Breeding News

2007 WBFSH Annual Meeting Report

November 11, 2007

From the 5th till the 8th of November, the KWPN hosts the WBFSH Annual Meeting in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The majority of studbooks that are members of the WBFSH are represented. The foreign guests were welcomed on Monday with a visit to Team Nijhof and Resim Dressage to get a first impression of the horse and breeding environment in The Netherlands. Team Nijhof is specially known for their enormous diversity of world class approved stallions like Concorde, Clinton, Heartbreaker, two time WBFSH World Young Horse Champion Florencio, Lord Z and many others. Resim Dressage is the home stud of Olympic rider Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud.

WBFSH president Jan Pedersen and KWPN representative Siem Korver welcomed the guests on Tuesday morning. A video message of the president of the FEI HRH Princess Haya was played specially for all WBFSH members to apologize her absence and to stress the importance of cooperation between the FEI and the WBFSH. Following this, Mr Delcourt spoke on behalf of the FEI to stress the importance of the UELN (Unique Equine Life Number) and the use of one single database worldwide. The data exchange between national federations, studbooks and the FEI is vital for tracing horses worldwide.

The second part of the broad and unusually interesting programme was reserved for Dr. Kathalijne Visser of the Wageningen University. She gave an insight in the results of a research program about the consistency of temperament and relation with behaviour during riding. The information is important for predictions of future behaviour and performance. Severine Henry from France added a lecture about the influences of genetic and environmental factors on behaviour. She stressed that young age is an important time period for the individual development in horses. In a research program with foals obvious differences in learning capacities and emotional reactions of foals came up.

The practical part of the seminar was held at the beautiful Roelofs Stud farm in Den Ham. The Roelofs Stud farm is famous not only for breeding top performance show jumpers like VIP, Velusinus R and Rubert R, but also for breeding the approved stallions Odermus R, Rash R, Germus R, Mermus R, Odermus R and many more. Mr. Roelofs proved himself an outstanding host for all international guests by showing all his broodmares and stallions at stud. Stud manager Arnold Kootstra talked very open about the way they have selected the foals in their breeding program over the last decades. They rate their young weaned foals a few times in the winter season by free moving and even some small jumps. Several foals were shown and their performances, conformation and abilities discussed afterwards. The discussing was led by a panel of Prof Rene van Weeren, KWPN judge Cor Loeffen, Dr. Kathalijne Visser, horse trader Egbert Schep and Rieke Teegen, scientist from Germany.

Never before had there been so many stud book representatives at a WBFSH annual meeting. The KWPN showed themselves to be supreme hosts by presenting a varied programme to the international guests. After the selection of the foals had been the main event at Stal Roelofs yesterday, this afternoon an introduction was given about the performance examinations of the young stallions. Two coaches went off to Ermelo to see the present selection in action. The 70 days performance tests such as held in The Netherlands, is one of the most important steps for KWPN-approval. Three year old stallions are pre-selected in three different selection rounds. Only the best got an invitation for the performance test. There the stallions are trained and examined by a team under the lead of Cees de Feiter and the stallions approvals committee. Stud book managers from all over the world were very impressed by the way that the team, worked smoothly together with the stallions approvals committee and the guest riders.

Earlier on Wednesday in hotel De Keizerskroon in Apeldoorn, the WBFSH management presented information and explanations about the results so far and the aims for next year. The young horse world championships will continue in their present form under the flag of WBFSH in cooperation with the FEI. There will be extra attention paid to the judging of the young dressage horses in 2008. Another point of attention is, and will remain, the exchange of data between stud books, the FEI and the national federations. The WBFSH will continue to insist that the stud book data is delivered as fully as possible to the FEI. In this way, all information will be available on the starting lists for the public and also stud books and individual breeders can have easier access to the performances of their products. Coupling each seperate horse to a unique identity number plays a cruciual role in the identification process.

