Chris Hector, who publishes the online magazine The Horse Magazine, has recently posted an article about André Leemans, a Belgian breeder of jumpers who has been very successful. His recent star is the young Elite stallion Iron Man. The topic was interesting, as Leemans spoke of his original foundation mare and everything he built from that.
I almost didn't get past the beginning, however: Chris Hector's first paragraph, where he says, "It annoys me when I read articles about ‘breeders’ and when I get to the end of the article, I’ve heard lots of self-promotion but I discover there is not one single product of this ‘breeder’s’ program that has done anything of real note."
If you're a breeder, how do you feel about that statement? He compares it to another statement by Bernard le Courtois (founder of the successful studfarm Brullemail), who made a distinction between stallions and un-castrated males, and adds that "perhaps the same distinction would be between breeders and the owners of horses that produce foals?" I'm a fan of Chris Hector and all his deep knowledge of bloodlines, but I am bit offended by that, since if you're putting in the work to produce the best horses you can, you're already more than an "owner of horses that produce foals." You may not have the kind of success that André Leemans has had - yet - but Leemans didn't in the beginning either. Was he just an "owner of horses that produce foals" when all he had was his first mare?
Please post comments below.
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