H&C

1
Sep
2010

211 Comments

Bad luck, confusion and impartiality

Mooiman pulled up lame after high jinks on the walker

“The week started not so well, when Mooiman pulled up lame with a knock to his fetlock after a light hearted buck and cavort on the walker, so we have had to pull him from Veirzon & Strassen CDI. Sadly it looks as though our dreams for the WEG are now too far away, but this is the sport and we all have to deal with this type of disappointment sometimes.

The KWPN in the UK

The UKWPN grading was informative, interesting and successful; the judges who travelled over from the Netherlands were Ine Van Deurzen and Yvonne Buis-Franken. These inspectors represent the world’s largest stud book, which currently has 28,000 members around the globe. It is the world’s leading stud book for 2009 for dressage and for show jumping horses. So it cannot be disputed that the specialised breeding directions and breeding goals for dressage horses and jumping horses that these judges bring to the UK grading are the best in the world, proven by the stud book’s world ranking status. We took "Freedom hfd" - a chestnut colt (Oliver hfd x Wellington x Zaire) for the jumping day. This was the first time we had entered a foal in the jumping section, as we breed for multi sport and dressage specific, so have not any interest to go up against the specialised jumping breeders with our blood lines before. When you present your horses for inspection by judges who represent the strongest stud book in the world then you must respect and understand the criteria they follow. Part of this criteria involves breed specifics this considers the five generation pedigree; Oliver hfd is approved with a multi sport recommendation which means he is a complementary stallion for dressage/jumping and eventing mares, not pure jumping! This also follows for the dam sire too, so when the foal came third in the specialist show jump breeding section by a very small margin of just six points, we were delighted. It was rewarding to know that this combination can also hold its own in a very strong jumping blood line up. The second day was for the dressage specific, more our speciality. "Farrah hfd" (Ampere x Obelisk x Jazz) took reserve champion in the filly foal section and the open commentary from the judges stated that the three top filly foals were the best they had seen so far in the UK, so we were more than pleased. The champion foal was another foal by Ampere also owned by a client of hfd and out of a 007 x Inschallah mare. The Yearling section saw a Mooiman hfd x Lord Liberty take the championship with a Santana hfd x United reserve & "Cascade" a three year old mare by Mooiman hfd out of a full sister to Santana hfd being the only horse in the dressage section to be awarded STER status, so a good day for hfd offspring.

Listen to the riders

During the interval Ine and Yvonne gave a lecture/demonstration performing an inspection on a horse using the KWPN criteria and principles. They explained their observations and demonstrated using a competitor’s horse to visualize the physical critique - an interesting point made was when they brought me into the lecture explaining how they as inspectors have no experience of riding at International Grand Prix dressage and that the stud book requires the advice from sport specific international riders. So my opinion was used during the demonstration as the rider’s viewpoint. This was of particular interest to me as I have often criticised the BEF Futurity evaluations for not addressing this very relevant area, but to no avail.

Join the debate

Before I go any further thank you to all the people who took the time to read my blog and get involved with the debate that followed. Many of you suggested that I should have taken my opinion to the BEF before writing the blog, and I completely agree with this. If you re-read the blog you will see this had in fact been done; I spoke to the BEF president Jan Rogers in 2008 discussing these concerns, and put them in writing suggesting I be invited to meet with the judges panel and swap view points, but all that transpired was a pleasant written reply acknowledging the issues I had raised...

Sporthorse breeding in the UK

You know I am on the side of the breeders in this country and I want to bring global respect and recognition to the sport horses we are breeding here. I want the breeders to come to expect standards as high as those offered by the world’s leading stud books. We wouldn't allow our children to be taught by unqualified teachers, similarly if a football team begins to fail the manager is sacked, if a medical procedure is best found in the US we save to go there to have the service... We have been breeding the best Thoroughbred horses in the world for over a century; every sport horse stud book in the world uses this blood as part of the stud book’s breeding policy, so why are we so far off the mark when it comes to our sport horse breeding of dressage and jumping horses?

