UK STALLION EXPO on H&C

Another thing that annoyed my GF was the fact that Graf is advertised as an EVENTING stallion but he didn't jump the xc fences!!!!!!!!! Also the interview's with, what I assume was the stallion owners, didn't even get a caption to say who they were and what stallions they had brought!!! So for me it could of been 3 random people talking about any stallion.........
 
Well, as well as NOT being included in television programmes when they were were expecting it, and as well as there NOT being 100 stallions present as were declared attending (more like 48-odd in the end), and stallions NOT being declared to the public as only attending for one day, there were also NOTHING like the 2000-strong audience that was constantly being crowed about. I have just seen on the Expo's Facebook page that: "423 tickets were sold over the weekend, there hasn't been a turnout of that number to any stallion show in the UK for years."

Good old Mark Twain had it right - lies, damned lies, and statistics.
 
Don't get me started Levantosh LOL. My perhaps biggest bugbear with Graf as well is WHY OH WHY does he keep getting away with saying to all that Grafenstolz is the WORLD eventing Champion???!!! I am not saying his achievements are anything to sniff at as they aren't and the horse has won at 3* and is superb BUT I sooooo wish he would get it right and advertise the horse with the title he has actually earnt and not give him one that he hasn't and thus make that poor horse look like a farce to those who know better!

Graf WAS the World YOUNG HORSE eventing Champion at Le Lion D'Angers as a 6 yr old!.....NOT World Championships....that title went to Zara Phillips and Toytown....and Toytown Grafenstolz is NOT!!! Before Toytown the World Champ went to Jean Teulere and Espoire de la Mare. It inuriates me the way it is constantly used as a plug for Graf and they said it about 3 times last night. I am NOT saying the horse's achievements have not been superb and what he has done is brilliant BUT by always saying in things like that that he was a World Champion is misleading by omission as he clearly was not.....he won the 6 yr old World Champs and was therefore only the world champion out of the 6 yr olds.

Please no one take this is as my slating the horse...far from it...I just wish his achievements would be quoted correctly. After all, William Fox Pitt does not walk around telling everyone that his horse Oslo that won Le Lion as a 6 yr old and was 2nd last year as a 7 yr old is THE World Champion...he says it correctly that he was 'winner of the FEI World Championships for 6 year olds at Le Lion'. My old boss won the 6yr old champs at Le Lion with her now deceased horse Just Another Buck....she never went around saying he was 'World Champion'.

Sorry to rant but this really annoys me. It is no hard to get right but I guess that by ommitting the facts there is more interest.
 
Folks, you're more than welcome to come over to the Cavan stallion show for approved horses in Ireland if you want. ... Just putting the idea out there. Its always a great night!
Was Peppermill on the tv?
 
Well it sounds as if KR has shot himself in the foot. Judging by all the comments he is unlikely to get the support next year, so bang goes what was a good concept. Unless of course someone else wants to take up the challenge?
 
Surely it should be done by a society. That the AES for example, has a date where you can go to see their licensced and approved stallions if the stallion owners want to bring them. Instead of having from what I can gather was a bunch of different stallions from different societies at the same place.
Then you build Society loyalty, which provided people are breeding quality stock, will surely serve to improve the herd
 
Dont agree as a mare owner I maybe interested in a stallion that is not part of the AES or SHGB or Trak society. I have used various stallions & it is nice to see a varity in one place. Most people are looking for either jumping, eventing or dressage stallions who may fall into a number of different stud books. No I think the concept is great, just needs better backing, & a proper committment.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Well it sounds as if KR has shot himself in the foot. Judging by all the comments he is unlikely to get the support next year, so bang goes what was a good concept. Unless of course someone else wants to take up the challenge?

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny you should say that Magic, the concept is not lost, far from it
grin.gif
I have it on VERY reliable sources that there will be a SPECTACULAR of British based sports horse stallions on show next year.

If you think the EXPO was going to be good (although in reality it was disappointing), just wait until you see what will be on offer in February 2011, there will be not one person in the house who does not enjoy the day.

Enough said for now, watch this space
wink.gif
 
I didn't see the H&C programme as I was in Dublin, but I see H&C claim: "Not only will we show highlights of the event on Sky 280, but we'll have a clip of each stallion presented online. Check back to this page to find a date for your mare."

So hopefully there will be on line clips to come. We were there for the whole time and they were certainly filming for almost all of it.
 
