Sandhills Briar is another Australian bred eventer from a true Aussie Thoroughbred dam line who defied the odds and made it all the way onto the world stage at the Aachen 2026 World Championships as part of the Australian eventing team.
This is a terrific achievement for a genuine homebred Australian horse.
Sandhills Stud was known to breed and use their own stallion lines with occasional use of frozen semen such as sire Christian in this instance, and they had the serious advantage of some wonderful Thoroughbred mares with top performance sport genetics as seen on the dam side of Briar.
Pedigree – Christian / Stirling Sprite / Pacific Prince xx / King of the Tudors xx
The main element here is the surprising genetic affinity between Christian and Salute.
Sometimes a longer pedigree chart is required to see the duplications involved, and can be seen on AllBreed Pedigree site.
Christian can be seen to have Consul twice on the 6th generation and Convent on the 4th. Both Consul and Convents’ dam Astoria are out of mare Isolde, and these are at 6 x 6 x 5, and this is the most important dominance in this horse because it is a line breeding to progeny of a mare.
To highlight the inbreeding to mare Isolde in Convent, see the chart below.
Convent is out of inbred mare Astoria, who is 2 x 1 to son and daughter of the mare Isolde – Consul and Astoria – and is tail female to this mare in the most powerful position.
Along comes Salute who also has a daughter of Consul on his 4th generation. Often nicks or successful matings are created in this way, where one horse is able to tap into the greater genetic strength of the other and thereby go along for the ride. Salute having Consul in this position on the 4th generation, taps into the greater genetic strength in Christian and this pulls the power of the important mare Isolde all the way through to the dam side, concentrating her genetics and making it more likely to be inherited by the foal, in this case Sandhills Briar.
The other important connection between Christian and Salute is Amor. Salute is actually out of an Amor mare and Christian has an Amor son on his 6th generation through a son. Again the simple sex balance of a critical bloodline can have results that defy expectations.
Les Brinsfield ” Even if you go no further than sex balancing, this is enough to do some serious damage.”
Often this is all it takes for bloodlines to be compatible with each other – a sex balance of an important line, or adding in a sister to an important brother, or adding in a daughter line where there are too many sons of a particular sire – ” supplementing or complementing” (Clive Harper) what is there in the sire or mare.
Pedigree expert Clive Harper states ‘ Stallions will get their best progeny from mares who supplement and complement their own genetic strengths.” After you spend a few years looking at pedigrees the truth of this statement becomes surprisingly undeniable, and the patterns that return in the mates of important stallions and their best progeny are unexpectedly repetitive.
Great results often come when a dam sire can tap into the actual inbreeding in the sire – as is the case here with Consul and his dam Isolde.
Sometimes a breeder will see that a particular cross is working but wont know why. A study of the pedigree will often give valuable clues as to why this is the case, and it is interesting to observe the different connections and patterns between bloodlines in successful horses.
Looking at the bloodlines of horses competing in top sport in this way gives breeders an idea of what is working together and what is compatible, and what to plan for in future matings.
Stallion Salute did not really get his best chance here in Australia. He was a magnificent horse, but did not have the genetic environment to succeed (Clive Harper), and at that time the mare base was not ideal for him to flourish. There were very few Dutch mares and certainly none to combine with his solid Gelderlander bottom dam line. His best results would have come from Holstein mare lines, and during the years he was at stud, these came from mares like Faleten – Falkland / Monopol, and Don Ramiro who had a Holstein dam line with Colt, Farnese and Loretto which were a better match for him.
A study of his best progeny would reveal the patterns he requires in his mates, and it is interesting and wonderful to see him connecting with Christian in this way and making the most of his valuable genetics.
The good things do not stop there for Briar – he has excellent and powerful Thoroughbred bloodlines with desirable genotypes for top sport, beginning with the pivotal jumping stallion Blue Peter who is on both sides of his pedigree.
