Futurity Interview Cont.....

Q11. What are the aspects that the evaluators are looking for in a young horse?

JAN - That depends on the discipline! But the main thing that sets an elite horse apart from a first premium horse is athleticism. We see a lot of very correct horses which simply do not have the ability to “move” – it is this combination of sound underpinnings (vet and conformation marks indicate fit for purpose and gaits are correct) and the ability to use every fibre of their being to leave the ground and propel themselves upwards and forwards that makes a top horse.

Q12. What do you see are the benefits of the BEF Futurity and what are the goals?

JAN - The Futurity’s goals are set out in Factsheet 1 which can be found on the Futurity web site at www.bef.co.uk/British_Breeding/Futurity_Young_Horse_Evaluations.html.

They are to identify talent for the future, to improve British breeding, to provide a large amount of data to inform breeders and to enable Futurity premiums to act as a marketing tool for breeders. The benefits are varied – and depend on the creative uses participants put their achievements to – there is something in it for everyone!

Q13. How are evaluators able to assess the horses and make a decision on what premium to award?

JAN - See the answer already given in Q10.

Q14. How were the first evaluators selected, and by what means?

JAN - There is an evaluator selection and training process which was written taking the best practice from similar processes the world over – the bulk of the research for this being done by the Royal Agricultural College. This is the process we follow when taking on new evaluators and making sure that existing ones follow CPD (Continual Professional Development). The original evaluators came to the Futurity from the former, well established, Young Horse Evaluation programme and now follow the Futurity’s CPD programme.

CELIA- See the answer for Q10 for the vital involvement of world class specialists Ingvar Fredriksson and Jan-Olaf Wanius at this initial stage.

Q15. How are the training needs identified for the evaluators?

JAN - Evaluators work in teams and learn from each other. The process we have developed specifies what training needs to be undertaken in order to retain evaluator status, and if for any reason the training needs are not met, those evaluators must work in conjunction with others in specified combinations until they are “up to speed”. We involve continental studbooks in our training process as well as vets and sport horse farriers.

Q16. What format does the training take on a yearly basis, and who have you used in the past to conduct the training and asses the evaluators?

JAN - Our training process allows for up to two training sessions per year in the UK with a continental provider, as well as evaluators needing to spend time at discipline specific events, overseas gradings, shows and WBFSH events. In 2009 we were fortunate enough to have Frenk Jespers as lead assessor at our main training event. See also the answers to Q10 and Q14 above.

Q17. What are the minimum criteria for any evaluators and what background do you like them to have?

JAN - E-mail janrogersequine@aol.com for the full document outlining these criteria.

Q18. If the organisers felt there was a problem with any evaluator, how would you go about addressing this?

JAN - Any issues are dealt with by supporting the development of the evaluator in any specific area.

Q19. In 2009 there seems to have been many more evaluators used compared to previous years, do you see this as a good thing?

JAN - In previous years we have engaged three evaluators at each venue. Because we are now developing more evaluators for the future we have had three evaluators and a trainee at most venues this year – which is part of the development process we set out to achieve.

Q20. Obviously you will have entrants at the BEF Futurity who are happy and those that are not. How do you deal with any negative aspects?

JAN - It is very important that we receive all feedback from participants – positive and negative. There is always a good reason for any point being made by a participant and we receive a lot of genuinely good ideas from their feedback. The important thing is for them to let the Futurity organisers know when they have any concerns, as these are often easily resolved and we do our very best to help and achieve a satisfactory outcome. But we can only help if we know!

Q21. One point that has been muted a lot is the scoring undertaken by the vets and the difference in marks lost varying quite a lot throughout the country. How do you hope to address this?

JAN - This is something we have identified as well. Ideally we would have just one vet for the whole series but this is impossible with so many venues. We have tried. We will be streamlining the veterinary panel, introducing more training and defining more clearly what the scores represent to improve consistency.

Q22. Would you consider a score sheet for the vets which had a list of some of the issues that have been found throughout the series along with the marks that a horse should lose if found to have one, thus making the vet scores more consistent from venue to venue?