QUOTE: was peppermill on tv, of course, he is a JW stallion and prob got the most airtime..........it's not as if he hasn't been on tv before
tongue.gif
!! I think this should be organised by a BRITISH organisation ONLY for BRITISH BASED stallions to show what great stallion we actually have in this country, with the emphasis on young approved stallions that are coming through the ranks, as these could be the next world champions....
Stallions I would have loved to have seen on tv
Valeur R
Wolkenderry
Decanter
Veni Vidi vici
and a few others.
 
Levantosh - my OH videod Val going so I will put it on you tube and send you the link if you would like.

To the OP. I was always aware that the tv show was not going to be about the stallions but more about the show. But that all the stallions would be shown on the H&C website.

I haven't seen the programme as I don't have sky so can't comment on what the show was like.
 
jamesmead,

you are entirely wrong, in one respect. There was, most certainly a great deal of "hard work" that went into the Stallion Expo 2010. The result of that hard work was that the promoter charged 50 or so stallion owners in excess of £200 each, stall holders god knows what, and in the programme, there were in excess of 30 pages of advertising, paid for separately so I gather, and charged out at £300 a time. That, James takes a great deal of hard work, I'd suggest!! Did British Breeding benefit from it? Not in my view it didn't.

That others predicted that the Expo would be an embarrassment, is without question. I supported it, to my regret. I just give thanks to God that I wasn't involved. I will now offer my apologies, without reservation, to those with whom I've done battle.

You will be aware that I have offered financial support for such a venture, and I am aware that I'm not alone. You will also be aware that, specifically the BEF have turned down such offers, on the grounds that they need, and I quote, "To retain the moral high ground".

Where, I would like to know was the moral high ground in the shambolic and sorry representation of British Breeding at Kelsoe?

Alec.
 
As a mare owner and being 'sold' on the tv advertising that it would showcase a wealth of different stallions, I have been very dissapointed by firstly the programme and secondly by the website. I've tried to view the stallions clips (as they advertise there will be clips of ALL the stallions shown) there is nothing on the website other than a small 30 second clip advertising the event, and this takes you quite a few steps to find it. Surely this sort of thing should be better oragnised!! I would be more than dissapointed if I were a stallion owner who had paid good money to partake in what appears at the moment to be a complete shambles !!!!!!
 
Well having finally seen the expo on my trusty Sky plus, I must say that the Chili Morning horse is very very nice indeed. There were a couple of horses that didn't really impress me. The young coloured stallion at the beginning of the jumping really didn't do anything for me. Every time he jumped the double he put in two strides and I thought his jump was poor. I'm sorry if he has any connections on this forum but I see no value in him as a stallion at all.
Going against the grain here but that Deli Circus horse didn't do anything for me either. His canter was extremely choppy.
Argento, Peppermill ... Wow! Not disappointed at all. Tremendous horses. Hopefully the ihb will approve this two in time!
I quite liked the belgian horse that had the grey fly veil as well. Super super walk.
As for Grafenstolz, I must say that I'm glad he was shown the second time because he didn't do anything for me as an eventing stallion. If I were to use him, it'd be as a dressage stallion. His jumping was very very hollow through the back.
The Adonnis stallion was also very impressive.
I didn't think that the quality of the actual program was all that bad. For a show that seemed to be put together on a shoestring, I think h&c didn't do too badly but I can see where stallion owners may well be more than fuming.
 
I felt sorry for the young coloured stallion. The reason why it kept putting two strides in at the double was because some idiot had built the double on a stride pattern that beggared belief. The next one in's groom redid the double and must have moved the second part a full half stride nearer.
 
I agree with the comment about the double distance for the young coloured stallion that was shown early in the programme, actually i thought he was a very good honest careful boy to jump it clean each time - the distance was terrible and he wasn't ridden brilliantly imho. The stallion did a very good job considering, i think!
I haven't watched it all yet but was surprised by some of the riding, and some of the clips really aren't that great. Shame.
 
I would have to agree re: the coloured as I have see video footage of him at his grading and elsewhere and he is actually rather nice. I also noticed at the first part of the double that it had a false ground line and poor bpy I feel just couldn't see a stride as he clambered over that fence.
 
I will tell you what I found "amusing", was the interview with the "organiser" the second time. Where he said that they would have better publicity for it next year.

The "organiser" did absolutely ZILCH advertising this year. To advertise the event as "The Biggest Event in British Breeding" and do no advertising, well thats just a "no brainer". He could not have had ANY intention of paying for advertising.

Here is a very rough count:
He had around 48 stallions paying £200 (obviously some were paying more at £225) = £9600
He had what, around 12-13 trade stands at £350 each = £4200

So say around £13800 incoming money from stallions and tradestands alone (this is excluding any money coming in from the catalogue adverts and entry fees).

