Tesio Methods

What are Tesio Methods and why should we use them?

Frederico Tesio, an Italian born in 1869, is one of the most significant people in Thoroughbred breeding ever. He is also an example and inspiration for those of us who want to create an excellent sport horse. He is called a genius by many because he possessed a remarkably analytical mind that was also highly intuitive and artistic. He applied his considerable intellect to the task of selecting and improving the genetics in his racehorse herd- long before genetics were understood, and what he designed made breeding history. His success record has never been equaled by another. We call the process he used Tesio Methods.

People pay attention to Tesio because he was successful- although that is an inadequate word to describe his legacy. If you breed race or sport horses you probably have many of his bloodlines in your stock already such as Nearco, Ribot and Donatello. Those of you who are strictly breeding German horses will find his taproot mare Nera di Gubbio behind the German Thoroughbred bloodlines of Neckar, Nerecide and Nordlicht- all three winners of the German Derby. You can not escape his reach- if there is excellence in equine sport, then you will find his creation behind it.

Tesio methods is the name given to the pedigree designs he used. If you want to be a success yourself you will want to learn what these are. Tesio did not share his secret of pedigree construction, not even in his book: "Breeding the Racehorse". It took years of research by many scholars to uncover how he achieved his remarkable success. Those researchers tested his methods themselves, they evaluated other Thoroughbred populations as well, and eventually they figured out mathematically (statistics) that his practices were reliable. You will find many of the works by those scholars on the resources and references page and if you are serious about breeding I recommend you search out their books and purchase them for your further study.

Tesio was a racehorse breeder, however these methods will work for Olympic style sport horses and any other type or breed of equine because the genetic principles remain the same.

For an outline of those practices visit: Breeding Principles and from there access additional pages for your further understanding.

To implement the Tesio methods you will need to learn how to read your pedigrees. The pedigree is the map of your horse's genetics, so for you to engineer your breedings so that they result in the sport champions that you desire you will need to discover how to look at and evaluate what you see- Understanding Pedigrees may help this and to get a general idea of what those names represent read Sport Horse Recipe.

This website and a book I have written "The North American Sport Horse Breeder" (which will be available later this summer) will show you how to apply these same practices to your sport herds. I hope the articles you find here will give you a good start.