Introduction To Reading Pedigrees 

Learn the basics of understanding how to read a horse’s pedigree page.

The Expert | Peter O’Brien

Peter O’Brien is the general manager of Segenhoe in Aberdeen, NSW.  

Peter was born in Ireland and spent the majority of his youth attending the races with his mentor and leading racing journalist Tom McCormack.  

On leaving school Peter went to Kentucky where he worked for Taylor Made. He also spent time working for Windfield's Farm in both Canada and Maryland (home of the famed Northern Dancer).  

Following this Peter worked the Southern Hemisphere seasons in Australia handling the Coolmore stallions at Arrowfield Stud, Woodlands Stud, Stockwell Stud and Ra Ora stud in New Zealand. He also spent invaluable time with leading trainers Colin Hayes at Lindsay Park and Neville Begg in Sydney.

In 1996 he moved permanently to Australia to take over the management of Coolmore Australia before starting work at Segenhoe Stud in 2014.
"You learn something new every day that you work with horses."
Many thanks to our experts for sharing their methods of working with horses. Every farm will do things differently but remember, horses are individuals and you might use the knowledge you learn today to help a horse in the future.
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