Dear Clare Balding,

[Rollin]

Whilst I am absolutely delighted that this year, you have finally drawn Channel Four viewers attention to the fact, that the bay horses in the Carriage Procession are Cleveland Bays, your comments that they are not endangered could not be more wrong.

The Cleveland Bay and the Suffolk Punch head the RBST 'critical' list. Fewer than 30 pure bred Cleveland Bays are registered in the stud book each year. Down from more than 70 when I became a member of the society.

Unless numbers can be boosted to 45 pure breds per annum we risk losing the breed altogether.

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

I heard that too! Email them or tweet?!

 

[Feival]

tweet her, she's lovely.

 

[ester]

how come CB doesn't appear on this page?

https://www.rbst.org.uk/Rare-and-Native-Breeds/Equine

or here?
https://www.rbst.org.uk/Our-Work/Watchlist

 

[Irish gal]

Hey Rollin, do you guys get any money for breeding keeping endangered species? In Ireland you can get €200 - €300 a year for keeping breeds of native cattle and ponies - like the Kerry bog ponies. This has kept those breeds alive as farmers then decide to raise them for the supplement they get. I know everybody might not agree with it but some breeds might have been wiped out without it. That's shocking there are so few Cleveland Bays, it's quite worrying. If you do talk to Claire might be worth mentioning a government subsidy to raise numbers....she certainly has the power to attract attention to the cause.

 

[Rollin]

Hey Rollin, do you guys get any money for breeding keeping endangered species? In Ireland you can get €200 - €300 a year for keeping breeds of native cattle and ponies - like the Kerry bog ponies. This has kept those breeds alive as farmers then decide to raise them for the supplement they get. I know everybody might not agree with it but some breeds might have been wiped out without it. That's shocking there are so few Cleveland Bays, it's quite worrying. If you do talk to Claire might be worth mentioning a government subsidy to raise numbers....she certainly has the power to attract attention to the cause.

The UK breeders do but we are excluded as we live in France. Our last three fillies would have attracted payments of last year £500, not sure how much this year. We believe the society are in contravention of EU laws on trade practices i.e. UK breeders are given a financial advantage. Having said that overseas breeders are producing 30% of foals so perhaps the passion rather than the money are the driving force.

 

[Rollin]

how come CB doesn't appear on this page?

https://www.rbst.org.uk/Rare-and-Native-Breeds/Equine

or here?
https://www.rbst.org.uk/Our-Work/Watchlist

I have no idea why. It is truly bizarre.

The four critical breeds on the watchlist are the CB, the Suffolk Punch, the Hackney and the Eriskay. The status of the CB was included in an article in H&H last year as a statistical glitch in a year when more fillies than colts were born, led RBST to state the situation was improving.

 

[millikins]

Are they updating it maybe? They were on the RBST list a week or so ago because we entered our Eriskay in the New Forest show, rare breeds class and checked what else would be in it.

 

[ester]

I should point out I know they are, so not suggesting you are wrong, but just thought if info on there not correct then perhaps Clare can be a bit forgiven re. research.

 

[Alec Swan]

Hey Rollin, do you guys get any money for breeding keeping endangered species? …….. .

The UK breeders do …….. .

Rollin, not this side of the Irish Sea they don't, or not that I've heard of!

Alec.

 

[Rollin]

I should point out I know they are, so not suggesting you are wrong, but just thought if info on there not correct then perhaps Clare can be a bit forgiven re. research.

My husband has already written to RBST, as another post says they were on there a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Rollin]

Rollin, not this side of the Irish Sea they don't, or not that I've heard of!

Alec.

Which side Alec? You live in England?

CBHS received £11,800 when I was a member, from the HBLB. As well as payments for pure bred foals, monies are available for swabbing stallions, transporting mares to stud and for the cost of DNA testing. All particularly cheeky when you consider that members in other EU member states pay more for membership. SHGB does not charge me 'extra' for my membership. In France I cannot obtain a covering certificate if my stallions are not swabbed and vaccinated in accordance with stud book rules.

The HBLB distributed £115K to Breed Societies in 2014-15

 

[Alec Swan]

Hey Rollin, do you guys get any money for breeding keeping endangered species? …….. .

The UK breeders do ……...

Which side Alec? You live in England?

CBHS received £11,800 when I was a member, from the HBLB. ……..

The HBLB distributed £115K to Breed Societies in 2014-15

The Breed Societies may, but you said the The Breeders do. I remain less than convinced that any Rare Breed breeders receive any direct payments.

Alec.

ets, and yes, I'm in England. My apologies!

 

[Rollin]

If they are members of CBHS they certainly do. Although not all the grant money is used as the number of foals has declined over the years.

 

[Irish gal]

By the sounds of it you are not getting on a par with Irish breeders. Here it is a yearly payment for keeping the animal of €200 -€300 per animal depending on the breed. Some people keep them purely for the subsidy but it has succeeded in keeping the numbers of some breeds up.