Some things to think about

Breeder Andrew Hacket was delighted when his stallion completed the 100 day test at Warendorf with high percentages and was approved with the German stud book - this investment was expensive but worthwhile. He brought the stallion home and proudly used this achievement in his marketing for upcoming stud season, only to find that a stallion who had also done the 100 day test at the same time but had failed to reach scores high enough for approval, was being advertised to the British breeders as German 100 day performance tested and BWBS approved. Yes he was 100 day tested, but was not accepted! The owner of the stallion is an appointed official for the BWBS stud book and a BEF judge... I write this statement without accusation or emotion, I write it so you British breeders are better informed. We have done what the football clubs have done; we went to the best stud books and brought the fully approved KWPN stallions back to the UK. We also encounter the same the problem as Andrew in that our stallions are KWPN approved, yet stallions that are not approved are marketed to you as 'KWPN stallion SHGB approved,' which is misleading. Why can we not have a 100 day test in the UK? Why can we not employ our successful neighbours to help us develop? Why can we not share information and question policies? Why are we so far down the World Breeding Federation Rankings list of sport horse breeding? I am prepared to stand up and be counted, but is anyone else? The BEF viewpoint is that not all international riders are good judges. This may well be the case but what must absolutely be true is a judging panel with no international sport specific riding experience input cannot know what basic functional requirements are necessary for a sport horse to perform at grand prix. Interesting that the world’s leading stud book emphasises the importance of this area, but a body with little recognition outside the UK deems it unimportant! I find this worrying.

Futurity section confusions

Tuesday brought a barrage of confused breeders: The horse i mentioned in last week’s blog "Czania hfd" was presented as a foal by the breeders in the dressage section of the Futurity. The judges recommended she put the foal in the eventing section (which she won). As a two year old the filly was entered in the eventing section and the owner was advised to change to the dressage section (which she did and received a first premium). This year she entered the dressage section and was advised to go in the jumping section...oh dear! She also had a yearling in the dressage section and the judges advised she change this to into the jumping section... no wonder Melissa was confused! 10pm the phone was still going; Andrew Hacket called as he had taken three mares and foals for the dressage section only to realise that none of the judges were dressage specific experienced! He is asking for his money back....

Impartiality

In 2009 the Brightwells young horse competition was judged by Carl Hestor and Judy Harvey. When judging what was to ultimately be the winning combination, Judy stepped down as she was the trainer of the winning combination, a correct procedure an appropriate gesture to the other competitors. Mr Mark Shaw was a member of the jury at the Futurity at Myerscough last week. Mark’s stallion stood at Millfield Stud for the 2010 season, and Millfield stud’s foal gained the highest score of the day (almost 20 points higher than was awarded at the UKWPN two days earlier). The filly class at the UKWPN had only five entries, whichever way you look at it there is an ethical box not ticked here leaving breeders cause for concern. Make no mistake, we have the highest regard for Mark and the coloured horses he breeds and no one is accusing anyone of malpractice, I am simply agreeing with the vulnerability of this acceptance of procedure. Brian took the bull by the horns this time, picked up the phone and had a long conversation with Jan Rogers. His point was that though we weren’t there, we were responsible for encouraging people to take their youngstock only to be met with the above disillusioned breeders. As he explained we are simply acting as the spokes person for the British breeders trying to find their place.

Come on British breeders, believe!

While at Brightwells auction I was asked to do a taped interview with Dutch magazine Pardakant. They were interested to know why I thought that in the UK we import most of our sport horses from Europe and why we are not breeding our own for export on the same scale. Please please take some time to read the H&C team blog from last week referring the the Brighwells sale. You know this is my life, my passion and my work but I cannot do it if I am not honest to myself and to my clients even if sometimes it hurts to listen... So come on Britain expect more! Because were worth it! So the challenge is ‘dare I?’ or as the H&C blog said, ‘I dare you!’”

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