Get on board with breeding right now. This is one of the most overlooked and under respected areas of the horse show industry we have today, and that needs to change immediately. Breeders are very passionate about breeding, but every single person that attends a horse show needs to figure out how to look past that excitement and really learn what to look for. Learn what works, what doesn’t work, without expecting to get an education overnight. It will take as long as your college education to even grasp the conformation of babies. You will observe until your eyes melt, ask questions, roll your eyes in frustration, and then go back and observe again.
Why?
What is happening in Europe is very, very real. It is very scary. With the influx of several hundred thousand more mouths to feed, horse breeders are going to have to make some really difficult decisions that they do not want to make, and it will not be their fault. Every belt will be tightened while this is happening, and every future decision will have to be more deliberate. You think it has been getting more and more difficult to find horses over there lately? just wait, it will get even harder in the next few years.
It does not take rocket science to see we are not utilizing our resources very well to promote breeders enough. Personally I want to see massive incentives for breeding, and not make it so difficult and expensive for them to get their business done, stallions promoted, babies shown. If we can do it for pre-green horses, we can do it for baby horses.
If you are a trainer on the A circuit, send your students to the hunter breeding classes. If you are a parent, with a kid who has nothing to do one day, or one month in the spring and summer, kick them onto a farm to add a hand during foaling season. Or even if you are not involved in showing at all, figure out a way to participate. Breeders have the hardest, least paying jobs out there, and free help goes a long, long way. I don’t care if all your kid can do is take pictures and post them on Instagram and Facebook, GET THEM INVOLVED.
Handlers are worth their weight in gold. The art of standing horses on the line is a feat worthy of a very large medal. We have model classes for a reason: to study conformation. Unfortunately in the pony ring, you are basically praying your small child has the attention span to actually get the pony to put weight on all four legs and put its ears forward. We are missing the education of WHY we are getting them to put their feet in the proper place, but this might be a separate battle altogether. In the breeding ring, handlers have to follow and contain the most acrobatic moves ever seen in public with a smile on their faces, dressed in proper attire, and somehow magically time a few seconds of stillness of that nervous creature that they are holding when the judge finally gets to him or her and walks around with his/her very scary clipboard and pen. This is also a fabulous way for young people to get involved. LEARN how to be a handler, watch what they do and put up with and make yourself indispensable as a handler.
There is no excuse for the way we have educated people on breeding. Learn about the horses we have here with American breeders, ask questions, and start following them. No one is going to do it for you and if we don’t start now, we will be completely screwed in time to come.
Breeders and handlers also have to do their part. I hate being forced to use an example like this, but it is important to get my point across. I was showing at an A rated show in Pennsylvania in the spring last year, and the breeding was going on that day in the afternoon, and I was excited to have the time to watch. (I admit sometimes it can be a little like watching nascar because they are, well, babies, and naughty) I went to the manager and secretary and said I just have one request before all of these breeding classes start – do you mind to have the announcer tell us the breeding on each horse as it is in the ring. The dam and the sire. I had assumed all of that information was REQUIRED on an entry blank. It is not. WHY NOT?!
She promptly told me that she would LOVE to but they didn’t have ANY of that information. How is this actually possible? Apparently half of the people who showed up for the breeding classes didn’t even KNOW the dam or the sire of the horse they were entering in the breeding classes. This is entirely unacceptable. And what was she going to do? Stop everything she was doing to look up all the babies USEF numbers and jot down on the announcer form their fathers and mothers??? This is so frustrating, when across the ocean, the breeding of the horse is included at the SAME time you are told it’s age, height, sex, and color. “5 yr grey gelding by Cassini II, 168cm” That registers in my brain right away what to look for.
Point systems for breeding classes are confusing, they need to be addressed regularly and adjusted so proper recognition can get awarded like everyone else paying their dues. If you are in a breeding class of just 1 two-year old, for example, should you get the same points as a breeding class of 5 horses? or 15? Hopefully if you win a class of 5 or more, you get more points right?
I want to see numbers increase in the breeding divisions over the next few years, but it is going to take an incredible group effort. I know in Maryland it has been a big topic of discussion, and as the numbers grow, we can make really amazing awards happen for them again in the future. It is not just here, it needs to happen across the country. Local organizations can get involved as well, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON an in-hand class cannot be offered on the local and regional level for fun. It is good for kids, professionals, and adults, it should be a free class so there is no obligation, and it is good for judges to get that mileage judging horses and ponies on the line. I don’t care if a rubber duckie is the award for first place, but if you are a show manager, you need to get it in your schedule now and get it done.