JAN - Your point here will form part of the vets training mentioned n Q21.

CELIA - Even so, the vet’s scoring approach will still be in line with the methodology outlined in my answer to Q9, so again it will not be a fault-finding one in overall approach, although obviously some elements of soundness will be regarded as essential however brilliant the performance and looks of the animal on the day.

Q23. Entrants have asked on several occasions if a list of judges (no, evaluators!) could be made available to the public (not necessarily which one is going to which evaluation) so they could get more of an understanding of the calibre of the evaluators. Is this something you would consider doing and if not why not?

JAN - I have been made aware of some discussions on internet forums about this, but haven’t received any requests. It is something we would consider doing if it was generally felt to be helpful by a substantial percentage of both the participants and the evaluators.

CELIA - As careful examination of many of the answers given throughout this interview, the Futurity evaluators are probably the most experienced and well-trained set of equine assessors available for any event (or series of events) currently being held in the UK.

As chair of the Futurity working group I have complete faith in them and I respect the fact that some of them, having worked away quietly and modestly for many years honing their skills, they find any sort of self-promotion – or the need to publicly promote their expertise – so alien to them that they may well decide not to take part if an agreement for such information to be made public was part of the conditions of their appointment as an evaluator.

I would strongly support them in this and would also say that – even though they are well known to many, I would certainly not publish my own details in such a document if I had a choice; I would therefore strongly recommend that any such information be provided at the evaluators own individual choice if at all as to do otherwise would quite possibly adversely affect the quality of an already proven team.

Q24. Each year sees the entrants increasing, which must be very pleasing for the organisers. How do you plan to take the BEF Futurity forwards from now on?

JAN - The number of participants has increased from 100 in 2005 to 884 in 2009. The number of venues has gone from 1 to 14. We would like to increase the number of venues so people have shorter distances to travel (a popular request) but can only introduce new venues if they fill (50-60 participants) because of the costs involved.

Q25. Will there be a time when the BEF Futurity organisers will look towards offspring by graded stallions only?

JAN - The Fact sheets already contain this rule for introduction in 2012.

Q27. How do the organisers plan to promote these horses and ponies that have done well in the series? Do you struggle with the promotional side?

JAN - We have invested a considerable amount in post event PR this year. Rachael Holdsworth has done an excellent job of following up all the high scorers and the interesting stories, arranging interviews and issuing regional and national media information, all with full colour photos. Our media file is very impressive this year – and of course The British Breeder No 4 will contain many pages devoted to the 2009 series!

CELIA - We do still have some difficulty with getting reports into Horse and Hound but this is far more due to their editorial policy than the importance of our results to the sports horse and pony breeding industry as a whole.

Q28. How do you plan to bring the BEF Futurity to the notice of the public, not just in the UK, to publicise British breeding world wide?

JAN - The KWPN follow the Futurity very closely already and will publicise the success of KWPN horses in their own publication IDS.

Breeding News for Sport Horses features the Futurity and USEA has used the Futurity as a model for its own young event horse series.

The Futurity will only be proven as a tool for young horse assessment when its equine graduates manifest their early potential in competition. Once it proves itself (and we need five more years of data to do this) – publicity should be pretty straightforward.

CELIA - I am actually the official UK correspondent for Breeding News for Sport Horses so I do as much as I can to ensure that it gets decent coverage in what is now the official international publication for dispensing WBFSH information to the wider world outside the studbooks.

Q29. What would you say to anybody who was considering entering the BEF Futurity, but has not yet done so?

JAN - Everyone is welcome. We receive a great deal of feedback to the effect that participants welcome the help provided when they ring up to find more, the fact that we guide them through the entry process and provide support all the way through. We genuinely believe that we have created one of the best customer care cultures within any assessment programme. To anyone thinking of taking part, I would just say “It is for everyone, so read all the Fact sheets and give us a call if you would like anything explaining and we will be very pleased to help.”