Recognition of Small Breeders

[Nickymac]

Ok, so this could be a tad self-indulgent and I apologise for that, but isn't it great when small breeders get a little bit of recognition?

In the SHB(GB) December magazine, Sheila Fenwick gets a lovely write-up for doing well at the National Hunter Show with her Baydale-prefixed horses. I used to event Baydale Juno years ago and now have a two year old out of her (Jupiter), as well as two other horses, Hector and Kinross (Ross). Jupiter then gets a mention in the PAVO write-up too; sadly Ross didn't get a mention for being 18th (damn that showjump he had down

) in the 5yo class.

Sheila is the most delightful lady and she has a real enthusiasm and energy for what she does. She certainly knows her stuff, and I count myself very lucky to have had such fantastic horses from her.

 

[christine48]

It's a shame that we breeders often get forgotten

 

[magic104]

I am in a quoting mood today, especially after reading Tim Stockdales comments in the Chiltern Rider. He was talking about how sucessful Germany, Holland & Belgium were in their breeding programmes, & goes onto mention "They also provide good incentives for breeders by awarding lucrative breeders prizes, something I would like to see here. For example the breeder of Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum's brilliantly athletic show jumper, Shutter Fly would probably earn about £100,000 per year because of its succcess long after they have sold the horse."
Will never happen in this country because our country does not have the same ethos towards the breeding of horses, therefore there is no funding. We also have no real rewards for the mares that produce performers. Considering how much the mare contributes she gets very little acknowledgment. Very often when there is info available on a stallion it concentrates on the male line, including photo's, hardly ever see photo's of the mare. Mind you difficult to recognise breeders if we insist on not caring how our horses are bred. Hopefully this has/will change with the introduction of the passport system.

 

[Damien]

[ QUOTE ]
It's a shame that we breeders often get forgotten

[/ QUOTE ]

My message would be don't allow yourself to be forgotten!!!

What I would do to have Breeders consistantly supplying information no matter how small or how great the achievements......... my advice to those that have news, be it an SSH, SHB (GB) BWP etc etc etc passported horse is pick up the phone! send an e-mail! post off the photographs and news if you don't have e-mail and let the stud books / the breeders know!!! It doesn't matter if you bred the horse, it has a passport! What passport?? If its a UK studbook passport then shout about it!

Having spoken with many poeple that work within the UK studbooks information does not fall on deaf ears, well I hope not, news is simply not forthcoming, do the studbooks also have to track down everything in their spare time ontop of everything else that they do volontarily?

As has been said, got the t-shirt........ having composed numerous newsletters inviting members to submit articles and photographs of interest the interest was ZERO! Studbooks end up working with what little results they have access to, through shows that are organised by the society only.

BSPA CHAPS and SHB (GB) also do the same and their newsletters are comendable but other smaller studbooks do not have a Nationwide affiliation and thus that data (news) is spread across organisations such as BSJA BD and BE so most of the time unless breeders inform the studbooks whats going on, tracking down the news is relentless.

Yes occassionally reports are published in H&H and other UK magazines but that is not enough.

 

[Nickymac]

Quite right Opie. It's not a case of blowing your own trumpet or bragging, just about making people aware that this country has some bloomin' good breeders and some bloomin' good horses.

Maybe then less people would feel the need to go abroad to find what they want?