Stallions need to get to exhibitions, exhibitions need to be created in more places! The Young Horse Show Series is starting to create one, and if it can be on live video feed, everyone can benefit. Imagine watching stallions from all over the country actually move, jump and be presented on TV!
There are 104 breeders listed in the USHJA breeders directory, get to know them right now, follow them on Facebook, ‘like’ their cute little baby pictures, ask them when they are going to show those babies in public, and go support them. Tell them you are interested, listen to their feedback, and think about how to solve the breeding issues in this country.
http://www.ushja.org/programs/resources/breeder_search.aspx
I found this on the USEF website for the West Coast
https://www.usef.org/newsletterLicensedOfficials/applications/2015/DSHB-SeattleWA.pdf
this is the schedule I found for clinics in 2015, maybe someone has an idea for 2016?
https://www.usef.org/newsletterLicensedOfficials/2015schedule.html
LOOK HERE:
and here:
young horses in a field
breeding class in Lexington, Virginia, Spring 2015
Dalmation offering Kenny Krome his personal opinion.
deloise in america 
Coming from the horse world into the world of livestock (goats/sheep) I was rudely awakened by the difference. In a horse breeding class, the judge watches you go through the motions, then the announcer calls out the winners, they get their ribbons and walk out. In livestock you go through the motions, lineup 1st to last. The judge then takes the mic and explains why the animal placed in the order, it’s good and bad qualities, from first to last. Every animal is evaluated. The exhibitor and the audience are not left to guess why or think it won because of who handled or who owned or showed it last weekend. It’s all out there! Now if they did that for horses and the person who took Mr. Ed into the ring and got last place every week and was told, you horse is pigeon toed, sway backed and three legged lame, they wouldn’t stand on the side and say “I wasn’t placed because I’m not so and so”, or “I had the wrong bit on this season”. They would have an honest answer to their question, “why didn’t I place” and maybe they would start to look deeper into pedigree and conformation. They would at least get educated that day and so would those watching. If you don’t educate people in and out of the ring how can you expect them to not keep doing the same thing over and over. Some people cannot see the faults until you place their hands on it and say ” this is what’s wrong” especially those who are new. It’s like taking someone who doesn’t know anything about sheep into a field and asking them to see their individual faults. They don’t know, but it you point one out and say, it has this, that and X wrong. They see the next sheep they look at completely different.
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Great feedback! Thank you!
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Part of this is wrong when the writer says that those owners entering their horses in the breeding classes don’t know the pedigree and breed registration of the horses they are entering. I don’t know any breeder/owner/buyer that doesn’t know their young horse’s pedigree, and most handlers are boned up on the pedigree, at least sire, dam, breed registration, of those horses they handle at shows. The major shows announce or print sire/dam/breed info, but many of the smaller hunter breeding divisions at A or AA or C shows do not and I agree this is not right. Clinicians, not judges, usually critique the conformation and movement of the young horses in front of them so those persons interested in learning should attend clinics. Dressage sport horse in-hands and future event horse in-hands provide the owner or handler with a written critique but that isn’t public information so attend breeding clinics to hear verbal critiques.
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Thanks for the feedback! I think on entry blanks for SOME horse shows you are not required to put the pedigree on paper to get a back number. This actually did happen so we need to address entry forms so announcers have all the information they need to inform the spectators. I will go back and include a calendar for clinics, again thank you!
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At shows that offer Hunter Breeding as a feature, there is normally a separate entry blank for breeding entries that include pedigree in the information requested. But many shows that simply offer the classes don’t do so with any particular regard for the significance of the division, and so use their normal entry blanks, which are required by USEF to capture many other items that don’t leave much room on the page, let alone allow for the printing of lists that include anything beyond those items of interest to the starter and the checkout secretary. This is an uphill battle, though improvements have been evident at some bigger venues. There is a strong opinion in some show offices that since <> exhibitors don’t care, that this information is unimportant. A lot of information could be more readily available (as should some of the other info that goes on the entry blank) via the USEF recording number/membership numbers, IF the show offices were more integrated with USEF.
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Excellent! And thank you!
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The United States Sport Horse Breeders Association offers Associate level memberships for those seeking to support American breeders. The USSHBA’s website includes a directory of member breeders by state. http://www.facebook.com/usshba
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http://www.usshba.org
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