South African Sires Series - Their Influence on OTTBs

South Africa has historically been very successful in non-racing equestrian pursuits with Thoroughbred ex-racehorses. During the apartheid years, sanctions and lack of forex did not allow many people to import many Warmbloods into the country, pre-1994. The main source of sport horses was from the racing industry, and many of our top riders like Gonda Betrix, Anneli Wucherpfennig (Drummond-Hay), Peter Gotz, Barry Taylor, and many, many others, made their livings from re-schooling ex-racehorses, and turning them into top level International A Grade Show Jumpers. It was from pure necessity, and the big classes at all the shows were dominated by these ReTrained Thoroughbreds. Over the years I have kept notes on some of these "old school" top level show jumpers, all handwritten of course, in the hope that one day I could share it someday. I have written down their breeding and found some familiar bloodlines popping up again and again. I have a vast collection of old racing publications as well, and after browsing through them over and over again, I have found some amazing old photos of prolific sires, and the occasional yearling promotional photos of a few of the top level horses themselves.

I would love some input from you, either to correct things that I have made errors with, or even to add names, and of course photos of the horses jumping would be absolutely incredible! Please feel free to comment and contribute!

The first thing I would like to share with you is that there is a noticeable dearth, or lack of Northern Dancer line horses, in the top ranks of South African Show Jumping. That is not to say that there are none. The Lyphard line in particular has given us some great show jumpers, but the other lines are noticeably absent.

Secondly, the two most prolific ancestry lines on South African show jumpers, are Hyperion and Fair Trial. In fact, it seems the more times that these horses appear in the pedigree, the more successful the jumpers were! Their names come up again and again, in multiple generations. As I post the sires, you will notice this more and more.

 

(Photo courtesy of Form Bloodhorse Racing and Breeding,

A Decade Of South African Champions)

 

 

I would love some input from you, either to correct things that I have made errors with, or even to add names, and of course photos of the horses jumping would be absolutely incredible! Please feel free to comment and contribute!