William Fox-Pitt, multi-medal winner in the British eventing team, conducts a Master Class, great tips for everyone from a master trainer. Although they were riding novice level horses, Catherine Davies on Jen Jan Zenith and Katja Weimann on BP Valentina – interestingly, Katja has had a win in Europe in 2021. William used the two to demonstrate the work he does with  young horses: “My main principle when teaching, is you work on the rider and improve the rider, and the horse can only get better. Secondly, you should teach young horses to think for themselves. Right from the beginning, wh ..read more

  The companion volume to Gottard to Garibaldi – the making of the modern Warmblood, has just been published in digital form on Amazon, so it is available worldwide… Here are the chapters   And a few more pages to give you a taste…   To purchase the book, just go to Amazon, and search for: ‘Heroes – The Foundation Sires of the Modern Warmblood by Christopher Hector ..read more

Christopher Hector looks at the 2024 BN eventing stallion rankings – rankings that are based on the stallion’s own performances… The eventing stallions list is no longer inflated by horses that are stallions only in the eyes of the FEI database. Hopefully all the horses on this list are still entire since I’d consider at least a couple of them if I was looking for a suitor for an eventing mare. Ero De Cantraie  Number one on the list is Ero De Cantraie and once again this piece is sounding like a PR gloss for Joris de Brabander. The stallion is by Querlybet Hero, a 1.60m jumper, and an ..read more

Christopher Hector analyses the bloodlines at the World Young Eventing Horse Championships at Lion d’Angers Circumstances beyond my control prevented my attendance at this year’s championships. Sad since Le Lion is one of my favorite events, double sad since the line-up of horses was so genetically interesting this year… Starring again at Lyon,Thomas Carlile this time with Golden de Beliard (FEI/PSV photo) No matter how many times it was repeated, the assertion that you cannot breed horses for eventing, was always pretty daft since you only had to look at the success of the tiny group of pion ..read more

It might have something to do with the fact that Aachen CHIO  it has been going for just over one hundred years and they really know how to make the show something very special… The first horse show was held in Aachen, together with a horse race. In 1927 the horse show lasted six days. The first show jumping Nations Cup was held in 1929. When you actually step foot  on the show grounds, it hits you! Suddenly you realise that you are somewhere really special… Aachen is really just for that one magic few days every year. The facility is fine tuned to produce equestrian sport at the h ..read more

Heraldik 1982 – 2013 Christopher Hector, with assistance from Adriana van Tilburg, examines the life and times of the great eventing sire… The stallion came from a mysterious, and not particularly auspicious background, a riding school in Czechoslovakia, but imported to Germany, Heraldik became the most successful eventing sire of all time. Heraldik was crowned Number One WBFSH Eventing Sire in 2009, and held top spot until 2013, though it might be noted in 2014, he was 2nd, 3rd in 2015, 2nd again in 2016, 6th in 2017 and 7th in 2018. So, what made the stallion such a success? For starte ..read more

by Christopher Hector The breeding rankings are designed to assist mare owners in their choice of stallions, but at times it feels like they are there to provoke debate amongst the observers of sporthorse breeding, here’s a good example. At the 2022 Frankfurt Show, I caught up with my friend and advisor of the past couple of decades,  Sporthorse breeding expert, Ludwig Christmann. Ludwig has recently resigned from his position at the Hanoverian Verband, but he assured me he was not going to stop writing, indeed he had found a new topic. I hope since your retirement you haven’t stopped wr ..read more

Analysis – Christopher Hector Tenareze and Tom Carlile ([photo Eric Knoll) Lion d’Angers has been very much the happy hunting ground for French event rider, Thomas Carlile. (Photo – Roslyn Neave) In 2013, he took out both Championships, with Tenareze (Jaguar Mail / Quatar de Plape / Jalienny) and Sirocco du Gers (Dorsay sf / Jalienny), and in 2014 came back to claim another championship with Teneraze. In 2015, he was second on a horse that was to play a very special part in Tom’s life – Upsilon. Thomas Carlile and Upsilon, in 2015 (Photo – Dirk Caremans) In 2017, he was third on the mare, B ..read more

Your life could depend on it! Some of the serious accidents in the lower levels of eventing and with less experienced riders come about when horses rush their cross-country fences, says Australia’s leading horse behaviourist, Andrew McLean, but according to Andrew, while it might take time and patience to solve the problem – you can solve it.  “I think in the lower levels, many horses accelerate in their last few strides and this can be deadly, in particular because the rush is achieved by lengthening the stride, quickening the tempo and flattening the back. When a horse lengthens in tha ..read more

Christopher Hector wrote the words                                     Eric Knoll and Rebecca Ashton took the photos I was lucky enough to catch up with Andrew Hoy at Aachen, after he had recorded the fastest cross country round, to blast his way into second spot with Vassily de Lassos, against what was the classiest field I have ever seen at an event – ever. Andrew as might be expected, is glowing… “Vassily is not just a good horse, he is an exceptional horse.” Thomas Carlile and Vassily at the World ..read more