"Great" British Breeding cont...

Success stories?.........cont

“MFS De Vision” our homebred by MFS Vision is the third highest placed dressage colt foal at the Scottish Futurity and awarded a high 2nd Premium.

“MFS Carrisa Rosa” our homebred by Van Gogh is the second highest placed yearling for both eventing and showjumping, with a high 2nd Premium in both areas.

“Wildwind Horizon” by MFS Vision is awarded a 2nd Premium.

“Coloured Vision” by MFS Vision is highest scoring dressage yearling colt at the Scottish Futurity and awarded a 1st Premium.

“Wildwind Illusion” by MFS Vision is highest scoring eventing yearling filly at the Scottish Futurity and awarded a 1st Premium.

The Studfarm is also featured on the BBC 1 Scotland programme “Landward” showcasing British breeding and the BEF Futurity.

“MFS Rotspons Prince” homebred by Rotspon is sold to France as a stallion prospect.

2009 – “Riviera L” continues to do well qualifying for the Winter BD Regional Championships for both Novice and Elementary, and goes on to get a Wildcard for the BD Winter Championships at Elementary after coming 6th place at the Regionals. He also goes on to qualify for the BD Elementary National Championships at Elementary and comes 12th at the Summer Nationals.

“Lady Geneve” by Royal Geneve also qualifies at Novice for the Winter Regionals.

Several “MFS” horses do well throughout the showing season including winning Championships and Reserves. At the Royal Highland Show “MFS Fancyman” is 1st in the Yearling Sports Horse Class, with “Forevermore Dior” by MFS Vision in 2nd place, and “MFS De Vision” in 9th place. At the Keith County Show “MFS Caliana” a 2 year old homebred by MFS Vision is crowned Champion Sportshorse, with her yearling full sister “Forevermore Dior” Reserve Champion. “MFS Dandyman” homebred by Marlon is 2nd place in the yearling class.

At the 2009 BEF Young Horse Futurity we receive the following awards:

“MFS Florencia” homebred by Florencio I is awarded a 1st Premium and is the Reserve Highest Scoring Dressage Foal at the Scottish Futurity.

“MFS Ella Rosa” homebred by Hemmingway is awarded a 1st Premium and is the Highest Scoring Eventing Foal at the Scottish Futurity.

“MFS Dandyman” homebred by Marlon is awarded the Elite Award for showjumping and is the Highest Scoring Showjumping Yearling at the Scottish Futurity and is now also the Highest Scoring Yearling in the UK for all three disciplines!

“MFS Caliana” homebred by MFS Vision is awarded a 1st Premium and is the Reserve Highest Scoring Showjumping 2 year old at the Scottish Futurity

“Forevermore Dior” by MFS Vision is awarded a high 2nd Premium in the yearling showjumping at the Scottish Futurity.

“MFS B’Royal” homebred by Royal Geneve is Highest scoring Showjumping and dressage 3 year old at the Scottish Futurity and awarded a 1st Premium.

“Craighill Royal Poldark” by Royal Geneve is Highest scoring eventing 3 year old at the Scottish Futurity and awarded a 1st Premium.

Anything else that I haven't asked that you would like to say? (Issues, standards, assessment, customer perception...

I think that it is up to breeders and stallion owners to help educate mare owners in the UK, and I feel that this is something that our stud has achieved over the past few years. We are seeing many customers come back to us, or pass on our details to other parties. We advocate very strongly for people to think about what they are breeding and the goals they wish to achieve. The UK has some of the best farming ground in the world, so it’s an ideal place to breed sports horses.

However, mare owners need to look at their own mares critically for them to make a more informed choice of their stallion selections. Only by doing this will we see the standards of the British bred horse continue to rise. We know from the past that breeders in the UK will breed from just about anything, and we have to change this mind set. In Europe the breed societies promote the breeding of horses to the younger generations and there are lots of educational activities put on for doing this, which helps each generation of breeders strive to do better and have a stronger understanding of breeding and the qualities and attributes that help towards this.

Customer perception of the quality of British Bred horses is increasing, but this is being fuelled by those breeders in the UK who have high goals, and there are too numerous breeders to mention who are very successful with what they are doing with their breeding aims, across all the disciplines.

The BEF Young Horse Evaluation Futurity is also an excellent concept for assessing horses and ponies from foals up to three years old, and owners can compare their home bred horses with horses bred across the UK. I think that this has helped in pushing the standards higher with it comes to breeding, and making people think more about what they are trying to achieve.

What I would also say to mare owners, breeders and those looking to purchase foals or youngstock is that it takes the same amount of money to keep a good quality horse as opposed to a poorer quality horse.

We also lack an abundance of good quality riders in the UK, and by this I mean those that have been taught to ride in a way that is able to ride and train young horses. In Holland and Germany the young riders are encouraged from grass roots right up through all the levels. Through team selections in Holland and Germany you see young riders given the opportunity to ride at International level. When we go to Holland all the 3 year old stallions are presented under saddle by young riders, and these riders know how to handle a young horse. Besides the riders I also think we lack the trainers.

As long as all the professional breeders and Stud/stallion owners drive the industry to strive to do better, to look more closely at mare and stallion selection, then I believe we will see a change in the tide for the better for all British bred horses.

What would you like to see in terms of the development of the market in the UK?

The British Sports Horse industry in the UK significantly needs to change its marketing. By this I mean for the Breed Associations to keep their website up-to-date not just with news of their own gradings, but the continued success of their stock, stallions and breeders.

I find that British people are not very good at telling people how good they are, especially compared to the European breeders who have so much belief in what they are doing that this comes across. Also the Associations are promoting their breeding all the time, which is why we always hear about the KWPN and Hanoverians.

I understand that many British Studbooks are run by volunteers, as this is what I did myself. However, if we made that little bit of an effort as breeders to send in all our achievements to the representatives of our Breed Associations, and the Studbooks were good at keeping their websites up-to-date and for promoting these horses then this will all bode well in the future.

Likewise with all the equestrian magazines, we need further promotion through these channels to help support British breeders, not just a small paragraph in every other edition, but to give us enough space in these magazines to help with the promotion of breeding in the UK. All too often you look at the likes of Horse & Hound and Sport Horse Breeding only gets a small mention, or not enough “air time”.

Due to this lack of support for British Breeders both myself and a friend, Lynne Busson of DJ Sport Horses have set up a brand new online Horse Breeding Magazine, that will help to promote British Breeding, along with articles of interest, interviews with both big and small breeders, and includes all British breeding. We have also created a new Breeders Forum purely dedicated towards horse breeders. (www.horsebreedersmagazine.com and www.horsebreedersforum.com)

Lastly as a breeder it would be great to see more of our homebred stock into top competition yards. In the past we have had young horses in training; however as breeders we put so much emphasis and resources into producing the best possible horses, that we find it increasingly hard to then support several horses in training. The costs of having a young horse at a competition yard in the UK is quite prohibitive unless you have a lot of money at your disposal

I would love to see some of our younger horses out in sport but we are unable to do two jobs! Therefore I think it would be great if there was support for breeders to help see more good quality bred horses being given the chance with riders in the UK. How this would work I do not know, but I am sure that it is “doable”.

All too often we hear of top competition horses being sold abroad, but if there was some kind of system in place that matched young horses to riders with some kind of contract in place that covered both breeder and rider then you would maybe find the horsepower in the UK increasing over the years. Thus giving the recognition to the breeder, whilst supplying well bred horses to the British riders! That cant be too bad can it!