Behind the Scenes with Dr. Tom Reed

This is Wang Chung m2s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s been collecting a steady stream of ribbons in the 1.45m division in Florida winter with Eric Lamaze. You’ll likely be seeing a lot of them.

This is Dr. Thomas Reed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s the breeder and co-owner of Wang Chung m2s. You won’t be seeing much of him. Just yet. (He’s based in Ireland).

But, remember the face. Because Dr. Reed has plans for his breeding operation, Morningside Stud. BIG PLANS. “Take over the world” type plans. And if aspirations of global domination aren’t enough to peak your interest, his thought-provoking ideas on breeding probably will. (Also, he told me just what it is they call his talented stallion around the barn…)

What are the breeding goals of Morningside Stud?

Our mission is “to breed and compete international Grand Prix / 4* competition horses for the Olympic disciplines of show jumping and eventing by crossing world-class Warmblood sires with mares that possess outstanding performance bloodlines and athleticism; to compete our stallions in international show jumping and eventing; and to sell outstanding horses to international riders, sponsors, competition stables, and excellent breeders throughout the world.”

Or as I like to say, our goal is “world domination!” Simply stated, our goal is to breed world-class athletes for CSI show jumping and CCI/CIC eventing.

You describe the heavy use of imported semen in North America as “armchair breeding.” Why do you think that strategy will fail (is failing)?

The three most important lessons I have learned about breeding are:

1. to use mares that come from outstanding damlines (meaning that the mare and her dam and her dam and their daughters have produced international athletes)
2. to breed generations of mares (meaning a mare, and her daughters and her grand-daughters, etc.), and
3. to work hard to understand how your mare produces and how the stallions you use produce.

A breeder looking at a fancy catalogue or pouring over the rankings or watching videos on the internet has no way of understanding the genetic potential in those far away stallions he or she is considering and how their genetic endowment may interact with the genetic endowment in his or her mare. The breeder often tends to focus on one trait, and usually a conformation trait that is not highly hertitable or has no strong association with athletic success, and picks a stallion to “fix” that problem in the mare. For me that is the wrong way to approach breeding.

Athleticism should be the top criterion and goal. A breeder has a higher probability of success — and again, I define success as breeding horses that go on to compete successfully in CSI and CCI/CIC competitions — by using very good stallions in their own countries after observing how these stallions produce, talking to other breeders about those stallions and what and how they produce, etc.

But of course the breeder has to spend even more time understanding how his or her mare and her damline produces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think is the biggest challenge breeders in North America face?

I believe fragmentation, both geographic and social, is the biggest problem. North American breeders seem to be infatuated with European studbooks and breeds and the penny has not dropped yet that if North America is going to become an important producer of top-level international athletes breeders are going to have to give up their love affairs with the Dutch and German (in particular) studbooks and build their own breed.

Conversely, where do the strengths in North American breeding lie?

I do not see any important strengths or competitive advantages in North America. Yes, there are some good breeders in North America. But they are few and far between and they succeed despite their environment.

What qualities do you look for in a broodmare?

First thing I look at is the pedigree and especially the damline of the mare and the damline of the mare’s sire. At this point in the development of my breeding program, I do not introduce a new mare into my population unless I am blown away by the damline. I purchased a new mare last year but it probably has been five or six years since my last purchase. The mare I bought, Primavera B, is the grand-dam of my Holsteiner stallion Consall B and she is a half-sister of Marius (winner of Individual and Team Gold Medals in Eventing at the last Olympics) and of Cefalo (a Holsteiner and WSI approved stallion that represents Germany in Nations Cup and Grand Prix competitions) and of Copyright and Sprite (international show jumpers). And the extended damline is top-class.

If the pedigree interests me, I look at the mare herself and especially her athleticism. Athletes tend to produce athletes and non-athletes tend to produce the Sunday roast for the French.

Finally, I decide if her conformation is good enough. By looking at mares this way — pedigree then athleticism then conformation — I try to avoid the “beauty over performance trap.”

What is the “beauty over performance trap.”

Simply stated, most breeders focus on conformation too much and try to fix undesirable conformation features. The problem with this approach is that most conformation features are not highly heritable and most are not highly correlated with success in sport. So, they are selecting on a feature that is neither highly heritable nor associated with athletic success.

With the unfortunate loss of Hickstead last year, I imagine there is a lot of interest in the remaining stock of his semen. What type of mare would you breed to Hickstead?

I believe that Hickstead takes after his dam-sire Ekstein along many dimensions: athelticism, mind, size, etc. As the owner of Ekstein for the last third of his life, I have a pretty good understanding of how Ekstein produced and I have some views on the type of mare that would suit HIckstead. But, if I were in control of the remaining inventory of frozen semen I would do nothing at this time.

I would wait a few years to see what his foals are like when they are three to five years old and I would certainly try to see the mares they came out of and try to understand the damlines of those mares. Only then would I begin to use the semen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are a vocal opponent to cloning. How do you think cloning will negative impact horse sport? In light of Hickstead’s death, have your views softened at all?

Not at all. I am a horse breeder, not a horse manufacturer. I do find it amazing that despite the current FEI ban on clones and their progeny and descendants in international sport there are well known stud farms in Europe (especially in Belgium) and in the USA offering semen from cloned stallions and geldings. I wonder if their customers are aware of the FEI ban?

At the recent USEF meeting, George Morris called for the revival of the Thoroughbred in hunter/jumper sport. Do you think we’ll ever see resurgence of Thoroughbreds or Thoroughbred crosses in the show ring?

Mr. Morris has forgotten more about show jumping and training horses and riders for the sport than I will ever know, but he has become nostalgic when it comes to breeding show jumpers. (I know nothing about hunters so I have nothing to say about that sport.) The role of the Thoroughbred in show jumping breeding has been diminishing during the last couple of decades and it will continue to diminish because, with few exceptions, they do not possess the athletic attributes required to produce top-level show jumpers.

When a superstar Thoroughbred sire like Heraldik xx emerges again, I will be among the first to use him. And if I had mares in North America I would use A Fine Romance xx in my breeding program. Mr. Morris can call all he wants, but it is not going to happen.

I do believe that Thoroughbreds will continue to play a very important role in eventing, both in sport and breeding. And I believe that eventing breeding needs to use more Thoroughbred and Anglo-Arabs if the goal is to breed top-level eventers.

You’re based in Ireland and yet often use international riders to develop your horses. Have you been criticized for not using more Irish riders?

No. People leave me alone. We have a band of about 40 brood mares in Ireland and we keep our young horses here until they go in sport, but then they are sent away.

At this moment, I have in sport two stallions in Florida (Wang Chung m2s is show jumping with his co-owner Eric Lamaze and Bada Bing m2s is eventing with his co-owner Callie Judy); three stallions showjumping in Germany (Ballistic m2s, Boy Toy m2s, and Chien-Ming Wang m2s with Lars Rethemeier); one gelding eventing in Germany with his co-owner Caroline Regitze Jensen (Ziggy Marley m2s); and one stallion showjumping in Belgium with his co-owner Rossella de Simone(Ulysses m2s).

Finally, what is the barn name of Wang Chung m2s?

We do not do barn names.