KWPN Dutch warmblood horses dominate on Olympic games (London 2012). (Part 1)
The performances of the Olympic horses in London are a good indicator to measure the success of the studbooks. We all know which famous riders and top horses did get Olympic medals. But which studbooks get a bronze, silver and gold medal? Is it KWPN or maybe another one? You can read it all.
KWPN horses number one dressage?
It is no news. The number one according to WBFSH-ranking in jumping and dressage is the Dutch studbook KWPN. Also in London the horses did a very good job. If you take all the placement points from every KWPN horse in Greenwich Park and put them together. The KWPN horses won with jumping and dressage.
But it is not completely fair. A studbook with every year 8.000 foals has more change to bring more horses to the Olympic games than a studbook with 1.000 foals. That’s why I made a list of number horses preform at the Olympic games and the score.
It’s all about horses
The power of the big numbers is also working on the Olympic games. The big studbooks delivered the most dressage horses for the Olympic games. Hanoverian horses are with 10 dressage horses the leader. Followed by KWPN horses with 9. Notable is that the small Danish warmblood (DWB) showed up with 8 horses at the Olympic games.
The KWPN studbook scores not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. With the golden Valegro (v. Negro), the silver Parzival (v. Jazz) and the high placed Uthopia (v. Metall) they collected 602 points. Hanoverian had 10 horses but collected only 402 points. DWB comes with 8 horses on a total of 297 points.
| Dressage | |||
| Studbook | Number of horses | Total score | |
| 1 | KWPN | 9 | 602 |
| 2 | Hanoverian | 10 | 403 |
| 3 | DWB (Danish) | 8 | 297 |
| 4 | Oldenburg | 6 | 173 |
| 5 | Westfalen | 4 | 151 |
| 6 | PRE (Spanish) | 2 | 88 |
| 7 | UNIRE (Italian) | 1 | 61 |
| 8 | FWB (Finnish) | 1 | 57 |
| 9 | Lusit | 2 | 56 |
| 10 | PZHK (Polish) | 3 | 34 |
| 11 | Bayern | 1 | 18 |
| 12 | SWB (Swedish) | 1 | 10 |
| 13 | Holstein | 1 | 9 |
Size of the studbook
Absolute numbers so far so good. When we watch the Olympic scores from a studbook in relation with the size of the studbook, a lot of things change. The DWB (Danish warmblood) conquers gold in the dressage. If you take the placement points and divides it by the average number of foals each year.
In these ‘weighted’ calculations from the Olympic breeding success, wins the big KWPN (Dutch warmblood) the silver and Westfalen bronze. Hanoverian falls of the stage and takes the 4th position.
| Dressage | ||||
| Studbook | Total score | Avg. foals/year | Calc. Score | |
| 1 | DWB (Danish) | 297 | 1708 | 0,1739 |
| 2 | KWPN (Dutch) | 602 | 4315 | 0,1395 |
| 3 | Westfalen | 151 | 2025 | 0,0746 |
| 4 | Hanoverian | 403 | 5438 | 0,0741 |
| 5 | Oldenburg | 173 | 2766 | 0,0625 |
| 6 | Bayern | 18 | 586 | 0,0307 |
| 7 | Holstein | 9 | 665 | 0,0135 |
| 8 | SWB (Swedish) | 10 | 1196 | 0,0084 |
| Avg. foals, year 1995 to 2002 | ||||
Part 2 of the story
Are you ready for part 2 of the story? In the next story you find also the final result of the best studbook in the world. Hurry up and read about show jumping at the Olympic games, the genetic part.
