L. Beerbaum / RATINA Z

 Pedigree CHAO LEE

Ludger Beerbaum’s vision about young horses (& Comme Il Faut) 

Posted on 23 Sep 2019

Photo © Kumail_photos

Hippomundo decided to meet up with one of Germany’s ledgends during the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championships for Young Horses and to ask him what is his vision about young horses...

“As a breeder, stallion owner and rider, I know the difficulties of finding a good horse, especially one for the big sport,” Ludger starts his story. “Every year I breed two to three foals, mainly with mares we had in the sport ourselves. When I make a combination, I try to look for what I can improve. First I try to make a good combination in terms of size, secondly in terms of the type and third in way of their movement, these for me, are the basics of a horse. I try to look for these things as well when I add a stallion to my stallions collection. But it all has to make sense as well: you can’t keep using the same bloodlines or relatives. That means sometimes we don’t use a super stallion, but we need to keep a good mixture on our station! I try to find a good balance between young and old, and to have stallions with power and blood. And sometimes you also have to look for what stallion makes sense for your breeders to use, because that doesn’t necessarily always match with my personal wishes.”

“Once a foal is born, I make a personal opinion, but I don’t want to judge a foal already. I like to follow up and see how they change as a yearling or two-year-old. After doing this for more than 25 years you get a little bit experience, but you still have to be careful! I’m not a fan of selecting too early. Sometimes you can be surprised about how they turn out once they are older... A very extreme example of this is Comme Il Faut. When he was born, he looked like a little German Shepard. Even as a 2,5-year-old, when he went to the stallion approval in Hannover, he was by far the smallest stallion. He also wasn’t a really great mover, but he jumped very good. But, he didn’t have a big stride, so he needed to do two strides instead of one stride. But he turned out to be an exceptional jumper and he still is a great horse! Which shows you how difficult it is to judge a young horse...”

“Once they are 2-year-old, we let them jump in freedom but also here you have to be careful. Sometimes the way they jump in freedom tells something about how they will jump under the saddle, but sometimes the contrary is true as well. I actually prefer to see a horse jumping in freedom without knowing the pedigree. Because sometimes you make a judgement based on the breeding, which is something you can not do if you only know the breeding afterwards. It is the same when you know the mother and the father of your own breeding product: it makes your judgment less neutral which is sometimes not a good thing. When looking at a young horse I attach great importance to good movements and enough blood, because I think this is always an advantage to have. But sometimes you have offspring that are no good movers, but do have a great impression and confidence, which can also help to match other weaknesses.”

That Ludger’s eye for young horses is well developed was proven again in Zangersheide. His rider Christian Kukuk was there to compete with Mumbai van de Moerhoeve, a stallion they acquired from Woodland’s International Sales by the end of 2018. “We saw Mumbai van de Moerhoeve for the first time when he was six years old, at a show in Holland. It was actually Philipp Weishaupt who recognized his talent. After that show we went to try it and we really liked it. In the beginning we bought only a share, because we both had the same vision about the development of the horse. Originally, I really liked the way he was jumping, but I even more liked the way he was bred: Diamant de Semilly x Nabab de Reve x Chin Chin x Quidam de Revel! That is really popular blood and also new blood for us in Germany.

While we were doing all the tests to get him approved in Germany, Christian Kukuk was training him and he progressed even more that we had hoped! He started to jump better and better, and that is something you can see in the results as well... Where-ever he was, the big arena of Valkenswaard Aachen, ... he was always clear and placed. And that is what he did in Lanaken as well, by qualifying for the big final for 7-year-old horses”