Introduction

Equestrian Sports New Zealand and Massey University have initiated a programme to improve the quality and supply of sport horses in New Zealand.

This initiative aims to bring New Zealand’s sport horse breeding in line with best practice world standards. Greater depth and integrity of horse pedigree data combined with results on one platform will provide a complete pedigree and performance package for potential buyers including the export market.

The New Zealand sport horse industry has only a few large scale commercial breeders, with the smaller hobby breeders being the most numerous. Compounding this, sport horse breeding is fragmented with an estimated 30 different breed organisations providing variable levels of support and registration for breeders.

The New Zealand sport horse industry is estimated to have a contribution to New Zealand’s GDP of an equivalent value of the racing industries (~$NZ1.1Billon).  However, as an industry many aspects of equestrian sport lack both vertical and horizontal integration. At present the lack of vertical integration, from breeding to sport, limits identification of suitable breeding products and limits the flow of product into sport and onto the export market. 

The lack of centralised recording of non-racing horses also provides a significant biosecurity risk for the industry, as control measures cannot be implemented based on reliable metrics.

Breeding Values

One of the aims of the programme is to calculate breeding values (BVs) by integrating pedigree and performance on the ESNZ database. Breeding values can guide breeders in their breeding choices to reduce wastage and improve the quality of sport horses bred here. BVs will contribute to increased domestic and international consumer confidence in the New Zealand sport horse. And that results in a more robust and financially secure market for breeders and producers.

The integration of pedigree and performance will help market young horses and horses not yet competing internationally because their family performance records will be clearly visible and identified within the database.

Sire Rankings

Here are the latest sires rankings based on the published points earned by horses in the 5 and 6 year old Show Jumping series.

These rankings cover the last two years.

Summary

Over the last two seasons there were 233 horses that obtained points in the 5 and 6 year old Show Jumping series.  These horses were sired by 91 different sires.  Almost half the sires recorded had only one progeny that obtained points.  The most popular sires were Cassiano, Euro Sport Centavos and Corofino 11, with 19, 16 and 14 progeny listed respectively. 

A full list of sires is provided alphabetically for viewing.  However, for rankings, the list has been restricted to sires with three or more progeny.  

A big thank you to Massey University for providing these valuable insights.