At 77 years young, Sam Barr's opinions are still as strong and as relevant as when be gave up dairy farming to concentrate on breeding eventers. Best known for the Welton bloodlines, Sam is outspoken about British sentimentality when it comes to breeding.
...Q How did you begin breeding horses?
I simply transferred the skills I learned dairy farming to breeding event horses. An event horse is very complex because you have to have a horse with great courage, great patience for the dressage, and a great athletic ability for the showjumping. It intrigued me and was a big challenge to try and breed something of this nature.
Q What were your basic principles?
When I bred dairy cows, I bred them to give a lot of milk and live for five or six years healthily. The principles were that mother, grandmother and great-grandmother must all have those qualities. It is exactly the same, in my view, for the horses. The principles of breeding for performance, whether you're breeding cows for milk or horses for three-day events really are the same. One brilliant individual means nothing but, when you have three generations, youÕre somewhere near where you want to be. So, we started with the right criteria through the stallion, because I believe that all event horses rely very largely on the thoroughbred. Today, I never use anything but a thoroughbred mare if I'm using a 3/4-bred stallion and a thoroughbred stallion with a 3/4-bred mare. Seven-eighths thoroughbred is the minimum I now believe is necessary...