Thanks to our database, Hippomundo is able to accumulate all the pedigrees of horses in international competitions. At the start of a new year and before the breeding season is in full swing, Hippomundo wishes to bring a new reflection to breeders: a look into the age of the mothers of our champions at the time of their birth.
For the mare, depending on her breeding, the traditions of the countries or the visions of the breeders, different career paths are offered to her at the time of her birth: a career in the sport, a broodmare or a combination of both. For our study we took the top 50 showjumping horses of the year 2021 and we studied the age of their dam at the time of their birth (taking into account the dates of the dam and her foal). Here are our observations:
The vast majority of the dams were under the age of 10 at the time of foaling their future champion.
For the year 2021, we notice that 66% of the broodmares were under the age of 10 at the time of the birth of their future champion. When we look closer at the graph, the median of these statistics stops at 6.5 years old, which means that around half of the broodmares were seven years old or younger when they birthed their foal. 30% of them were 3 or 4 years old, meaning that they started their broodmare career very early, before they ever had the chance to compete. Among the champions born from these young broodmares are Elektric Blue P (4 years old), Venard de Cerisy (4 years old), Gazelle(3 years old), Dominator 2000 Z(3 years old).
Same trend for the top 50 in 2015.
Aware of the limited data for this study, we compared the top 50 horses of 2021 with the top 50 of 2015 (first full year of results in the Hippomundo database). We arrive at the same conclusions with a percentage of 50% of the dams having given birth before the age of seven and 80% for those having foaled before the age of 10. Among the champions born from these young broodmares we can mention: Hello Sanctos (5 years old), Casall Ask (4 years old), Nino des Buissonnets (6 years old), Fibonnacci 17 (5 years old).
Are the products born before their mother's 10th birthday the best?
These observations show a tendency for the best horses to be produced when the dams are young. Of course, many factors linked to the biology of the mares, breeding techniques or the value of the offspring have to be put into perspective. Exceptions still exist and do not prevent older dams from foaling future champions. For example, the dam of King Edward (3rd best horse in 2021) was 23 years old when he was born, while the dam of Rothchild(38th best horse in 2015) was 24 at the time of his birth.
The observations of our study are in line with a study carried out in the Japanese racing world. A study was conducted in Japan from 1997 to 2007 on 364,724 thoroughbred mares put to stud and on the racing results of the offspring born as a result. They observed that the mare's fertility rate dropped as soon as the first foal was born, in addition to the natural decline in fertility linked to the mare's age. Based on this finding, they observed that a mare that started her broodmare career at a young age was more likely to produce high quality horses when she gave birth to her first offspring.
We are aware of the lack of data related to our study and all the biases that interact in our sport and that can influence the foaling and/or the development of a foal to the highest level. Through these different observations, we wanted to bring some food for thought to breeders in order to bring new elements to their breeding strategy.
