competition in eventing, aiming for three- and four-star success. They’ve come up with a scientific technique, developing two databases to assist in precisely selecting matches between mares and stallions that will produce the best chance of a four-star horse.
Run by Adrienne Classen and her husband Dale Hinman, the passion for horses comes from her side, and the passion for statistics from his. “I decided to compile a database of all the successful horses in all the four-star competitions since 2006, and another database with all the pedigrees of all the horses that have competed at the four-star level since that year,” Dale said.
For every horse that has competed at the four-star level since 2006, Dale has their height, their sex, their percentage Thoroughbred blood, their scores in each respective phase, and pretty much every other category you can think of right at his fingertips. “You can run a graph on this database to see how height relates to performance at the four-star level,” Dale said. “We use this to statistically determine the characteristics we are looking to reproduce in our breeding program”.
2002 Wits End Eventing bred filly, Stiletto (Soprano x Mascara by Dark Hyacinth). Photo by Kristin Carpenter.
Thanks to the generosity of Adrienne and Dale, Eventing Nation is delighted to introduce “Make Me A Match!” Just in time for Valentine’s Day! If you are considering breeding a mare of your own and hoping to get a top level eventing partner out of it, here is your chance to access Dale’s magical database!
Submit your mare for bloodline analysis and a thorough breakdown of how to select the best stallion to produce the most superior baby eventing superstar. Not only will Adrienne and Dale explain how to understand your mare’s bloodlines, they will offer an educational look at the breeding process, too.
As part of a new winter series, the information Adrienne and Dale produce for each mare will be published right here on EN. This provides a deeper look inside a top U.S. program, plus a little free matchmaking!
If you would like to submit your mare for consideration, please email the following to [email protected]:
- Registered Name: This provides access to competition records and necessary information for performance history. For purposes of breeding a performance horse, it is preferable that the mare competed successfully in one sport or another. However, OTTBs are welcome too!
- Brief History of Performance: It will help to know from you the aspects of your mare that you love and want to reproduce and preserve, as well as the characteristics or flaws that are less desirable. A short paragraph is great.
- Picture(s): Conformation pictures are wonderful, as they give an idea of your mare’s construction. Action shots are awesome too!
- Bloodline Info: As Wits End Eventing uses line breeding for their analysis, information on your mare’s breeding is necessary, even if it is only her sire and dam.
