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 Eventing Worldwide Magazine Article |
Future Perfect
Julia Hodkin is a woman on a mission: if all goes to plan, she will be, or may already have succeeded in, producing some of the eventing stars of the future.
It all started as a result of falling in love with the little pony that pulled the fruit and veg cart around the village where Julia grew up. “It was probably the scruffiest, commonest pony 
you had ever seen, but I thought it was beautiful!”
Serious bargaining took place before she was allowed to take riding lessons – in hindsight her business skills as a seven year old were none too sharp: she earnt a half hour lesson once a week in return for practising the piano for half an hour every night! Her powers of persuasion improved dramatically, however. Despite no pony of her own, Julia made it onto all the local teams, up through the Riding Club and then University. “Riding other people's horses was a great education – I got all the ones that no-one else wanted to ride. I learnt the hard way though, having spent months transforming a very difficult mare that the owner was unable to do anything with, she was literally sold from under me at a show after winning a class. I had to walk home!”
Julia was 26 before she finally acquired Classic Fayre, who became her foundation mare. Bought to ride, back pain resulting from a serious car accident put an end to that. Reluctant to sell the mare, and despite knowing nothing about breeding, Julia decided to give it a go. A big fan of Criminal Law Julia didn't want to breed anything that would be too sharp if she decided to ride again. She discussed this with Mandy Massarella, owner of Criminal Law, who suggested The Outlaw – by Criminal Law but part Warmblood. “He was stunning, I knew immediately that he was perfect. He had a lovely temperament, plus fabulous movement and conformation.”
Classic Fayre's first foal was Future Illicit Affair. Devastatingly she had an accident as a 
weanling when chased by some other horses. The youngster separated her sacrum from her pelvis trying to jump a five barred gate, and for three months it was touch and go as to whether she would survive.
Obviously unable to event after such an injury, Julia took the mare back home. “By that time I had bred a few foals and had set some rules for my programme. Firstly the mare must be proven or have proven progeny. Future Illicit Affair had neither. How was I to get around that self-imposed rule?”
Julia decided to put her in foal once, and then use her as an embryo transfer recipient. She would keep the first foal and see if she could prove it… if so Illicit Affair could legitimately enter the breeding programme in her own right. Julia chose Fleetwater Opposition and a few months later Future Illusion (Louis) became Julia's first second generation foal.
“I thought he was absolutely beautiful, but then worried that I was biased because he was out of my favourite mare. However, others agreed and suggested I should show him. I decided to run him on entire and see if he really was good enough to beat his peers.” Wet around the ears when it came to showing, they entered the National Hunter Show.
The first class was Sport Horse Brood Mare and Foa
l. Worried about Illicit Affair's unlevel pelvis Julia expected to be hammered by the judges, but she needed to get Louis in the ring. The mare placed third, and Louis won his class. The Novice Hunter Brood Mare with First Foal at Foot, judged as a pair, was next – and they won that too, as well as taking second and first respectively in the Lightweight Hunter Brood Mare and Foal. Things were looking good for Louis, and he capped off the Show by winning the Kadir Cup & Summer Knight Perpetual Challenge Cup as Champion Foal.
Illicit Affair was put straight back in foal to Fleetwater Opposition, with that foal also placing at the Nationals and the mare winning Champion Sport Horse Brood Mare. So Julia's original little thoroughbred mare bred her the Champion Sport Horse Brood Mare, who bred her the Champion Foal. Not a bad start.
Surprisingly Julia has another mare with a story to match that of her beloved Classic Fayre, who is now retired and acting as nanny to the babies when they are weaned. A few years ago Julia advertised for performance brood mares and had dozens of calls, but none with the sort of mare she was looking for. After many wasted telephone calls the phone rang again. There was a mare available that Julia might be interested in. Steeling herself somewhat she asked the mare's age – “13”. Was she currently in foal? “No”. Had she had a foal previously? “Yes, 10 years ago”. It wasn't sounding exactly promising. Then the caller added “…but you might have heard of him. Winsome Adante.” The caller turned out to be Juswith Genoa's breeder Marian Vaughan, not the owners who had bred Winsome Adante. ‘Tyi' was being hacked around the lanes at the time, and it was only ‘Dan's' success that made the Gooch's realise that perhaps she should be bred from again. They were no longer set up to breed and wanted the mare to go to someone who wasn't too commercial. 
