Ken’s Kitten is a Thoroughbred sport horse who is expected to “go big” in the Eventing world.
Oh those Thoroughbred bloodlines!
Long studied by breeders and racehorse owners hoping to create the perfect marriage between speed and distance, stamina and competitiveness, those same ancestral roots are also consulted by sport-horse owners searching for clues beyond a Thoroughbred’s conformation and way of going.
International Eventing champion Denny Emerson reveals that his ideal Eventing Thoroughbred is a “Belmont Stakes horse from the 1950s: 16.2 hands with a long neck, big shoulder, strong forearm and gaskin, and an uphill build—all qualities that help a horse push himself into the air as a jumper,” according to Natalie Voss of the Paulick Report.
Second-generation offspring of Hail to Reason (a line that includes Halo, Roberto, Saint Ballado, Saint Liam, More Than Ready, Dynaformer, Sunday Silence, and Arch among others) have had high-level Eventing success, according to the article, which notes that examples include Sassy Reason, a son of Champagne winner Limit to Reason, who won the prestigious Burghley Horse Trials, and Epic Win, son of graded stakes-placed Epic Journey, who went to the CCI** level.
Great article! Makes it easy to translate how thoroughbreds can really excel in other demanding sports besides racing. Most horse lovers are quite in love with some of the bloodlines of the great racers. Often it seems the mares’ bloodlines determine the outcome, not the stallions. Is that true or just another mystery in the horse world?
SO TRUE. CLASSIC THOROBRED BLOOD LINES.