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Morningside Interview continued....

"Back in perhaps 2002 I did an interview with Breeding News for Sport Horses in which I said that my goal was to become a highly-ranked breeder in all three Olympic disciplines. For some reason the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) no longer ranks breeders (I will be dealing with this and some related concerns in a forthcoming article for Horse International Magazine) so the attainment of this goal will be more difficult to measure.

So far Morningside Stud has bred three international showjumpers and two international eventing horses. We have bred young horses that have represented Ireland and Portugal in the World Breeding Championships in showjumping and eventing. We have bred or co-bred the 2009 champions in the UK (joint winner of the 4-year-old showjumping championship) and the USA (4-year-old champion showjumper and 5-year-old champion showjumper in the KWPN-NA ISF Cup). These youngsters, with a bit of luck, should also showjump internationally.

Now we are awaiting one of our home-breds to break into international dressage. We sold three foals to two international dressage riders several years ago and next year they will be 5-years-old. So we wait and hope!"

Lastly I asked Tom what he felt was the best advice he could offer to breeders, giving the journey that he has already taken, and through his own experiences as not only a stallion holder, but as a mare owner:

Only use mares in your breeding program with outstanding damlines. Take out your mare's pedigree. Make a photocopy of it. On the photocopy draw circles around the name of your mare, your mare's dam, her dam, and her dam. Now do your research. If these four mares, and their sisters, have not produced the types of athletes you are trying to produce in your breeding program then cull your mare and don't look back.

"Wang Chung M2S" (Royal Bravour x Ahorn)

If your goal is to breed international showjumpers these four mares, or their sisters, should have produced one or more international showjumpers. If you can find no international showjumpers from the damline of your mare there is only one thing to do: remove your mare from the breeding population. It is better to have one mare with a proven damline than any number of mares with unproved (meaning failed) damlines.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tom Reed for all his time and for sending us some fabulous pictures of his stallions.

We also have a full length article on The Warmblood Studbook of Ireland.