WGC Bloodlines in the Sport Saddlebred

BY JULIE LYNN ANDREW

Photo by Judith S. Buck

Freelance Agent ridden by KathyPriest at a combined training eventin 1985.

At this time of year, more than anyother, breeders consider what it reallytakes to build the perfect beast; anAmerican Saddlebred who will bringhome the glory from the World’sChampionship Horse Show. Years ofplanning, careful study of the blood-lines, superb training, and the essentialingredient – luck – all factor into theequation. You need an athlete, but inour breed they need one special requisitequality. Today’s show ring paradigmrequires a horse that sets up in a veryspecial way.

As trainer, breeder, and judge ofWorld’s Champions Melissa Moorestates, “They have to have a headset.”The perfect headset is the Holy Grail ofthe show horse world. If a horse has thehead set and can raise up from his with-ers, and turn over in his poll, he can bea show horse. It is simply a question offinding the correct, suitable section forcompetition. Judy Werner, whoseRedwing Farm breeding program com-bines the best of her first and secondgeneration efforts, in WC Designed, saysshe asks the question, “where can theyput their head?” early on in the processof determining which of her young stockwill easily fit the show ring mold. WCDesigned is by Callaway Hill’s Farm’sWC Caramac, out of Redwing Farm’swonderful producer, Sultan’s Dianna.

Werner says she is looking for “a bal-anced athletic individual, who is knock-down gorgeous.” Carl Fischer, whoseMeadow Lake breeding program hasproduced horses like WGC CHOnion,and has emphasized the value of maresfrom families that produce powerhous-es, states, “I like a powerful back end,with bend in the hock joints. A horsewith sloppy hocks does not have thepush and drive we need. I also want ahorse who is brisk off of their hocks.”For the best of the horses competing inother, non-traditional Saddlebred disci-plines, these words ring true, as well.

Other qualities are essential, andmany of these are also shared with hors-es that succeed in disciplines such asDressage. These include structural ele-ments such as a correct back, proper legconformation, the ability to take a greatstep behind, drive off of their hocks, andgood range of motion in their shoulders.In addition, the gameness exhibited by

show horses is also important in allother disciplines. No Dressage riderwants to have a horse do 10 of the 15consecutive one-tempi flying changes oflead necessary at the Grand Prix level,and quit. They, too, need an athlete whocan be game enough to get through aclassically challenging test — with bril-liance. The lofty movement which isnatural to our horses has become thedefining factor at the international levelin Dressage. And the great hock actionthat produces powerhouses is needed inall competitive horses, no matter whichshow ring or which discipline.

When breeding for that Louisvillewinner, the smart breeders aren’t rein-venting the wheel; they look at what hascome before. In 2008, as in years before,the breeder who was overwhelminglydriving the competition was once againCallaway Hills. Through horses whowere born on those hallowed hills, tothose produced from the stallions andmares bred there, there is no denyingthat this program is integral to the suc-cess of the show horses in rings acrossthe country. The green shavings seem toinvite these horses to perform at levelsthat set new standards in the breed.Twice as many horses directly from this

program won classes as the next breed-er; almost three times as many started inclasses, and almost twice as many actu-ally placed. That is true dominance.

The descendants of WGC CHWingCommander are essential to the pedigreeof that most sought after of show horses- the five gaited horse, and also in manyof the best prospects for other disci-plines. In fact, Wing figures prominentlyin the papers of twenty of the top thirtysires of winners at Louisville for 2008.Still representative in large degree is thebeautiful stallion WC Valley ViewSupreme. Of course, his heir at RuxerFarms, Supreme Sultan, is the source ofmany of these lines, through sons likeWorthy Son, Sultan’s Santana, Santana’sCharm, and a host of fabulous mares,including Sultan’s Dianna and Sultan’sGold Star. The Valley View Supremesons Status Symbol, Supreme Spirit,Longview Supreme, and the Valley ViewSupreme daughter, Sweet SharonSupreme, all represent the family withgreat individuals still making themselvesknown. Stonewall Supreme, a stallionthat might never have been left entire intoday’s world, to leave any legacy, hasleft an enormous footprint, largelythrough daughters like WGC

Photo by Linda Cawthon

Harry Callahan competed in the Prix St. George classes at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2006.

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CHSupreme Airs, CHStonewall’s Sound ofMusic, and Dixie Duchess . Power andpretty are carefully combined to createtoday’s winning competition horses, nomatter the venue.