Young KWPN, Hosts 4th International Young Breeders Competition

At the WBFSH annual meeting, it was announced that jong KWPN (Young Breeders of the Royal Dutch Sport horse Studbook) will be hosts to the fourth international Young Breeders competition in 2008. In August, young breeders from all over the world will come to The Netherlands to compete against each other. They will be judged on their theoretical knowledge, on the production of approvals horses and on their assessment of loose jumping and horses in movement. On of the most important and enduring aspects of the Young Breeders competition is that the participants are put in touch with each other.

Workshops

Since Brussels 2005, a discussion session is part of the annual meeting program. In these workshops lead by a panel of experts, several items are discussed in small groups. In Apeldoorn some hot topics came up for discussion. One of the workshops dealt with the current problems regarding the EAV (Equine Arteritis Virus) tests. Identification of the EAV agent in semen can be done in different ways that are all difficult to standardize. In the last couple of years this lead to some problems because one stallion could test positive in one test and negative in an other. This might lead to the situation that semen of an approved stallion is allowed to be used in one country and not in an other. Hans Kramps of the Central Institute for Animal Disease Control, Dutch expert in viral infectious diseases, gave an introduction about the different EAV tests. He stressed the difficulties in harmonization. After this other experts on this subject from Germany, France, Ireland and North America gave insight in the situation in their own country. It came clear that there is an urgent need of one reference laboratory that can standardize all tests done in other laboratories. The WBFSH will put effort to stimulate the process of harmonizing and initiate the mutual contact between the laboratories. Other topics discussed in workshops at Apeldoorn where the data exchange and the Non European WBFSH members, the problems they face and the efforts WBFSH can put to represent the oversees studbooks better.

New Members Applying

American Holsteiner Horse Association
- Applying for membership status of the WBFSH - Primary register for Holsteiner Horses in North America - Approx 1,000 mares registered & 500 issued with certificate of pedigree - 128 stallions registered - Approx 150 foals registered per year & 70 issued with certificate of pedigree - Board of WBFSH granted AHHA “membership” status in March 2007

Grænseegnens Holstener Hesteavlsforening (GHH)
- Promotion of breeding of the Holsteiner horse in Denmark - Approx 400 mares registered - Approx 80 foals/per year - GHH does not register stallions – accepts stallion approved by the German Holstener Studbook - Board of WBFSH granted GHH “membership” status in March 2007 - www.ghh.dk

Trakehner Association of Denmark
- Applying for “membership” status of the WBFSH - Promote pure breeding of Trakehner horses in Denmark - Approx 700 approved mares registered - Approx 100 approved stallions - Approx 140 foals/per year - Board of WBFSH granted “membership” status in March 2007 - www.trakehner.dk

International Sport Horse Studbook of Australia (ISSA)
- Applying for “membership” status of the WBFSH - Responsible for the interests of sport horse riders & breeders for the Olympic disciplines in Australia - Approx 360 mares registered - Approx 30 stallions registered - Approx 125 foals/per year - Board of WBFSH granted “membership” status in March 2007 - www.issaweb.com.au

Croatian Association of Breeders of Sport Horses
- Applying for “membership” status of the WBFSH - Promote the breeding of sport horses in Croatia - 191 mares registered - 18 approved stallions - 45 foals/year - Board of WBFSH decided to grant “membership” status

Friesian Studbook (Het Friesch Paarden-Stamboek)
- Applying for “membership” status of the WBFSH - Founded in 1879 to promote and maintain the Friesian horse - 25,000 mares registered - 90 approved stallions - 5,000 foals/year - Board of WBFSH decided not to grant “membership” status because the majority of Friesian Horses are not sport, but draft horses.

Latvian Horse Breeding Association (LHBA)
- Applying for “membership” status of the WBFSH - Promote and improve the quality of Latvian bred horses - 7,425 mares registered - 62 approved stallions - Approx 725 foals/year - Decision on application pending

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