Eventing maestro Mark Todd answers runner up Carol Weal from Truro, Cornwall question on the importance on breeding
Q: When buying a horse, to what extent do you look at its breeding, or is your choice made solely on how it performs?
Carol Weal from Truro, Cornwall
Mark replies: Breeding only plays a small part in the choice. Sometimes the breeding will make me keener to look at the horse and at other times it will put me off a bit. But on the whole, it is the horse itself that has to be up to scratch.
If it performs well and I like what I see, I don’t care who its parents are. Having said that, though, for eventing I like horses to be full-Thoroughbred, or at least very near.
See this week’s Horse & Hound magazine (17 January 2002) to read Mark’s answers to other reader’s questions, or click here to subscribe.