The “golden cross” of WingCommander and Supreme Sultan bloodalso figures prominently in the breedingof Borealis, the record setting sportSaddlebred stallion. His sire, Undulata’sMan of the Hour, WGC CHMan on theTown, out of the Supreme Sultan daugh-ter, Top Billing, is a product of theUndulata Farm breeding program.Undulata’s owner, Edward “Hoppy”Bennett, is also the breeder of the gor-geous Undulata’s Nutcracker, anotherson of the Callaway cornerstone, WCCaramac. Borealis is out of a WGCCHCaptive Spirit mare, whose dam is bySultan’s Great Day, bringing in theStonewall Supreme influence. This com-bination created an athlete whose con-formation is remarkably similar to thebest European warmbloods.

In European warmblood breedingprograms, the paradigm has also shifteddramatically in the past twenty years,and most dramatically in the lastdecade. The breeding programs havealways been targeted at the productionof athletes for the Olympic disciplines,with an emphasis on Dressage andJumping. But the horses are now beingbred both for rideability and blood. The“stump pulling” warmbloods, with theirlarge, homely faces, enormous height,and big, flat feet, are mostly gone now.In their place is a new, light horse.According to Chrissa Hoffman, the bril-liant USDF Gold Medalist, and trainerof the American Saddlebred Dressageicon, Harry Callahan, “the programsare breeding more refinement, morethoroughbred, lighter builds, and, theyare hotter.” Horses like the incrediblygifted Moorland’s Totillas, and the bril-liant grey mare with the busy tail, BluHors Matine, are setting new standards.According to Hoffman, they have“greater range of motion” than thosehorses that were formerly the top eche-lon. In American Saddlebred terms,these horses are oily movers who cantrot over level, and do it either in placeor extending across the arena. Harry’ssire, the Supreme Sultan son WCSupreme Heir, leads most lists as a sire

of World’s Champion show horses.Harry’s dam, Make My Day, was siredby The New York Times, representingthe WGC CHWing Commander line.

Callaway Hills doyenne BettyWeldon had but one goal when shestarted her breeding program in earnest:she was going to prove that WGCCHWill Shriver was the best stallion ever.Today, a case could be made that shedid attain her goal. The current mistressof Callaway Hills, Tony Weldon, has agoal, as well. She wants to reduce andrefine her program from her mother’snumbers, and produce a very specialgroup of young superstars. Tony hasgleaned breeding tips from the best, and

offers, “We were told that you shouldalways breed the best to the best, or tolook at what the best is that the marehas produced, when looking for thenext great show horse or stallion,” Tonyshares, “but if we had done only that,there would never have been a WCCaramac, or a WC Callaway’s BlueNorther.” It is not hard to realize howmuch the poorer our breed and theshow rings would be without these leg-ends. “I am looking at a nuclear pro-gram. We know what works, and weneed to keep doing it,” she states.

Tony’s mother’s program was expan-sive, “Mom had the luxury to experi-ment. In today’s market, we need to

Photo by Terri Washburn

Angela Sommers rides Outside The Line in his first Hunter Country Pleasure class atSummerfest in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.

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produce World’s Champions.” Tonyshares Betty’s sentiment that World’sChampions come in all divisions anddisciplines. In 1981, one of BettyWeldon’s experiments was to ship thethen three-year-old Freelance Agent, byher World’s Champion sire Kate’sScoop, out of the Callaway’s JohnnyGillen mare, Connie Gillen, to England,to be trained to be a Three Day Eventhorse. Jane Starkey, a top competitor,and reserve Olympic rider for England,found the horse to be “a quick learner,with a big heart — and he loves tojump.” In comparing the AmericanSaddlebred to her EnglishThoroughbreds, she opined that, “theyare more intelligent, and learn faster.”

In today’s Callaway Hills breedingprogram, Tony has superior prospects tooffer both the talented Amateur-Owner/Trainer and the most ambitiousLouisville competitors. She is sendingher giftedyoung stock(and stal-lions) out tocompete,and provetheir worth,and they arestill winning.Proving theathleticismand greatminds fromthis programaway fromthe tradi-tional showrings isOutside theLine, owned by Kim and DerrickMoore. By WC Callaway’s Wish MeWill, and out of a WGC CHMan on theTown mare, “Atlas” fox hunts, com-petes as a Dressage horse, and has justbegun to visit the hunter pleasure ring.