Christian has Blue Peter at 7 x 7 x 7 and Briar’s dam, Sandhills Beetle has Blue Peter at 8 x 7. Briars Thoroughbred dam line cements the genetics behind Blue Peter and Ladykiller which multiplies their effect.
Damsire Stirling Sprite is out of a Double Cream mare which clicks in to place very well with the Ladykiller blood in Christian. Ladykiller is 3 x 3 to three quarter brothers Fairway and Colorado and has four daughters of Chaucer on his 5th generation. He is missing the brother to Chaucer – Swynford, to complete the DNA profile of the line.
Double Cream brings in Swynford at 6 x 4, as well as adding three extra crosses of Fairway and Colorado on the 4th generation. Fairway is one half of the giant sport brothers Pharos and Fairway, which saturates the rest of the Thoroughbred lines throughout the pedigree. Uniting these closely related brothers on both sides is providing reinforcement to the already potent sport power in Ladykiller.
It is not sufficient just to have any old Thoroughbred blood, which is a commonly held belief. The way to make the Thoroughbred blood really fire is to build on close relationships and important female families both sides of the pedigree where ever possible, so they create solid blocks of genes that stand behind the front line ancestors. Thoroughbreds are a closed studbook, unlike warmbloods, and these pivotal ancestors are highly inbred individuals which gives them far more influence than their pedigree position would indicate.
Double Cream has a very athletic phenotype that is ideal for breeding sport athletes ,and unfortunately we cannot really access thoroughbred stallions today who have this same riding horse “type.” Therefore, linebreeding to them is the next best option.
Thoroughbred stallion Double Cream
Damsire of Stirling Sprite
Photo King of the Tudors
Sandhills Beetle is 6 x 5 to the important thoroughbred line King of the Tudors.
King of the Tudors is 4 x 3 to sport giants Pharos and Fairway, and he is by top sire Tudor Minstrel. Tudor Minstrel has, in his first five generations, a rare line up the great mares Selene, Canterbury Pilgrim, Gondolette, Scapa Flow, Lady Juror and Lady Josephine.
He is carrying all these incredible genetics from important mare families in his genotype so close up in the engine room. Many of these female families have connections with the other important blood on the sire line, such as Blue Peter, Ladykiller and Marlon, who bring in different individuals from the same female families.
Breeders have been linebreeding to these horses and famous mares ever since, in the hope of capitalising on their genetics for top sport and giving them a solid presence throughout their pedigree designs.
King of the Tudors also has a very athletic phenotype for producing the ideal type of sport horse, and is an excellent linebreeding target in this instance, and very rare to find so close up these days.
The entire Tudor line has been very good for producing movement in dressage horses. Top sire Lauries Crusador xx is by Welsh Pageant – by Tudor Melody – by Tudor Minstrel, and has produced several Grand Prix dressage horses in the first generation. The Tudor line would definately benefit the quality of the movement in Briar for the dressage phase of eventing.
Wesh Pageant is 3 x 3 to son and daughter of great mare Lady Juror – Sansonnet and Fair Trial, and again has Pharos and Fairway at 5 x 5 x 5 x 4, with a Phalaris daughter as the 5th dam sire. Although Phalaris is the major Thoroughbred sire line in the world today he almost never appeared as dam sire of important stallions, and it is rare to see him appear through a daughter line. This kind of potency to truly great ancestors can result in a genotype with special sport qualities.
Sandhills Briar also has a three quarter brother – Staccato by Salute, out of the mare Smiler – who sired several eventing horses from 3-5* from very few progeny, showing the strength in the Thoroughbred sport genetics, which these bloodlines have in abundance.
Briar also has a full brother, Sandhills Christiano also by Christian who is at 3* eventing level.
The main key to this mating is the genetic affinity between Christian and Salute, with Consul and Amor being reinforced each side of the pedigree, as well as the important Thoroughbred sport genetics coming through Ladykiller, Blue Peter, Double Cream, Marlon, and the depth in the Tudor line.
For breeders wishing to breed jumpers or eventers with their Salute mares, the sire Christian is an excellent choice.