Operational characterization of Hungarian Horse Breeding

There were 13 breeding associations affiliated to the Hungarian Horse Breeder’s Federation in 2013, and this is the case today, as well (see table 5.3). Of the 13 associations, five dealt with the breeding of traditional Hungarian horses including the Lipizzan, which has a specific situation because of the Kingdom of Hungary (the five mentioned associations exclude that of the donkey, which is of traditional Hungarian breed). Other breeds, like the Hungarian Coldblood, the Hungarian Sport Horse and the Hungarian Trotter are not traditional. Their breeding was initially based on imported broodmares and / or stallions and the situation is partly so today. Among the pony and small horse breeds there is one Hungarian breed, the Hucul, which has the same situation as the Lipizzan. In Hungary, approximately 20 breeds were bred including the pony and small horse breeds, while in France, for instance, 63 breeds were bred, of which 26 had French origin (Cressent-Jez, 2013, p. 58). It is true, however, that per 1 million inhabitants, there were more breeds registered for Hungary (2.02) than for France (0.96).

Based on the counts, the most popular breeds were the Hungarian Sport Horse, the Coldblood, the Lipizzan, the Kisbér halfbred, the Arabian horse and the ponies. Their importance was different with respect to the number of breeders, broodmares, stallions and newborn foals.

Figure 5.1 provides an overview of the distribution of breeds based on the above mentioned criteria.

In order to rank Hungary on the basis of the breed animal population at the international level, the number of breed animals were divided by 1,000 inhabitants. According to the calculation based on data of ten countries, Hungary is ranked the last with one breed animal per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest number of breed animals per 1,000 inhabitants could be found in Ireland and Belgium (17-17) followed by Canada (12), Australia (9) and France (7).

74 Table 5.3: Number of breeders, broodmares, stallions and newborn foals registered in Hungary in 2013

Breed Number of

Source: own construction based on data from the Hungarian Horse Breeder’s Federation

There were five plus one state stud-farms in 2013, Mezőhegyes, Bábolna, Hortobágy, Szilvásvárad, its affiliate stud-farm, Marócpuszta, and Aggtelek-Jósvafő. (The stud-farm at Jósvafő is governed by the Aggtelek National Park, which means that it is although a state owned property, the responsible ministry is not the Ministry of Agriculture as in the case of the other state stud-farms.) Table 5.4 summarizes the Hungarian state stud-farms with their approximate number of broodmares and the share of broodmares of the total registered broodmare population. It is interesting to note that the Mezőhegyes halfbred (Furioso North Star) and the Kisbér halfbred, traditional Hungarian breeds, did not have state stud-farms in 2013.

75 Figure 5.1: Distribution of breeds based on the number of breeders, broodmares, stallions and newborn foals

registered in Hungary in 2013.

Source: own construction based on own calculation on the basis of data obtained from the Hungarian Horse Breeder’s Federation.

The Hungarian traditional breeds were quite under-represented in equestrian in the analyzed year comparing them with all other breeds present in equestrian disciplines (see table 5.5).

There could hardly be found examples representing more than 5% share: exceptions are the Bábolna Arabian (Shagya-Arabian) in Endurance, the Lipizzan in Driving, the Kisbér halfbred in Eventing and Vaulting and the Mezőhegyes halfbred (Furioso North Star) in Vaulting.

The distribution of participation of each of the Hungarian traditional breeds in the equestrian disciplines is presented in table 5.6. From the table it can be seen that the Lipizzan in Driving, the Bábolna-Arabian (Shagya-Arabian) in Endurance, the Gidrán, the Kisbér halfbred and the Mezőhegyes halfbred (Furioso North Star) in Show Jumping were used the most widely.

76 Table 5.4: Hungarian state stud-farms, the number of their broodmares and the share of them of the total

broodmares population in each of the breeds in Hungary in 2013.

State stud-farm Breed and number of broodmares within the breed

Hortobágy Nóniusz, approx. 50 broodmares Hungarian Sport Horse, approx. 15

broodmares

8%

2%

Szilvásvárad Lipizzan, approx. 50 broodmares 7%

Marócpuszta

(Szilvásvárad) Gidrán, approx. 35 broodmares 14%

Aggtelek-Jósvafő

(National Park) Hucul, approx. 80 broodmares 31%

Source: own construction based on data obtained from the Hungarian Horse Breeders’ Federation

Table 5.5: Representation of the Hungarian traditional horse breeds in Hungarian Equestrian in comparison with all other breeds present in the equestrian disciplines in 2013 (%)

Breed DRE SJG EVN DRI END VLT RNG

Source: own construction based on own calculation from data obtained from the Hungarian Equestrian Federation. Note: DRE:

Dressage; SJG: Show Jumping; EVN: Eventing; DRI: Driving; END: Endurance; VLT: Vaulting, RNG: Reining

Table 5.6: Distribution of participation of each of the Hungarian traditional breeds in the equestrian disciplines in Hungary in 2013 (%)

Source: own construction based on own calculation from data obtained from the Hungarian Equestrian Federation. See the note below table 5.5.

77 5.2.2 Comparison of equestrian results of Hungarian breeds with those of other breeds The international equestrian successes of Hungarian breeds were studied on the basis of an indicator made by the top six placed horses’ breeds at the World Equestrian Games between 2002 and 2014 (before 2002, the breed of horses was not available in the result sheets). Of the 33 breeds represented, there were 4 breeds with Hungarian origin. These breeds were the Bábolna Arabian (Shagya-Arabian), percentile rank: 78; the Hungarian Sport Horse, percentile rank 60; the Mezőhegyes halfbred (Furioso North Star), percentile rank 37; and the Lipizzan, percentile rank 2; placed the first and the third in Endurance in 2006 and 2014, respectively, the first and the third in Vaulting in 2010 and 2006, respectively, and the sixth in Driving in 2006. Except for the achieved result of the Lipizzan breed, all these performances were achieved by foreign athletes, such as from the Slovak Republic, Spain and Qatar and Switzerland, respectively.

The ranking of the countries shows clearly that there is nothing to do with the centuries-old breeding history with respect to equestrian successes. The “theory” that the centuries-old breeds are not able to meet today’s requirements in the equestrian disciplines is neither supported.

There were both quite “young” (e.g. Belgian Warmblood, KWPN) and quite “old” breeds (e.g.

Purebred Spanish Horse, Lipizzan) represented at the World Equestrian Games in the top six places. The ranking seems to support the already discussed research findings on the importance of environmental factors (75%) on the horses’ performance.