[Waterwitch]

http://worldofshowjumping.com/olympi...team-announced

[Mara]

I love me some Flexible! What a tough little dude, and he and Rich have such a special bond.

[knowthatifly]

We have to add that his offspring have the same character, agility, and reflexes. We love our now 8 week old filly Anam Cara by Flexible out of our Mezcalero/TB mare! And we are breeding back for another out of our Galoubet A mare for 2013. To make things even more fun, our filly was born the morning after Flexible won the World Cup Finals - impeccable timing! And now 4 Olympic Trials later........well, ya just couldn't even imagine that until it happened.
We love Rich Fellers latest comment on Flexible's win streak - "He is in self-peaking mode. I just ride him." Hope our filly inherited that, too!

[Sakura Hill Farm]

Watching Flexible carve out his well-deserved wins with Rich Fellows increases our eagerness to see how our mare Bijin m2s (Ekstein x Cruising) who is being trained in Europe will make up. She is out of a Cruising mare and by the highly sought-after Ekstein of Hickstead repute. Her 2011 filly Gaijin S by Olympic Quintus is also in Europe. We are so happy to see these genes coming to the forefront in the highest level competitions and wish Flexible and Fellows every possible success in the conviction that their hard work is now paying off! How exciting it will be to watch them go this July and August in London!

[vineyridge]

There has never really been any doubt about Cruising's pre-potency, has there?

I love all the very good TBs in both Cruising and Flexible's dam.

[Sakura Hill Farm]

I have always been warned against doing any linebreeding on Cruising.

[vineyridge]

Actually, I wouldn't linebreed on either Cruising or his sire, Sea Crest. The brain is dicey enough as it is with just one line. More than one would be very risky.

[knowthatifly]

You can cross your Cruising to a Clover Hill - which is line breeding to Tara and this has produced dozens of international jumpers. You could breed to Carlow Clover for example who stands in USA. Rich Fellers up and coming successor for Flexible is Colgan Cruise who is a Cruising-Clover Hill mare. She just won a $60K GP at Showpark a few weeks ago.

[Waterwitch]

Don't forget that there are also some pretty powerful TB bloodlines present in the Cruising-Clover Hill cross including Nordly's, Water Serpent, and Precipitation, and horses from this cross are linebred to Arctic Storm.

[knowthatifly]

Can't underestimate the TB component, but the line breeding to Tara seems to be the key to the very high number of international level jumpers found with this cross. Nordlys xx is the sire of Olympic Gold and Silver medalists.

[SueL]

Actually, I wouldn't linebreed on either Cruising or his sire, Sea Crest. The brain is dicey enough as it is with just one line. More than one would be very risky.

n=1 but we have a Cruising descendent (TouchdownxCruising) whose brain is anything but dicey. He's extremely level-headed, kind and comes out of his stall the same way every day. Very, very brave and a huge gallop (well, that's from Touchdown, I think.) Maybe Touchdown tempered the Cruising temperament, but I tend to like Galoubet descendants in general so that could be a bias on my part.

Cruising himself was difficult and stalky - but that made him very careful, almost too careful. I would not breed a mare that was ultra-careful to him, but to a bolder line, he is quite nice. And with flat cups and airy jumps, the extra bit of careful is good to have.

Someone on here is doing Flexible to a Galoubet daughter. Kind of the inverse to our boy.

Sue

[Waterwitch]

Can't underestimate the TB component, but the line breeding to Tara seems to be the key to the very high number of international level jumpers found with this cross. Nordlys xx is the sire of Olympic Gold and Silver medalists.

Not saying Tara might not be significant but from a logic standpoint I think it is hard to attribute the success of the Cruising-Clover Hill cross to the Tara linebreeding and not the Arctic Storm linebreeding, or other horses in the pedigree, without further study. Otherwise it is just a hunch.

One way to evaluate the hypothesis would be to look at how many performance horses have Tara or Arctic Storm in the back breeding that do not go back to Clover Hill or Sea Crest. I can think of one international horse off the top of my head that fits this description and that is Mary King's recently retired Apache Sauce whose damsire was Colman. Colman is the only surviving branch of the Tara male line.

[knowthatifly]

Not a hunch. Cruising crossed on other damsires or damlines without Tara has not produced such a high percentage of international jumpers. The double of Arctic Que alone (sans Tara) also has not produced such a high percentage of int'l jumpers.
Cruising-Clover Hill is a jumper nick much like Alme-Ramiro in significance, but less appreciated.
So you see it is not a non sequiter.

[knowthatifly]

Hey SueL, there is also Mic Mac du Tillard who is amazingly talented but also quite sensitive and a challenging ride. She is on the Swedish show jumping team with Angelica Augustsson (SP?) for London. Her pedigree is Cruising-Galoubet A. The Galoubet A mare we are breeding to Flexible is actually very quiet for that bloodline and is 17.1 H. She is also linebred Nasrullah 5 x 5 on the damside. She also throws tall and sensible based on the two colts she has had so far - one by Riverman (HOL) and one by Pilox (GOV).

[Waterwitch]

Not a hunch. Cruising crossed on other damsires or damlines without Tara has not produced such a high percentage of international jumpers. The double of Arctic Que alone (sans Tara) also has not produced such a high percentage of int'l jumpers.
Cruising-Clover Hill is a jumper nick much like Alme-Ramiro in significance, but less appreciated.
So you see it is not a non sequiter.

I am not questioning the nick between Cruising and Clover Hill. It exists. And I am not arguing that Tara *could* be a factor, because he could. What I am not following is your logic that Tara is *definitively* the reason for the success of this cross.

It is rare to see Tara in an international performance pedigree without Arctic Storm/Arctic Que. That's because it is rare to see Tara in a performance pedigree originating from anything other than Clover Hill or Cruising's sire Sea Crest.

Best wishes,