Bob Ruxer, whose wisdom isinformed by a lifetime of breeding andshowing American Saddlebreds, offers,“Horses need jobs, just like people, andwhile some don’t have the attributes ofa ‘show horse’ that just means he’smeant for another division, and we’renow seeing those divisions gaining pop-ularity. So, that makes these horses‘show horses’ also. Tradition is so

engrained in all of us. Yes, I neverdreamed of showing horses under west-ern or hunt seat tack as we see today.”The stallion, WC sire Our Charm,owned by Dr. Nancy Trent, is a sire oftop show horses, as well as being thesire of the up and coming hunt seatcompetitor, Good Deal, owned byKimberly Moore. Good Deal’s dam isthe WC CHKing of Highpoint daughter,Highpoint’s Queen Mary. Other usefulhorses like the pleasure mare, MirroredBeauty, who is out of WC Hayfield’sBold Night’s final foal, Best for Last,and is owned by Sara Selvaggio. Trent’slovely stallion combines the Sultan line,through the dynamic Santana’s Charm,and is out of a Will Shriver mare. Otherwonderful Supreme Sultan sired stallionsinclude Sultan’s Great Day, combiningSupreme Sultan, and StonewallSupreme, who has produced brilliantshow horses, like WC Winter Day, as

well asfabulouswesternhorses,like thevenerableand cele-brated AMagicSurprise.

Thebeginningsof theWesternCountryPleasureandShatnerclasses had

some Ruxer influence as well. “I’ll neverforget years ago when we brought a coltin out of the field to start. I called ourstaff out to see, and jokingly said that helooks more like a cowboy horse and thepoor guy will just spend his life trying todo something he wasn’t engineered for,and bring disappointment to whoeverwould own him. One of our staff said‘Well, heck, let’s have some fun—let himbe a cowboy horse if that’s what heneeds to be.’ Off he went to a westerntrainer in Illinois, and the next yearWilliam Shatner, who was just begin-ning with Saddlebreds, asked me aboutwhat we did with all our horses, as far

as finding homes for them. I jokinglytold him about my western horse andhow I had no idea what I was going todo with him. But Shatner had an idea,and you know the rest of the story. Thathorse was TJ, and the Shatner competi-tion was created.”

Ruxer is enthusiastic about the qual-ity of today’s Saddlebred western pleas-ure horses, as well, “Now just lookhow our Saddlebreds have improvedover the years in this section. Thosehorses are true athletes, probably moreidentifiable to the general public thanour super show stars, and that’s a prettybig pill for me to swallow, but it is thetruth. More people identify with thatkind of horse.

“Then we find there’s anotheruntapped market for the hunt typeSaddlebred, each year that’s getting bet-ter and better, albeit slowly. But truthbe known some of these horses can dothings even our big time show horsescan’t do,” Bob states, “ While I willalways be partial to the traditionalSaddlebred classes, I certainly appreciatewhat this unique breed can do if onlygiven the chance. There’s no doubt inmy mind the Saddlebred will one daymake its mark in the Dressage worldalso, if enough are willing to make themost of what we already have.”

What are the physical requirementsfor all these competition worlds, from astructural viewpoint? Dr. Chris Uhlinger,an Equine Veterinarian practicing inNorth Carolina, and an avid event andpleasure rider with her AmericanSaddlebreds, explains, “It’s important toconsider structure (underlying confor-mation) as well as posture (how thehorse carries himself) in the selection ofan individual as a show horse or sporthorse prospect. Working against thehorse’s natural structure and posturewill prolong the training period andalmost certainly cause gait, training andlameness issues.”

Uhlinger continued, “For example,the head up, knees up, level croup pos-ture desirable in a show horse is moreeasily obtained in a horse with a ‘doublehinge’ or swan neck. These horses havea deep curve at the base of the neckwhere it exits the shoulder. This allowsthem to hold their necks perpendicularto the ground. In addition, they have a

Photo by Julie Lynn Andrew

Notable Saddlebred stallion Borealis, whose bloodline includesCHCaptive Spirit and CHMan On The Town.

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deep curve at the top of the neck (turnover) that allows them to tuck theirchins to their chest. The extreme highheaded position causes the back to flat-ten or ventroflex (bend downwards).The best of these horses can maintaingood hind leg activity and gait qualitydespite the strain on the back requiredby this posture.”

The Olympic disciplines require analternate type of conformation, “Theengagement needed for sport horse andgeneral riding horse work require a dif-ferent posture. These horses must stretchforward through the head, neck, back,and loin so that the entire top line isdorsiflexed (bent slightly upward). Thisallows the hind legs to swing up underthe horse’s center of mass. This is easiestfor horses with a less extreme neck con-formation, such as that found in ridinghorses of all types, including the oldertype American Saddlebreds. These hors-es have a shallower curve where theneck exits the shoulder and a moderatecurve at the top of the neck.”

