A letter of Interest
September 8, 2010I am Proud to be the British breeder of Zubin-R who recently failed his SHBGB grading I am a responsible and dedicated small breeder and as such I have been grading horses and foals with the KWPN since 1992 (about 17 years) which is probably longer than most British grading systems have been running – and certainly longer than the current SHBGB one. During that time, the animals I have bred include;
Wenzel-R the KWPN champion foal of 2003 who not only achieved a score of 88f for conformation (well above average) 72 movement but was also honoured with an invitation to compete at Ermelo, the Dutch national championships. Exported to South Africa as a yearling he then went on to become Reserve Champion at the South African Horse of The Year Show, with the judges including Simon Somers and Sophie Waddilove, becoming Champion Stallion in 2007 and now been ridden by there top rider with 2012 in mind.
Ciroc–R (by Painted Black) out of Zubin-Rs dam Fabionne who was presented to the KWPN in 2007 for VB selection where he was received well top score of the day going on to become top scoring dressage foal 2007 even though his dam was 22 yr old.
Several other foals that have received top scores and good 1st premiums over the years at the KWPN and BEF Futurity Evaluations including Czarina-R out of Rilinare by the top stallion His Highness andZubin-Rs only foal to date Caruso-R plus a number that have gone on to compete successfully in sport River Nexus, River Flemmingh, River Attraction etc.
With my experience as a consistent breeder and producer of 1st premiums for one of the very top dressage and show jumping studbooks in the world I therefore stand by Zubin-R, his conformation breeding and movement – and my proven internationally successful breeding programme – not least because in 2004, at only 7 weeks old Zubin-R was presented to KWPN for VB selection. The inspectors were internationally recognized expert Frank Vespers and Jacques Verkerk (who are reputedly very strict with their marking) and Johann Knapp who has gone on to be the Director of the KWPN, which is now one of the most successful studbooks in the world (currently standing 1st in Jumping and 2nd in Dressage in the world for four consecutive years)
In 2006 Zubin-R at 2 years old underwent a 5 stage vetting for the AES grading, where the judges referred to him as a masculine horse with stallion potential and good conformation and movement but failed his jumping due to lack of preparatory training down the jumping lane which understandably due to his international potential and comparative youth his owner had been reluctant to allow for fear off affecting his long term soundness with too much work to early.
In 2007 Zubin-R was presented and received well by the BEF where he became overall Champion average score 9.5 on this occasion his vetting score was 8.75 out of 10 and was conducted by the SHBGBs very own specialist sports vet Jane Nixon.
In 2008 Zubin-R yet again passed another 5 stage vetting with a different vet so the horse has now had three high vetting scores and judgements from five international inspectors who all think Zubin-R is sound in conformation; yet SHBGB say otherwise. I understand that only one of the four judges that officiated at the SHBGB grading have experience of participating in grading panels in mainland Europe even though it a WBFSH studbook and furthermore they do not attend WBFSH workshops or grading seminars abroad it is a mystery to me how can judge a warm blood let alone a young one.
Also I am certain that none of the judges are qualified vets yet they make judgement on potential soundness that contradict those of the specialist and appear to base their judgement of a stallion at least to some degree on that.
I think that in all of the above SHBGB has shown itself for what it is, a showing/eventing studbook. This meant that when Zubin-R was presented as a correctly muscled competition fit stallion not carrying any fat, the grading panels opinion was that he lacked topline, but in my experience (bearing in mind that warmblood are not fully mature until about 7 years old) if he had any more topline on him he will look like a bull at maturity. It is therefore clear to me that in assessing a young jumping stallion such as Zubin-R, the SHBGB is out of its comfort zone. In saying this I would like to point out that I am certainly not against criticism as I know no horse is perfect, as all my horses are thoroughly critiqued for their positive and negative points every time I present them to the KWPN, but the criticism has to be informed and delivered by people with expertise in the field for it to be valid.
I believe the credibility of SHBGB is under question here and along with it the future of British sport horses and to put it into context one has to ask how many SHBGB bred showjumping and dressage horses are ridden by our top riders and what the WBFSH ranking SHBGB is in these sports. The answer is not very encouraging and one can only conclude that even though its grading system has been running for about 8 years, it is still unclear about the essential differences between sport horses and show horses.
I also understand that the SHBGB did not even know that the BEF graded conformation or vetted horses, so if they don’t know whats going on in there own country what chance do we stand competing with our overseas cousins. If the SHBGB has a problem with what the BEF is doing, perhaps it is because they offer an alterative way of assessing young horses based more on the European method that has been proven successful in Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, etc, so I believe it must be all about politics. But that will not get British-bred dressage horses and showjumpers to the standard that they need to be to compete abroad and attract buyers to our shores and it is a well known fact that our showjumpers and dressage riders usually choose to ride foreign bred horses.
SHBGB must move with the times if it is to raise its game and grade in stallions that will do well in dressage and showjumping breeding as do those that prove its proven expertise in the totally different discipline of event breeding. It is a fact that Zubin-R comes from a long line of progenitors, is bred in the purple for sport and has been complimented for his stallion potential conformation and soundness by a wide range of sport horse breeding and producing experts who have far more experience than do the majority of the judges used by SHBGB. So in overlooking him, some would say permanently damaging his reputation as a stallion of world class potential, this inept decision has not only done a great disservice to the SHBGB own breeding programme but also potentially (and far more seriously) to that of the wider sports horse breeding industry in the UK.
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