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Great Britain (by Celia Clarke) The British sport horse breeding industry has certainly had its ups and downs over the years. It’s seen the establishment and the subsequent demise of the British Horse Database, and now, not without concern, the arrival of UKKWPN. Graham Suggett is the Consultant Director of Breeding for the British Equestrian Federation, and the man behind the BEF’s moves to implement its long-awaited breeding programme.
Q Firstly Graham, can you explain to Breeding News readers the history behind the development of the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) Breeding Programme, and what it aims to do? There have been rumours of its existence for sometime, but the first time most people actually came across it was at Horse of the Year Show, which hosted the finals of the new BEF Young Horse Evaluations. So is it just a knee-jerk reaction to the poor results of British riders and horses at the Sydney Olympics and, of course, WEG or is it more considered than that?
It’s far more than just a knee jerk reaction and, in fact, ever since the British Equestrian Federation was restructured in March 1996, the requirement to develop an effective breeding plan for the whole of the British sport horse breeding industry has been a key objective, but because there is no direct government support for horse breeding here, funding for such a project has always been very short. In fact, until UK Sport began to support the World Class Performance programme and development activities of the Olympic equestrian disciplines through the BEF, as a lead up to the Athens Games, there was no money at all available for it. However, they have now accepted the fact––which is quite obvious to all Breeding News readers of course––that the breeding and development of a talented horse is an important factor in success in equestrian sport, so limited sums are now available but we still have to rely very heavily on external sponsorship and on voluntary help of all kinds.
Q So were there some earlier initiatives to develop sport horse breeding in a more cohesive way?
Well, even as early as 1978/79 Jane Kidd and Harry Llewellyn had launched the British Horse Project, and this led to the instigation of the Masterlock Young Horse classes, and the High Performance Horse Sales at Stoneleigh organised by Jennie Loriston-Clarke, but loss of sponsorship and the closure of the British Equestrian Centre meant they were both dropped from the calendar after a few years. Then, in 1997, the Royal Show featured sport horse breeding as the subject of one if its annual international conferences, of which I was on the organising committee, and this in turn resulted in the publication of the RASE’s Breeding Strategy for the British Sports Horse (the so-called Ducker Report), the development of which then became the responsibility of the BEF. In fact, the report was reworked several times, party due to the fact that the British Horse Database (another product of the original British Horse Project), ceased trading during 2001. However, the final version, the Implementation Plan for the British Equestrian Federation Breeding Programme, which was produced entirely by specialist volunteer consultants from the Supporters of British Breeding working on behalf of the British Horse Foundation, was presented to the BEF in July 2001. This report forms the basis for all of the work I do now and it set the aims and objectives of the plan as a whole.
Q And these are?
I quote: ‘To produce British-bred horses capable of carrying British international riders to success at the highest level and, in the process, to provide a corresponding up-grade in the temperament, athleticism, and soundness of British-bred sport horses competing at national and international levels.’ The plan also includes a suggested framework of committees and working groups to cover such areas as database development, young horse evaluations, young horse training, breeders quality marks, breeders cup futurities, breeding indices, and equine markets, all under the supervision of the BEF Breeding Programme and Database Development Committee. All of these bodies have now been empanelled, again entirely with hard-working and experienced volunteers of outstanding quality without whom we could not function. Almost all have also met and some have had several meetings, so we are well along the way to meeting our targets for the first twelve months, which will be subject to a public review by all the stakeholders – breeders, breed societies, trainers, riders, and the disciplines in February.u So will this public review be open to the average breeder as well as to officials from the breed societies etc? And how much will it cost?