We can best serve our young horses,Dr. Uhlinger says, by identifying whatthey can do best, and sending them inthat direction as early as possible.“Difficulties arise when horses of onenatural posture are forced into theframe required by the ‘other’ posture.There is no question that ‘double-hinged’ horses can and do perform insport horse venues; many of the warm-blood jumpers are swan-necked andrather flat-backed.” There is risk forthese horses, in asking those who arenot inherently designed for the work,“because this posture makes hind legengagement difficult, these horses overextend their hind legs and are prone todamage to the sacroiliac joint andhocks. Equally, the horses with moremoderate curves in their neck have diffi-culties when forced into ‘swan’ or high-headed position. This situation is seenboth in forward-headed Saddlebredchecked up into swan position and inlow-necked, straight-necked types forcedinto a more up-headed Dressage orjumper posture. In both cases, the hors-es are at risk of damage to the lumbro-sacral joint. Horses ridden in this pos-ture at the rack, or racing trot, maydevelop shear injuries in the sacroiliacjoint. This is often manifested in a dete-

rioration of gait quality in the hind end,and ultimately lameness issues.”

In seeking the highest and best usefor a horse, trainers are often forced towork within what they know, preparinga colt for the show horse world, and theresult can be horses who “aren’t good inthe bridle.” As Dr. Uhlinger explains,perhaps these horses simply are not partof that elite group of horses whose abili-ty to wear themselves in today’s showring posture – the vertical neckset –makes things easy. This can manifestitself most obviously in the hitching andhopping we see in a horse’s hind end.The issue is in the front end; the proof isin the hindquarters.

Obviously, weneed to create pro-grams that supportthe breeders’ effortsto utilize great blood-lines, and maximizetheir benefit. Nosmall part of this isaccomplished byascertaining a horse’spath, as early as pos-sible. ChrissaHoffman suggests,“Don’t start them asa show horse unlessthey look like theycan do it,” as thismay make it easier tomarket the prospectto a more appropri-ate venue, more easi-ly. “The AmericanSaddlebred’s‘upheadedness’ (com-pared to manywarmbloods), light-ness off of their feet,and natural self-carriage” lend them-selves to being potential Dressage com-petitors. While warmbloods offer “rangeof motion, natural suspension, and arebred for sport,” it is Chrissa’s opinionthat they can be “less rideable forAmateurs.” As this is the market withthe ability to purchase, maintain, andcompete with these horses, this is whereour marketing efforts need to befocused.

Bob Ruxer asks, “How do we do it?It will take an effort from the breeders,the horse show managers, and the pro-

fessional trainers. Breeders need to real-ize that they won’t survive — even thetop ones — if the unexplored marketsaren’t developed. That means we needto create a stage for the other disciplinesto be displayed. As the academy pro-grams have been included in mostshows today, ensuring riders for thefuture, we need to include the huntersand western factions. Of course it’ssmall now, but we have to start some-where. That’s where the show managersneed to step up and provide that stage.Albeit slowly, those divisions get trac-tion and we’ll see some stars developing.As that happens we’ll see an emerging

market. Andfinally, each andevery professionaltrainer out therewill need toembrace theother disci-plines...until theprofessionals canlook at the otherdisciplines andstart promotingthem as ‘lookhere, this is onefine hunter orone super west-ern horse,’ wejust can’t grow asa breed. If ittakes anotherring at a show toaccommodatethis, so be it. Itneeds to be done,and that meansnow, before it’stoo late. We canall be satisfied

with tradition, the way things havealways been, and we can stand on thesidelines and watch our breed deterio-rate to a rarity...or we can broaden ourhorizons and spread our wings and seeit grow. The choice is ours. The oppor-tunity is there if we all pull together inthe same direction, and rest assured thatif we don’t, there are other breeds thatwill. We can stand back and just letthings go, and see what happens, thenask ourselves when we’re no longer asustainable commodity, ‘What hap-pened?’” as

It will take an effortfrom the breeders,the horse show

managers, and the professionaltrainers. Breeders need to real-ize that they won’t survive —even the top ones — if theunexplored markets aren’tdeveloped. That means weneed to create a stage for theother disciplines to be dis-played. As the academy pro-grams have been included inmost shows today, ensuring rid-ers for the future, we need toinclude the hunters and westernfactions. Of course it’s small now,but we have to start somewhere.

“

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