BREEDING a superstar looks easy when you analyse the pedigree. Cornish Queen, the dam of the all-conquering Lordships Graffalo (Walter) and five-star campaigner Pencos Crown Jewel (Jasmine), has bloodlines loaded with quality. Advanced event horses and classy steeplechasing genes pepper both sides of the family tree.
Put to top eventing sires Grafenstolz and Jumbo, how could she possibly fail to produce champion offspring? But as any breeder knows, the theory often bears scant relation to practice.
In fact, the story of Cornish Queen – known as Geri – goes back decades. Piece by piece, parts of an intricate puzzle were being interlocked over the years to produce the full and glorious picture resulting in a Badminton and European champion. But if it wasn’t for the intuition, talent and knowledge of Geri’s breeder Bridget Parker, these sterling lines might never have come to fruition.
Mimi Falb, who owns yearling Pencos Sovereign – the full sister to Lordships Graffalo (see box, p40) – highlights Bridget’s wizardry.
“It’s amazing how Bridget put all these lines together,” she says. “She had a foresight no one else had.”
Back in 1972, Bridget rode a gelding by the name of Cornish Gold to Olympic eventing team gold in Munich. Soon after, she bought his half-sister, Tregea, named after “the house of the old Cornishman I bought her from”.
“I never rode Tregea, but she had 12 foals, and five of them went advanced,” Bridget says. “My daughter Katie [Burton] rode most of them, including Cornish Faer, the mother of Cornish Queen, at Badminton and Burghley.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 04, 2024-Ausgabe von Horse & Hound.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 04, 2024-Ausgabe von Horse & Hound.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Jappeloup
A small horse who looked like two halves put together’, Jappeloup nonetheless proved to have a big heart and a huge talent”.
Collett takes two
A bumper fixture hosts 12 intermediate and open intermediate sections, as Paris contenders blow away the cobwebs
Capitalise on buyers' remorse
Equestrian properties might be in short supply, but prices are back to normal after the Covid frenzy as the capital lures buyers again
Games making
Equestrianism will be in the thick of the action in Paris, but the logistics of hosting Olympics in the heart of an iconic city are a challenge. Kate Johnson asks organisers, riders and grooms for their memories of urban Olympic sites
On the bench
Being picked as the \"fourth man\" to support a three-man Olympic team, ready to step in at any moment in the competition, requires a resilient and unflinchingly sportsmanlike mindset.
A brush with the Games
Want to know what really goes into preparing an Olympic campaign? Bethany Stone speaks to top industry grooms with star-studded CVs for the scoop
One moment in time
The Olympics is the zenith of an athlete's career but precious few scale those giddy heights. Sue Polley asks four British Olympians about their most memorable experiences
'Pride? I just felt relief
Blyth Tait on jumping barn roofs, \"freezing\" in the Atlanta heat and the day his eight-year-old prodigy won Olympic gold
Mental health advocate
Harry Dunlop retired from training in 2022, having held his licence for 16 years. He founded the Trainer Support Network in 2023
Hugo Simon
The six-time Olympian tells Bernard Bale about his \"extraterrestrial\" string of horses, changing nationality and his success at the boycotted Games