Futurity eligibility?

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joeathh

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With all the buzz of the futurity I had a look on the website at eligibility to enter. Mmm is it already an elite club which is to become more elite?
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Or are the rules laid down, not followed to the letter?

Stallions
Progeny of stallions entered into Section VII of the Weatherbys Non-Thoroughbred Register (NTR) will only be eligible for the Futurity if their sires are also graded/approved/licenced by another DEFRA listed studbook.
Really is this the case???

and

Horses sired by stallion from other studbooks with a proven record of producing sport horses but have no sports-related grading systems (e.g. pure-bred, part-bred and Anglo Arabs and Iberian breeds) will be considered on an individual basis on the merits of their sports-related bloodlines.
But not their fault if their studbook requires no approval?

and now to come in the future

Advisory note – grading standards for Futurity dams which may become a requirement in the future. Notice will be given

It is preferable, although not a requirement at this time, that dams of Futurity entries have been graded by a UK studbook or daughter studbook recognised by DEFRA that is dedicated to the breeding of sport horses or ponies, or has a specific section for sport horses or ponies or is a World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) member studbook either in the UK or abroad.

It is preferable that broodmares meet the preceding criteria or have had a successful competition career for which the criteria are yet to be defined.

What about studbooks that don't grade mares? AES, Zangersheide - do these mares have to overstamp with studbook that does and go for grading?
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[ QUOTE ]
It is preferable, although not a requirement at this time, that dams of Futurity entries have been graded by a UK studbook or daughter studbook recognised by DEFRA that is dedicated to the breeding of sport horses or ponies, or has a specific section for sport horses or ponies or is a World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) member studbook either in the UK or abroad.


[/ QUOTE ]

Well, my entry is out of a home bred TB mare, registered only with Wetherbys as a broodmare. Through no fault of her own, my mare has never been shown or put forward for grading. However, the sire of my yearling is Elite status with both CHAPS and AES.

At the moment I have no problem entering mine without the dam being officially a 'sports horse', but I do feel it will be an enormous shame if they start insisting on only evaluating youngstock out of graded mares. There are some, like my mare, who have not been graded but are well bred/conformed/competitive and more than capable of throwing good looking, competitve offspring.

Surely the youngstock evaluation process sorts the good from the not so good on a horse by horse basis. A good youngster should not be prejudiced against because of the dam's grading status. I guess if the scores of stock being evaluated were suddenly to decline then the BEF would wish to do something to improve entries, however, I see no signs of this being a problem at the present time! People breeding poor stock out of fugly broodmares are very unlikely to be entering them into the Futurity.
 
I think you might find that the requirements regarding stallions only comes into force from 2012. It is definately not applicable this year as 5 progeny of my stallion are entered this and he is not yet graded. 2 of his also were graded last year so I'm very certain of the ground on this one.

This is to fall in line with -
"Under the Strategy for the Horse Industry in England and Wales (2005) the BEF is charged, in conjunction with the Lead Body for British Performance Sport Horses and Ponies (PSHP), with “improving the quality and breeding of our horses and ponies”. "

The Futurity is far from being elitist, but part of their remit is to seek out future elite competition prospects. It's a topic for debate I'm sure as I also have mixed feelings over whether an assessment of an individual animal's liklihood of becoming an 'elite' prospect, should be concerning itself with whether it's parents are graded. After all they are looking at the individual from the perspective of it's ability to perform, not it's breeding value. Stallion & mare grading is not linked in a binary fashion to performance as grading is the personal opinion of a select few (who may have their own agendas), whereas performance is a factual record of achievement. That said obviously grading does have some value, but I put less emphasis on that than I would the performance of a stallions progeny, it's direct relatives and it's suitability for my mare.

When assessing an individual's liklihood of achieving the top levels the Futurity is a good beginning as it assesses raw talent. Whether at that stage an account should be taken of it's pedigree is a thought worthy of consideration. My personal view is that it should to some degree, as some families are known for performance at the top levels - which indicates not only talent, but a brain to be able to cope with top flight competition and the training required to get there, which is something that I feel cannot be assessed accurately in a young animal. Therefore perhaps a view could be taken on the liklihood of it making it to the top based on the performance within the family. Again, that said, when looking at an individual, ultimately it is it's athleticism that is the biggest factor as with good training, most horses can perform.

Perhaps we should start another thread debating the merits of pedigree scoring in a similar way to the way the Holsteiner verband do?? The line between assessing an individual's phenotype and considering it's genotype is clearly a blurred one... discuss... LOL!
 
Sorry was stirring it with the 'elitest' comment, naughty me!

I took the info straight off the BEF website factsheets and it didn't mention 2012 but I was sure it wasn't the case? You make some valuable comments regarding the need for grading etc.

Some other questions I have - what percentage of the British breeding market uses graded stallions with graded mares? Will the futurity cater for the bulk of the sporthorse market?

Will all UK sporthorse studbooks move to having mare gradings? I was about to overstamp my mare with AES, doesn't make sense now and I'm best to go with SHB(GB) so I can grade her?
 
The 2012 thing is covered on Factsheet 5, page 2

It is definately not applicable at the present time though.

I have already been in discussion with Jan Rogers at the BEF about pedigree influence etc. and your points are well made. Rest assured this is being given consideration as Jan is well aware this is a potential performance assessment, not another breeding related grading.
 
"The 2012 thing is covered on Factsheet 5, page 2"

Doh' teach me to read slowly and stop scan reading everything ! Thanks
 
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