United States Eventing Association

On the final day of the “Evaluation of the Young Event Horse Prospect” symposium, Dr. Tim Holekamp and Dr. Maren Engelhardt wrapped up the informative three days with a few classroom sessions held in the morning.

If you missed it, be sure to check out our coverage of Day 1 and Day 2 of the symposium.

Tim Holekamp discussed how photography can be used to evaluate the event horse prospect. Since so much horse shopping is now done online, being able to evaluate a horse on photo or video is becoming a necessary skill for horse buyers. Similarly, he also discussed the do’s and don’ts of photography and video for sellers.

• Video: Walk and trot the horse in hand on a hard service to evaluate correctness. Also provide unedited video of the horse being ridden at all three gaits and over fences, both directions. If the horse is not undersaddle, a video at liberty in a small, enclosed area will do.
• Video: Show the horse being caught, tacked up, loaded on the trailer, etc. to show the horse’s temperament.
• Video can be done entirely with the cameras on cell phones and tablets.
• Plenty of light means better color, resolution, and contour definition on camera.
• Keep the sun at your back while shooting.
• For photos, the ground should be level and the camera should be level. All four feet should be on the ground and bearing weight equally, the spine should be straight, and head should be straight out in front of him. The tail should be at rest.
• Shoot photos on a hard surface so that all 4 legs and feet can be seen.
• Every bit of the animal should be in the frame (i.e. don’t cut the ears or the rump off). The horse should fill up about ¾ of the frame.
• For photos, the camera should be exactly perpendicular to the girth. Don’t shoot with the horse’s rump or withers closer to you.
• The “tricks” to watch out for include: tilting the photo so the horse appears more uphill, using the background to conceal parts of the horse, obscuring blemishes or asymmetries in the horse, only providing heavily edited video, etc.
• It is better to stand away from the horse and zoom in instead of standing close to the horse and zooming out.

Dr. Maren Engelhardt spoke about studying pedigrees and what can be gained from breaking down a horse’s bloodlines.

• The Arabian is the original Thoroughbred and is the oldest horse breed in the world, tracing back to the 7th century on the Arabian Peninsula.
• By crossing in other Thoroughbred, different Arabian races have been established: 1) Shagya Arabian (“ShA”) – this breed is the most successful riding horse Arabian today with influence in almost every warmblood breed. 2) Anglo Arabian (“AA”). 3) Arabian Halfblood (a breed native to Eastern Europe, “AAH”).
• The English Thoroughbred (name followed by “xx” and names appear in red in mixed pedigrees) was predominantly bred for racing (in the U.S., this would include all Jockey Club registered horses). It is one of the oldest selective breeding programs in the world. 95% of all modern English Thoroughbreds trace back to one Arabian foundation stallion: Darley Arabian.
• There’s no online database available to the public that is 100% correct in pedigree. You have to contact the breed registry for the best information.
• Irish Sporthorse (“ISH”): A comparably young breed, incorporated into the stud book in 1993. Based on breeding principles in Ireland which include direct crosses of Thoroughbred with Irish Draught.
• Selle Francais (“SF”): Originated in Normandy as a cavalry mount. Crossed often and successfully with French Anglo Arabians, so there is maintenance of significant Thoroughbred in modern Selle Francais horses.
• Trakhener (“TK”): The oldest riding horse breed in the world with a stud book older than the English Thoroughbred’s. Produced as a cavalry horse and work horse from a local pony breed crossed with Oriental and English Thoroughbreds.
• “If I’m counting blood, I go back four generations and that’s it,” said Dr. Engelhardt. Sites like Horsetelex calculate back much further than that, so it can give you a misleading percentage of TB blood.
• allbreedpedigree.com can be used for all breeds, pedigreequery.com for only English Thoroughbred, Sporthorsedata.com for all breeds, and Horsetelex.com for all breeds. Since the public contributes to these sites, there are mistakes.
• “In my opinion, phenotype trumps genotype every single time. Paper is never more important than the actual animal.”
• There’s no rule of thumb for the % of TB a horse should have to be successful at the 4* level or in eventing, according to Maren.

Thank you to all of our symposium speakers and participants, and to Longwood Farm for hosting us! Learn more about the Young Event Horse program, or learn more about the Future Event Horse program.