With advice from Marian, Tyi was first put to Andes. Julia had been looking for a stallion related to Saunter, but could find nothing left of his line, and Andes was the most similar she could find in terms of conformation. Future Genie was the result of this match. Tyi's second foal, Future Gem by Rock King, was a BEF ‘First Premium' Graded Foal, and last year's progeny, Future Glamour by Primitive Proposal, went one better: BEF ‘First Premium' Graded Foal and Champion Event Foal at the BEF Grading.
“What is so surprising, given that Tyi is part-bred, is that all her foals are complete clones of her. Tyi was by the HIS Premium thoroughbred stallion 'Bohemond', out of a mare that was part Anglo Arab and part Irish Sports Horse. My biggest reservation when I bought her was that I could be producing anything from pony to irish draught type, but she has turned out to be really prepotent at stamping her stock. They all come out knowing exactly where their feet are and with fire in their eyes.” Julia hopes to be able to flush two or three embryos from Tyi this year – she is 19 now, so time is of the essence.
Despite such seemingly easy early success it would be a mistake to believe Julia was simply lucky. She approaches the subject with meticulous care and research, and believes that the makeup of the perfect event horse remains unchanged despite the demise of the long format. “It's helped horses with less blood at lower levels, but above Two Star I believe you need a 
serious percentage of thoroughbred.
"Warmbloods move better, with a rounder jumping action, but I have a completely unproven theory that because of this action, their hooves hit the floor at a more vertical angle and so don't disperse the concussive forces well. If you keep pounding a warmblood that moves with this round action, at some stage in his career he will have soundness problems. If you can select warmbloods with high percentages of thoroughbred or anglo-arab in them, or that move with a less exaggerated action, I feel there is a place for weaving that blood into a Thoroughbred-based breeding programme in order to improve the movement and jump, but without losing the gallop – but is has to be done carefully if you're aiming to produce horses that will be competitive at four star level. You may have to wait for the generation after the one you're breeding to really see the benefits come through. It's a long term thing and you have to look beyond the next generation all the time.”
“Breeding is a bit like making a cake. It's not just about using the right ingredients, but about putting them into the mix in the right quantities at the right time. You have to be clever about the lines you use. Some Selle Francais are like brick outhouses, some however – like Jaguar Mail or Desir du Chateau, who I am planning to use this year - are very blood. I have a few reservations because this is a deviation from my main Irish/TB breeding plan, but I think that on the right mare, at the right point in the programme, this will be a good thing. Last year I bred in lots of thoroughbred blood lines so I have plenty of gallop for the four star. Now I need to make sure I redress the balance by strengthening the jump.” 
“Every time you put a mare in foal there is a 25% chance the foal will be better than parents, a 50% chance it will be the same, and a 25% chance it will be worse. You have to be ruthless. I pull my horses to pieces and decide which of their faults I can accept, and which I can't. It can be hard, but it improves my programme at a faster rate than if I didn't do it.”
Julia bemoans the problems that beset breeders of high quality event horses. “Everyone needs to make a living, and riders want to buy cheap, do some work and sell on for a profit. It costs around £2,500 to get a foal on the ground and another £1,000 every year it is with you – and that is without charging for labour. This would mean selling an unbacked four year old for £6,500 just to break even. Until there is a more mature market in eventing, like there is in dressage and show jumping where people will buy at commercial prices based on bloodlines, we are banging our heads against a brick wall. Having said that, it is getting better and I wouldn't stop what I do, because I primarily do it for the love of it.”
So from a child's obsession with patting ponies Julia now has around 15 horses of her own. Her dream is to breed a horse as good as Winsome Adante. “He's good at all three phases: always near the top after dressage, jumps clear, fast across country, consistent, sound. He's as tough as old boots with a brain for the job – he's not called ‘Danimal' for nothing!”
Julia's parting words to me summed up her philosophy: “People have to be willing to fail in order to succeed. Some of what I do won't work, but it's all part of the development. You don't take two steps forward without the odd step back.” A lesson for all of us.
Interview Hilary Manners - Photos Future Sport Horses & Tony Meredith
More about Julia's breeding programme at www.futuresporthorses.co.uk
