How about a central data base?

M

magic104

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www.jc-countryside.co.uk
I have visited a number of Breed society websites and though I understand someone has to actually update this information why is there so little of it? If you compare the SHBS to the Irish Sports Board you will understand what I mean.
http://www.sporthorsegb.co.uk/general/about_us.htm
http://www.irishsporthorse.com/home/default.asp

There was talk of a system called NED National Equestrian Database (from memory). What happened to it? Why can't someone go to one place & find out information on things like stallions fertility, their competition record, performance of their offspring etc. Same for mares, if you are researching the breeding lines, it can be very difficult to find out information on mares. If you go to the Irish Sport Horse website there is a publication that lists the foals of that mare along with who bred her etc. This at least is a starting point, you will have a contact if you wish to find out more. I know not everyone is a sad anorak like me, but I find it fascinating researching the history of my foals & now 20 years on I would have thought it would be far easier now we have the internet & websites. I have overtime built up a photo gallery of my horses breeding & it is interesting to see the different types of horse that have made up each end product. I have looked at some stallions from the past & thought not in a million years would I have used him!

As for funding, what happened to the monies from the passports, once you deducted the cost of producing them? Also why do societies costs vary so much for producing the same product, ie Passports.
I would be in favour of a one stop shop, can't be that difficult for breed socities to come together in supplying the information. I also think the idea of Microchipping should be reconsidered for every future foal born. We would then perhaps have a future where we would not have horses whose breeding could not be identified.
 
Weatherbys do most of what you are asking but only for there own which is TB's and linked to the racing industry.
They issue fertility results .
Actually so do SHB i think.
Perphaps some of the other breed societies should follow suit.
Weatherby's foals are all DNA tested and microchipped within the first month of life well apart from the ones that people choose not to.
 
NED is supposed to be up and running, but commercially it is and NEVER going to work unless details on it ie Names and Addresses were sold onto 3 rd parties for marketing purposes, which the then minister of the horses said would not happen and they would have to contact everyone on it to get perission. Howe many people have sold on or horses died since it was set up and how quick and accurate is the information vallidated.
Did they really think that they would recover the costs of running and updating the information by selling the details to breeders? How many breeders are there in this country and how many would have paid to use it when information is elsewhere and you can get it for free.

It was and is a complete waste of money which should have been invested elsewhere in the industry.
 
The problem is though there is no one stop place to go. Currently it is very difficult to find out information without trawling through upteen websites etc. How many posts have there been asking things like, what stallion should I use? Does anyone have any info on this horse, etc. Surely with technology we have it is not impossible to go to one place & find this out. If we really want to improve on breeding why can't we have in-place a situation where no horse can be bred that is not recorded. At the moment say what happens if a colt manages to get a mare in-foal? I am not sure that a breed society would record that? I would like to see an end to horses having no known breeding. Every horse has a dam & sire now that we have to have passports why cant we go one step further & micro chip every foal as they do with Weatherby's. There have been generations of "Gypsy" cobs bred in this country, but only recently have some of these been recorded & only because there is now a big market for coloured horses. As I said moving forward there is no need now for us to have generations of horses of unknown breeding. No one should be breeding & not getting round to registering their offspring. But if passports go missing hopefully the MC won't & it should make getting a replacement easier. In the future when someone buys a horse they will know exactly how old that horse is & how it is bred.
 
How impossible can it be? You can now access information on your motor vehicle, you can now tax your car online because they can access insurance details & Mot details. If we can keep records of cars then we can step it up & keep details of horses.
 
I was talking to DEFRA when they announced NED and as I work with databases and have horses I suggested to them that the way they were going to do it would not work and that passports should have done from one central PIO so all the info came back to one place and be run like DVLA, as you have also said, and that every horse should be micro chipped and that they should have a rethink on the way they were going to do it. But because of new legislation that came in (EU), I think they went for a quick fix. Apparently the minister of the horse and advisors did see my emails and were going to get in contact, but never did. Complete waste of money which I think about £2 million has been spent setting it up.

With regards to breeding horses, it depends what you want the end product for. We want showjumpers so we look at our mares bloodlines first which are Holstein, and her temprement and then look at showjumping stallions that are compatable to her. We look at offspring of the stallion or the bloodline of the stallion to see what they have done to narrow the odds in getting something good as 'flavour of the month' stallions may be performing but there offspring may not. With young stallions who may not be competing at the highest level yet because of age, this is where bloodlines are very important. To be honest I would never have used NED as there is no need to because if you are going to breed a horse it should be the best you can get otherwise what is the point of doing it and the information is available. If people are asking what about this stallion, then should they really be breeding a horse as it has to be compatable with the mare and only the owner would know this. There is no easy way to breeding a good horse but doing your home work and using common sense will narrow the odds and always use a good mare which I think is more important than the stallion.
 
Oh, I do so agree. Over the years I've bred and shown dogs and cats and have said for ages that we need a central registry system on a par with the Kennel Club or the GCCF. Yes, OK, we could still have breed clubs as dogs and cats do but a central system would be fantastic. I don't see that it would that difficult once someone got their act together and it would make tracing breeding etc SO much easier and would tighten up loopholes. NED due to launched "later this year" according to their website . . . . http://www.nedonline.co.uk/index.php
 
I was going to add that the KC manage perfectly well. One of the reasons for a central database though is so we try to eliminate this situation of having horses that may actually be very good horses, with no breeding history. I find it frustrating to see some very good horses competing & when you ask how they are bred the answer is "don't know". As of last year there should be no yearlings that can’t be identified & moving forward all horses/born should now be traceable. I know for a fact in the past some horses lost their papers to hide their age & history. Moving forward this hopefully will be eliminated with the passports, but I want it to go one step further & introduce MC’s for all foals born at the very least. It proved itself when those Shetlands were reunited with their owner. I also think that by going to one place to find out information on a horse can only be a good thing, for all concerned not just those interested in breeding.
 
When Defra announced passports as obligatory their was uproar! I fail to undertsand how the British mind works........

In France you can access SIRE and have all the information you need on registered horses but you do have to pay.....

In Holland a quick e-mail to the largest governing body will reveal everything you could ask for and more providing you are a member......

In the UK you will be paced with the response "I'm sorry that is classified information" of course the BSJA will provide you with some information at a cost....... whilst BD although simplistic will yeild a degree of information........

But there is hope.......... we all have allbreedpedigree... LOL not always reliable and a bit of a mess ........... or better still, if you are prepared to learn a little Dutch www.paardenfokken.nl - if you are breeding "sport horses" then this has to be one of the best databases availible yet and even the British can use it. so if you want to contribute then pull out your passports of tom dick and harry and enter their details....
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Like the British Database it doesn't appear to be going to work..
Both our stallions were reg with them and it was a total waste of money.
What would be better is every horse must have a microchip and one place for a passport instead of the shambles we now have.
Why is that so difficult?
 
I use the French Database as I had a French stallion, it is excellent, very informative and I got loads of information from it and could trace all the different lines and the offspring and what they had achieved. Why can't this country get its act together...mind you you only have to look at the government to get the answer look at the £m's they have spent on new computer systems for this department and that department and then they just scrap them!
 
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