My first visit to South Africa was in 2000. Since then I have visited South Africa many times to bring horses over from Belgium. In that period I have observed numerous

South African Thoroughbreds and I found the quality of this breed very good.

However, I have a feeling that South African people tend to think that the European Warmblood is superior and more perfect than the South African Thoroughbred. I have trained, bred and competed many Warmblood horses to the level where they can achieve in dressage or jumping. Therefore I would like to share the experiences I had with European Warmbloods.

South African versus European

In general I found that the South African Thoroughbred is naturally more talented than the European Warmblood used in our breeding lines. The European Warmblood needs more base-training than the South African Thoroughbred – “base” meaning that you have to teach the horse how to use its body in the walk, trot, canter and over a fence.

This comes more natural to the South African Thoroughbred than to the European Warmblood. Much emphasis is needed to teach the European Warmblood what the instructions from your hands and legs mean.

The South African Thoroughbred is naturally born with a specific jumping technique that is very difficult and sometimes impossible to change. However, the European Warmblood’s jumping technique renders room for improvement but only with the ­correct base, exercises and training.

A very important weakness of the European Warmblood to understand is that they have an inactive hind leg. For this reason, it is important that Warmbloods are ridden with leg. Your typical South African Thoroughbred has a natural active hind leg and therefore they don’t need all that much leg and you can fix instructions with different bits.

Riding or training problems among Warmbloods are impossible to fix with bits or any other kind of aids such as elastics, draw reins and the like. Before these aids can be successfully used in training Warmbloods, they have to understand exactly what is meant with your leg aids and they have to be active from behind.

This is only established when:

• The horse is giving your steps – not faster or slower than you intend it to be
• The horse is following your rising – your rising is not following the horse
• You don’t get the feeling that your horse is running underneath you
• The horse is carrying you and you feel as if you are sitting “in the middle” of the horse
• The horse comes in balance, bending through the whole body
• If you give more leg with a steady hand, the horse gets softer in the mouth
• When you collect and extend in a trot or canter, the horse makes the strides shorter and longer accordingly, but all the time the hind legs stay active and the horse is willing to carry himself on his hind legs.

Even a “hot” Warmblood has to be ridden with enough leg, because a “hot” Warmblood does not imply an active hind leg. Sometimes a Warmblood gets strong in the mouth with a dead feeling. Sharper and stronger bits should not be considered the solution to the problem. Instead, the problem should be fixed at the source – inactive hind legs.

Only when the problem is solved at the hind legs, can you start changing bits to get a more specific feeling in the mouth. The naturally active hind legs of the South African Thoroughbred render itself to only change the bit in order to obtain more control.

What about training?

It is important to stress that I think in general the Warmblood's ultimate potential may be higher that the Thoroughbred's immediate potential. In my opinion one can immediately tell today what a Thoroughbred's jump is like. If he jumps in an unorthodox manner, this is how it will stay, no matter what height you jump, and what schooling and exercise you do with him.

Training will only bring out more of your Thoroughbred because it is more supple, fit and responsive to the rider's aids. The Warmblood on the other hand is deceiving because you can't judge it as a five- or six-year old and write it off as "untalented" if the correct base training has not been applied in that specific Warmblood’s life. Most Warmbloods can be “moulded” and corrected and the jump improved because of the training methods used.

In the next article I will discuss a comparison between the different European Warmblood breeds and detailing their specific strengths and weaknesses.