H&C would have been what, around £6-7k for the filming, so that leaves £6800.

I doubt he would have needed insurance, quite possibly he had some disclaimer saying everybody was responsible for themselves. He would have the hire of the facilities, so even say that was £1.5-2k. Printing of the catalogue, well I could not see any company name on the back of it, so he could have done it on the cheap, so what maybe £1-1.5k?

Not a bad two days work if you ask me! He gets free advertising and profit to boot! GENIUS!

I took this off the Facebook of the Expo:

[ QUOTE ]
Don’t forget that the show will be broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers via television, Youtube and internet channels.

[/ QUOTE ]

I say again, the entrants have been duped, and I feel very sorry for them. He has no intention of promoting British Breeding, he just wants to use whatever means for his own business. If he was so interested in promoting British Breeding he would have had Kannan over in the UK for it, but by his own admission, he stated that he would not get the mare owners over here, and would of been stupid to take him and miss out on mare owners in France.

If there is another Stallion Show on the cards, which is what has been mentioned above by Cruiseline, then I wish them every success with it. Something is needed that has British Breeding at the forefront.
 
As one of those willing to give the benifit of the doubt, it is very sad to read the comments on this thread. I honestly did not think KR was that stupid, but I was wrong. There are def better venues then Keysoe, perhaps they were either booked or too expensive. The advertising was appalling considering what people have had to pay.

He has been very short-sighted over this, as it could of been huge. If he pisses people off too much he may well have to take his stallion back to France, because who the hell will want to use him with so much choice about, because his owner has hardly any credibility left.

I am glad others appear to be taking up the challenge, there should be no excuses this time there is a whole year in which to plan & organise!
 
As this event clearly was NOT as described or insinuated, particularly with regard to the exposure given to participants, perhaps those who were wise enough to pay by credit card should consider trying to get their money back.

I can't help thinking that the organiser cares nothing about the criticism of his honesty, ability or intentions after the event; a challenge to his income might be another matter.
 
I think that as a first time event, the Stallion Expo has been a success. It's better to broadcast an event with a few teething problems, on TV, than not to broadcast at all. Sure, you will always get the eventers saying they didn't see enough of their stallions; the dressage folk saying that it would have been nicer to see more dressage. Everyone has a favourite horse and everyone would have their top twenty horses that they'd list to put in the show. Bear in mind that H & C have to edit the programme down to a watchable one hour show. I think that they did the best job with the Stallions available and the more positive the response, the more likely they are to cover the next stallion expo. That can only be good for British breeding - so let's stop being so negative. Bear in mind that this is the first time that an Expo like this has had ANY sort of exposure on TV. In Europe - they do not film them, for showing in peak-time, on any other network. I also think that the web clips will go up on their website soon. Incidentally - I spoke to a friend who exhibited at the Expo and he said that the TV deal was made well after most folk had booked and so no one would have made it a condition for coming along.
It was really nice to see JW back on horsebacks again as well.
 
I would imagine that if H & C got enough positive response, then they'd really consider giving it a 2 or 3 hour slot next time.
 
[ QUOTE ]
........ I think that they did the best job with the Stallions available

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh dear oh dear oh dear - do you really think that? I don't suppose anyone owning or connected to a stallion that WASN'T shown will be too happy to hear that said - you've just effectively said that the TV programme showed the best that was there, and I hope to God it wasn’t, as it doesn’t say a lot for either the state of British breeding or the quality of the rest of those attending. If Grafenstolz knocking a fence down, despite being a World Eventing Champion (no sorry, that's actually a lie, isn’t it - he was the World Young Horse Eventing Champion at Le Lion D'Angers as a 6 yr old back in 2004) is the best on offer, then we need a major rethink. Here’s hoping the new parade spoken of above will be rather better. Couldn't be a lot worse by the sounds of it.
 
Sorry but judging from the Stallion's on show that is the case. Viewers want to see the best - that's the idea of promoting British Breeding!!
In A perfect World I am sure that they'd show all the Stallions - but there isn't time to show 48 stallions in one show. Do you ever see the also rans at a jumping event??
 
[ QUOTE ]
Do you ever see the also rans at a jumping event??

[/ QUOTE ]

I have been watching this thread with interest being new here (well, after lurking for a while). Despite several attempts I couldn't make any sense of this and I presume you are trying to make a point somehow with the two question marks. It is lost on me though.
 
Top