I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on what makes an equine champion, but I would like to share with you what I, personally, believe makes a champion. The equine champion that I'm talking about in this article are the horses that become legends for the world to look up to. But you'll find out more about that at the end.
I have 4 major things I keep in mind when I look at horses. Even if I don't want them to become a legend, my goal is still to make sure the horse has a long and healthy life and career in whatever they're doing. There are many things to consider when you look for a horse that will take you to the top, and possibly make you, and themselves legends.
Training: Training is number one on my list. The reason for this is simple, a horse can only be as good as the training that is put into it. You can have a horse that has nothing but grand champion sires and dams throughout its pedigree, and it be a pasture pet. On the flip side, you can also have an auction horse that you know NOTHING about, become one of the best. This is because if the horse hasn't had any training, or bad training, it won't reach its capabilities and learn to carry itself correctly to be able to have a career. Or the horse can have mediocre or unknown bloodlines, the best training and become a million dollar athlete. It happens, Snowman comes to mind for an example.
A horse must be conditioned to do what it is intended to do. You can't just take a thoroughbred that has been a barrel horse that is used to 16 second runs and put it on a race track and expect it to run with the big boys. You can't expect a trail horse to be able to do reining maneuvers consistently and well right off the bat without proper conditioning. Conditioning is a slow process that if not done correctly can cause severe injuries and lamenesses. A proper training and conditioning regimine tailored to the specific dicipline and horse is always a must to create a legend.
When looking for a trained horse, you want to look for something that has had good, steady training. You want a horse that has been started slowly and correctly. A horse that has gone through ground work to set the stage for all saddle work, has learned respect and trust and been desensitized to everything you can possibly think of. You want to find a horse that has been started under saddle correctly and at the pace of said horse, learned the basics, learned to relax with a rider and figured out his/her own rhythm. Accepting contact is a BIG thing when finding a horse. In my experience, if you happen to be looking at a horse that won't accept contact, barring any physical issues, pass. To me, that shows the trainer skipped a step in the horses training, and contact is needed to carry the horse through the rest of the training tree. (My training tree anyway, and most training trees are the same. Though some steps can be switched around, contact is still needed to teach the horse collection and to carry itself properly. And if the horse hasn't been taught to neck rein, you need to be able to make contact with the horses mouth to direct rein, right?) In short, you want to find a horse that has been taken through every step of the training tree, before starting on specialized training. Again, a horse can only be as good as its training. If steps are skipped, championships become harder to grasp.
Conformation: This one has a little leeway, kind of. There's not one horse in this world that has absolutely PERFECT conformation. If there is, they are very far and few in between. But conformation also shows you a part of their athletic ability as well. When looking at your next champions conformation, you need to keep in mind what the horse will be doing. If you want a Thoroughbred that you're hoping will be the next Secrateriat, you want a horse with the correct shoulder to race. The shoulder will allow for a long stride to let the horse cover more ground quickly. If you're looking for a reiner, you want a horse that can stand up to the wear and tear of the spins and slides, so clean legs are very important. For a jumper, you want a powerhouse rear end. And so on and so forth. So conformation is just as important as training because conformational faults can end a horses career very quickly, or even stop it from starting entirely. However, there are some conformational "faults" that can be overlooked. Some are actually something one would want in their specific discipline.
Personality: Every champion needs the heart to do what they're doing. Have you ever seen that top race horse, that top jumper, that top dressage, reining, cutting or barrel horse, and you can see just in the horses facial expression that they LOVE their job? THAT is what I mean by heart. A horse that loves their job will put their all into it, where as a horse that hates their job will put just enough effort into it to get by or make their rider happy. Or even fight it all together. Willingness to please comes in well here, as some horses that can't stand their job, but are very willing to please, will give it their all just to make their owner happy. What do you think is more important? Heart or willingness to please? Personally, I choose heart. I'm not the kind of person that can force my horse to do something they hate, because that just breeds resentment later down the road. I try my best to find out what my horses are good at first, and then narrow it down farther by what they like to do, or love to do. (For example: Jake will never be legend material like we're talking about here. BUT he is good at cantering. It's nice and smooth, rocking horse type canter. Cloud type canter. He's also fast. He's also good at jumping. He's got lots of power in his hindquarters and can clear jumps well. But guess what he hates doing... cantering and jumping. So even though he's good at it, it won't be something I make into a career for him just because I like it. So for him, I take what I know he's good at and try to fit it into a job somewhere and figure out if he likes said jobs or not.) Temperament is also something to consider. Race horses, jumpers and speed horses need extra energy to get their jobs done where as reiners need to be calm and obedient.
Breeding: Breeding is the final thing on my list, and here's why. In my point of view, take away the training and all you have with a registered horse is a bloodline and a piece of paper, that might make you a little more money if you decide to sell said horse. Breaking down my thought process on bloodlines, the first thing I think (and EVERYONE else should remember as well) is "Champions are born every day, but they only become champions and legends because of how hard they worked to get there." Looking back into a horses bloodline, you have to remember that some horse somewhere in that bloodline worked hard to become the legend he or she became. Lets take Secretariat and Snowman for example, Secretariat worked hard to become a legend and retired to become a sire. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but for example purposes lets say he sired 1000 foals. Then lets say only 500 of those foals made the racing cut when they became old enough. But then only 200 of those where fast enough to make their first start. And only 5 of them came within an inch of their sires glory. Snowman was purchased from a horse auction for $75. His breeding is unknown. (Don't quote me on this, I couldn't exactly remember the whole story, just snip its) And now he is a jumping legend. The comparison example I'm making here is because I believe that breeding isn't everything. It's just a sliver, or a bonus rather. You can have a bloodline full of champion sires and dams, but if the horse doesn't have the heart, legendary status goes out the window. You can also have a grade horse, even a horse bought from an auction with an unknown history, that has the heart to do its job and loves his job and will go down in history, as many auction horses have proven in both the jumping and barrel industries and I'm sure other industries as well.
In closing, to be completely honest, I have different views on the definition of "champion" than other people do. While some people will say "Secretariat was a Champion", I will say "Secretariat was a legend." My reasoning is simple. Legend by my definition is a horse that goes down in history. A horse that EVERYONE will know about, generation after generation later. Champion by my definition is a lot different, because I think all horses are champions. Think about it this way, your horse could kill you every single time you saddle up, and even before you think about saddling up. How much does your horse put up with? Running around barrels, screeching to a halt, jumping these big scary things, running full speed to try to beat another horse. Toting our kids around, toting us around wherever we please when we ALL know they'd rather just be standing there muching away on grass with all of their herdmates. Horses put up with so much from us. THAT is my definition of a champion. A horse that will willingly put up with us and our children and everything we all put them through, happily and without hesitation. And will whinny happily every single day, knowing that there's soon to be more shinanigens to go through. A horse that was on the brink of starvation and most likely mistreated, but still a gentle, trusting soul and will let a 2 year old walk right up to her, put her head down while he pokes her in the face and said child runs away screaming giddily. Those horses are the champions in my book.