IN a sublime introduction to his 2010 classic The Making of the Modern Warmblood: From Gotthard to Gribaldi, Australian author and journalist Chris Hector takes a fresh approach, writing: “I sincerely hope that this book will not, like so much writing on performance horse breeding, end up being an equine version of the Old Testament - and Jacob begat Abraham and Abraham begat Ruth.

“Sure this kind of genealogy provides the essential framework in which we can start to think about breeding, but to my mind, that is exactly what it is - a framework. What is interesting are the whos and whys of the process. Why did this breeder use this stallion and this mare? What qualities was he looking for? And how have the desired qualities changed and evolved in the past fifty years or so? What have been the ingredients of success and failure - awesome insight or pure luck?”