Guest columnist of the week is Katharina Braren, who is born in Hamburg (GER) in 1965. She studied Translation and Spanish philology and has a Masters degree in finance.
She has long time experience in the financial and publicity field and has been working in the editorial business since 2001. In 2004 she started her own communication agency specialized in the equestrian sector, Topiberian S.L. In 2007 she launched the only Dressage Magazine in Spain of which she is director, Trofeo Doma Clásica. Her site Topiberian.com offers national and international news as well as social networking specialized in dressage and iberian horses.
Two Pure Breed Spanish Horses made the spectators jump up from their seats during the last World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. This contagious emotion seems to have reached ANCCE, the Pure Breed Spanish Breeders Association for the first time. ANCCE traditionally favored only material shows for Spanish Horses and not dressage competitions.
The financial crisis that Spain is experiencing these days has also hit the equestrian sector. The success at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky seem to have helped ANNCE to channel at least a little piece of their nearly 4,5 million euro budget towards sports horses in the P.R.E. breed. Although it has not been officially confirmed, Kentucky seems to have blown some fresh air in the breeding programm as they named Olympian Rafael Soto as the official national trainer for Dressage Horses in ANCCE.
They also had the idea to create “beaters”: people with knowledge in charge of searching and detecting P.R.E. horses with potential for dressage, all in collaboration with the national trainer Jan Bemelmans. ANCCE and the RFHE (the Royal National Equestrian Federation) seem to agree to collaborate closely. If all this should come true the P.R.E. as a sport horse could develop very fast and simultaneously create a good supply of young horses with the right attitude and promise for future for competition. Jan Bemelmans is personally supporting the naming of Rafael Soto as a possible candidate. He is happy about this new stage of collaboration that seems to be reached with ANCCE.
On the other hand in the history of the P.R.E. breed “Fuego XII” has been confirmed as the stallion with the highest percentage ever reached in an international dressage test of this importance. In consequence his owner Miguel Angel de Cardenas sold a group of colts, after the Kür, still in Kentucky. All of them sons and brothers of “Fuego XII”, which had been reserved for the upcoming traditional auction, which Cardenas stud celebrates each year in November. Therefore this year's auction had to be canceled. The sign read: “sold out”. Now we have to see what happens with the demand of frozen semen of these stallions. “Fuego XII” as well as “Norte” from the Lovera stud will have an important demand for the 2011 breeding season. This means a lot for the P.R.E. because supposedly the P.R.E. breeders are abandoning their habits to cover with their own non-proven stallions. This evolution for sure will result in an improving quality of horses for the breed and for the national dressage sport for mid- and long-term.
Last but not least the joy for these triumphs and successes has not stopped the drastic ongoing “clean up” in the sector and the breed. The loss of hundreds of animals, because studfarms are closing down due to an uncertain future, is not stopping now. The market's demand for quality horses is not only maintained but growing, although prices seem to have dropped 30% to what used to be usual for a P.R.E.
Nevertheless we all know in Spain that this has been a moment of light or inspiration in the night which will allow us to see and guess for an instant which way we should choose. It is still early to claim victory and to think of a share for the P.R.E. in the sport horse market, but maybe if for one time the southern intuition and the northern thoroughness could come together, it could become reality. Howevern there is overall no doubt that the results of the Spanish team have been a success which was contagious. A Pure Bred Spanish horse could perform to his utmost at the highest level possible in the dressage competition arena. I am tempted to say that the impact these presentations will have on breeding and the possibilities of these horses in sport will be rewarding in the near and distant future.
by Katharina Braren
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Related Link
Munoz Diaz and Fuego XII, Kings of Hearts at the 2010 World Equestrian Games