2012 season

Futurity Interview Cont.....

Q30. Have you seen any progression over the years? Has the quality got better or stayed static?

JAN - The marking system has undergone subtle changes over the last five years so we can’t make a precise comparison between horses entered 5 years go and horses entered in 2009. There are interesting general trends though – people are typically bringing more horses (seemingly unaffected by the recession), people who come once tend to come again in a following year and recommend it to friends, in year one most of the entries were foals but now only 38% are foals so people are bringing their foals back as older horses and more people are bringing older horses. We also believe that people are selecting the horses they bring – in other words they know themselves which are the best of their annual crop and they are only bringing them – so it is harder than might be imagined to say if the overall standard is improving!

CELIA - From the point of view of someone who is in the arena for many of the evaluations – and who also sees many foals throughout Europe on a fairly regular basis – I would say that the standard definitely has gone up, not just in absolute terms but also in terms of how they compare to foals and youngsters in mainland Europe. Whether it is because of the self-selection that some say owners do before presenting an animal to an evaluation or whether the quality of foals is better overall is of course impossible for us to say, but what I do know is that a group of Elite foals and youngsters here would certainly give many of the champion foals in mainland Europe a run for their money. Our job now is to convince our ‘top riders’ of that our home-bred product is just as good – and far better value and far more likely to stay sound – than their expensive foreign purchasers but it is still a bit of an uphill task until the stats start rolling in properly.

Q31. Many people think that it is quite amazing how far the BEF Futurity has grown over the years. How do you feel yourself that the series has gone each year?

JAN - We are delighted with the way the series has gained recognition, with the feedback we receive and with the growth the Futurity has experienced. It won’t continue to grow indefinitely, it will reach critical mass and then we hope to sustain that level of interest for the long term. Its steady growth has meant that the same team has been involved throughout, which has meant that we have learned quickly what participants like and want.

Q32. What are the future plans of the BEF Futurity with organisers? How do you see it growing more?

JAN - See the answer to Q31 above.

Q33. How will the Futurity organisers assess the overall results of the series regarding those horses that go on to sport after the age of 3?

JAN - We will be able to track and trace all Futurity graduates through NED as data supply from studbooks and disciplines continues to improve. Once a horse has a UELN (Unique Equine Life Number), and all the disciplines record this – it is easy to them follow it through their careers. At the moment the tracking is manual, as is the tracking of horses known to be abroad.

Q34. Who, in your personal opinion, have been the “success horses” over the years, to prove that the BEF Futurity is achieving its goal?

JAN - So far in eventing it is Overstones Matisse closely followed by Millie on Air, in Show Jumping it is Zubin R (now an AES graded stallion and doing very well in showjumping in Germany) and dressage is Woodlander Farouche (who recently won her ridden mare test with the highest ever mark achieved at the BHHS grading). This isn’t personal opinion though, this is from disciplines’ and studbooks’ results data – we can’t have favourites!

CELIA - A couple of others that are worth noting are the German-graded coloured stallion Samaii (now competing successfully in young dressage horse classes in Germany), and Amour G who graded into the sports horse section of the WBB-UK last autumn.

Q35. Do you have any memorable horses over the last few years, if any?

JAN - The memorable horses will be the ones that go on to do well and we can demonstrate their success. They will be the ones that will show that the Futurity is a robust process for identifying future talent.

CELIA - As an evaluator I see many good young horses it would be invidious to pick out one - or even several – so as a general comment I would say ‘look at the top-scoring horses and ponies in each age group and discipline each year and they will hopefully be the memorable ones in the long run.

What really does stick in my mind though is the way in which some people are consistently able to get the best out of their horses at an evaluation, while others seem to find it very difficult to do.

Evaluators are, of course, trained to see through all the tricks of presentation but even they are not gifted with second sight, so if a handler cannot run fast enough to get the horse out of a jog trot or the youngster is so ‘joined up’ with its owner that it won’t go off independently to loose school or loose jump successfully, then even the most generous of evaluators will be hard pressed to give it the benefit of the doubt, however well-bred or well turned out it is........

As all our readers will appreciate this interview was very indepth, so that we were able to give you the most information available. We hope you have found further information on this invaluable concept and that every breeder in the UK supports the UK wide events in 2010.

We would like to thank both Jan and Celia for giving up their time to do this interview.

Below are some pictures of the horses mentioned above by both Jan and Celia