This message is from: "kngould" <kngo...@earthlink.net>
any video available?
Kim Bekow
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eike Schoen-Petersen" <eike.schoen-peter...@t-online.de>
To: <fjordhorse@angus.mystery.com>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 4:34 PM
Subject: German stallion show / Equitana - long, but read it anyway!
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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