Anglo-Norman Sport Horse

In the nineteenth century, Normandy’s breeders crossed several origins to produce horses for riding and service work. Some of these populations joined the Selle Français in 1958. The modern Anglo-Norman Sport Horse was recognised in 2014; its rules, distributed by the IFCE, are dated 27 May 2015. A horse from the historical Anglo-Norman population is therefore not necessarily a CSAN: registration in the modern studbook depends on the requirements in those rules.

The Association du cheval de sport anglo-normand sets the CSAN’s selection criteria in its studbook rules. It seeks horses suited to showjumping and eventing. Assessment includes body structure, movement, and the condition of the bones and joints needed to cope with these activities. The rules dated 27 May 2015 set no single height: a particular measurement at the withers does not define the CSAN.

The consulted rules do not make one colour a general condition of membership. The range of eligible origins allows different coats. Studbook documents establish registration; colour or a resemblance to historical Norman horses does not provide that evidence.

Show jumping requires accuracy, balance and the ability to negotiate a course. Eventing combines dressage, cross-country and show jumping, placing different demands on the horse. The programme uses sporting results and available assessments to inform selection alongside the inspection and ancestry of prospective breeding animals.

The CSAN association oversees the studbook. Conditions involve CSAN parents or recognised origins within the specified generations, including Selle Français, Anglo-Arabian, Thoroughbred, AQPS, Arabian, Demi-sang Arabe and French Trotter. This is regulated access, rather than automatic eligibility for any sport-horse cross without examination of its pedigree.

The 2025 Écus yearbook records 55 mares covered in France in 2024 for anticipated CSAN production, using provisional data dated 21 October 2025. The count follows covering declarations and the intended breed of the foal. It is not an inventory of living horses or a number of births already recorded.

To check a CSAN foal’s parents, the laboratory compares selected DNA markers with those of its declared dam and sire. This helps maintain a reliable pedigree. Sporting indices summarise competition results. Estimated breeding values use performance records and, depending on the method, those of relatives to estimate qualities a breeding animal may pass on. They do not identify a single “jumping gene”: these records complement assessment of the horse and its abilities.