A champion showjumping horse with a dysfunctional testicle has created a storm in French equestrianism after it was bought by a 350-year-old state-run stud farm to enhance the nation's bloodstock.

Conterno Grande, a German stallion, cost French taxpayers €330,000 (£267,000). But the 13-year-old, unable to rise to a nation's expectations, has turned into a symbol of what detractors claim is an archaic bureaucracy clinging to a role dating back to the days of the Sun King.

The controversy began when the thoroughbred had to undergo an emergency operation for testicular hernia shortly after becoming French state property. The delicate surgery will keep Conterno Grande out of action for months and deprive the Government of a short-term return on its investment.

“It is a small example of a deeper malaise,” said Arnaud Evain, secretary of the Association of Private Stud Farms. “The real problem is that the State should not be spending its money on stallions in our day and age.” He was speaking in the tranquil surroundings of a week-long show-jumping event in Fontainebleau, south of Paris.

Mr Evain said that he would write to President Sarkozy next week urging him to redefine the missions of Les Haras Nationaux (The National Stud Farms), which were set up in 1665 by Louis XIV, the Sun King, to give his soldiers the finest horses.

Privatised under the Revolution, they were renationalised by Napoleon in 1806 as the French army rode across Europe on thoroughbreds nurtured on Gallic soil.

“Les Haras Nationaux had a very important role when horses where an agricultural tool and a machine of war,” said Mr Evain. “But no other country has a state stud farm which continues to operate in this way.

“Logically, it is bound to disappear in the end. The trouble is that, in France, history takes a long time.” Instead of disbanding Les Haras Nationaux when the military replaced horses with vehicles, the Government ordered them to focus on equestrian sport to endow France with a studbook that was the envy of the world.

Their official goal is to “select, improve and conserve equine races”. But critics say that state stud farming has become a costly anomaly that underlines the failure of the French administration to concentrate on essential services, such as education and security, and leave other tasks to the private sector.

Although Les Haras Nationaux have taken on new duties, such as research and training, the stud farming operation accounts for about a third of their annual €76 million budget. Government subsidies total €55 million.

France's 340 or so privately owned stud farms have been grumbling for years over what they say is unfair and unnecessary competition from bureaucrats. But anger exploded over the purchase of Conterno Grande.

Michel Guiot, a vet and stud farmer from eastern France, said that he was on the verge of buying the horse for about €100,000 when officials stepped in. “This is public money and they're using it to buy a horse for way above its value. It's unfair competition and it's total incompetence,” he said.

Caroline Thaon, an official at Les Haras Nationaux, rejected his claims. “I am personally convinced that our studs have brought many benefits to horse breeding in France,” she said. She denied that the purchase amounted to unfair competition, saying that the price was “entirely appropriate”.

Costly flops

— A £12 million British police recruitment drive in 2002 prompted only a few hundred recruits. Each cost an estimated £30,000

— The MoD spent more than £500 million on eight Chinook helicopters that never flew

— Andriy Shevchenko, the footballer bought by Chelsea for £31 million, returned to his old club last month for an “undisclosed fee” – reported to be £0.

Source: www.fao.org; Times archives

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