Arnaud Evain is a very active man in the sport horse field and can be encountered in various sectors of the breeding and competition systems. An agricultural engineer by profession, he threw himself into horses in the 1980's after spending some time in Africa, working in the animal feeding sphere. Following in his father's footsteps, who had created a sport horse trade agency called ÔFuriosoÕ, Arnaud Evain settled in Falaise, Normandy, home town of William the Conqueror, to create, in his turn, ÔPHIÕ, an agency specialising in the management of stallions, frozen semen, breeding stock and sport horses. He is also head of the FENCES auction sales, started in 1989 by Arnaud Evain and a group of partners. He is also a member of various organisations; the Selle Français Stud-Book Commission, the Syndicate of Horse Dealers, the Association of Private Stallion Managers, and the Council of Horses in Normandy.
Q What do you consider to be your best bloodlines?
The Quidam de Revel and Rox de La Touche bloodlines are obviously in the limelight today, but I believe I Love You will later meet with deserved success. I would also pinpoint Nonix (Diableur - Taquinerie xx - Tapalque xx) and Quinta C's (Cyrus (grandson of Ibrahim) - Taquinerie xx x Tapalque xx) bloodlines.
Q Do you think that you have remained faithful to Selle Français ideals, until now?
I have worked a lot to help the SF studbook open up to other studbooks because, before coming into breeding, I was in the sport horse business from 1976 to 1986 and I thought it would be valuable to mix the French genes. I witnessed the very fast evolution of the Dutch studbook and I thought that the SF studbook would benefit from a similar evolution. So I can say that I didn't precede the opening of the studbook, but rather that I got it started. This late opening means now we have to be careful that it doesn't run into any precipitation. We must maintain the natural jumping aptitude of the Selle Français and try to add some submission, movement and power.
QWhat foreign bloodlines did you yourself introduce before the open door policy?
The first foals by foreign stallions were born in 1990, and they were sired by Voltaire, Abdullah and Windsor.....