This message is from: "Eike Schoen-Petersen" <eike.schoen-peter...@t-online.de>
Last weekend the German Jubilee Stallion Show took place at Equitana, the
world's largest equine fair, at Essen, Germany. 40 licenced and performance
tested Fjord stallions were presented to the judges for the evaluation of
type, conformation,correctness, movements and overall impression. The
trotting round took place in the big arena, 5000 visitors watching the best
German Fjord stallions being trotted up. The spectators sat tight for one
and a half hours, fascinated by our wonderful breed. The association's
decision to move the stallion show to this venue for our 35 year jubilee
certainly proved effective in terms of showing to the real public. Equitana
draws several hundreds of thousands of visitors every two years - a good
opportunity to show off!! Judging was done by two professional judges from
Germany and Mr. Jan Verbeeck from Belgium, judge from the international list
of Fjord Horse International.
In the final round the Stallion DEXTER by Dylan - Orlandos was the obvious
champion. Dexter was placed first at his licencening as a young stallion,
took first in his performance test and now took the Championship!! Great
support for our personal breeding strategy as we leased Dexter on the spot
when we first saw him and used him for a season. Dexter's offspring has
developed as expected and we are proud (and a little sad) to announce that
two of his daughters will be leaving for North America next week.
Our own white dun Norwegian bred stallion Solbjør Borken took second place
in his ring of stallions 12 years and older, which places him somewhere
between 4th and 6th of all the licenced and performance tested stallions in
the country. He was awarded a "Bundesprämie" = "Federal Premium" by the
National Equestrian Federation, the highest honour a breeding horse can
receive in our country. True to his form Borken was the definite "Mister
Cool" of the show, followed by his promising son Björn. Borken was about as
calm, quiet and well behaved as a horse can be and showed at his best. We
are very proud and having a quiet glass of champagne while Borken is back in
his pasture, wondering what everybody got so excited about. Along with the
two Dexter fillies we are sending another white Borken daughter to the US
next week and of course we congratulate the new owners on choosing horses
with such distinguished pedigrees!
On Sunday the German Fjord Association and Fjord Horse International hosted
an international conference, with equine scientist Dr. von Borstel lecturing
on "Breeding in Small Populations / Risks and their Avoidance" and two
rounds of discussions with an international panel: Prof. Nils Ivar Dolvik,
head judge of the Norwegian Fjord Association, Karl Vie, "embassador" of the
Norwegian Fjord Association, Ursula Jensen, representing the Canadian Fjord
Horse Association, Maureen van Leeuwen, secretary general of the Dutch Fjord
Studbook, Sabine Münch of the Swiss Fjord Association, Jan Verbeeck
representing the Belgian Fjord Studbook, Birgit Mortensen, president of the
Danish Fjord Association, Leif Grimbühler, judge for the Danish Fjord
Association and myself as host and president of the German Fjord
Association. The two rounds of discussion covered the topics of "market vs.
museum / what are we breeding for?" and "type vs. performance / how do we
keep the balance?". Both rounds gave a good insight into the philosophy and
strategy for the breed in the different countries. From the scientific
lecture the need for a common strategy was obvious to everybody and during
the discussions common views and opinions outweighed the differences by far.
As a result of these discussions a common international vision and strategy
for developing and marketing the Fjord horse breed seems to be the next
logical step.
Further activities of our association at Equitana include the presentation
of Fjord horses in the "Fjord Village" with exhibitors from all parts of the
country and Norwegian participation by Norges Fjordhestlag, the Norwegian
Fjordhestsenter at Nordfjordeid with their A(rtificial) I(nsemination) and
semen collection facilities, plus the Norwegian Fjordhestgaard at Breim.
For the first time in many years the spectacular evening Gala Show includes
Fjord Horses, a quadrille of 12 driven pairs! For fun our Fjord driving
team put together two 6 in hand plus two 4 in hand plus two pairs for the
day program, doing the same pattern in the day program. Try to imagine two
6 in hand cantering on the inner circle and the rest in the counter
direction on the outer circle and you will know why it brought tears to my
eyes to see what our little horses will do for us!
Tired and still overwhelmed
Eike Schön-Petersen
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