Edgar recalls the auctions held at California’s Glenwood
Farms in the 1990s that on the outside seemed highly suc- cessful. “The trained and imported horses brought the most money. Local people often were disappointed. I saw a lot of crying. But in the end, they did sell their horses.” “An auction is a good sales mechanism,” Edgar continues,
“but not when there are too many emotions about the ani- mals. Europeans view their horses as livestock; Americans look at them as pets. If it is important to you where your horse ends up, the auction is not a good venue for you. I can deal with that, but, for example, my wife can’t.”
YOUNG HORSE SALES As nice as it sounds to divide the country into regional training and sales centers, that is not a likely solu- tion any time soon. However, shows have begun to organically take on the role of the marketplace. First, the advent of young horse classes and champion- ships in the different disciplines have served as motivation for breeders to get their young horses out, as a gathering place for people to see young horses perform, and as a ven- ue to shop, compare and buy. Recently even the USEF has announced their intent to provide multi-discipline young horse championships in the near future. Jean-Yves Tola’s Young Horse Shows may be the formula
for such a system. Last year saw 12 shows in locations from Maryland to California to Florida. This French native and his wife Saret Tola, themselves active sport horse breeders at their Jump Start Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, saw an impor- tant element missing in the breeding business: a centralized venue to buy and sell young horses. Jean-Yves, who arrived in the U.S. 25 years ago, turned
his experience in the movie and music business into horse show production and founded the Young Horse Show se- ries in 2009. His concept was to develop a system where breeders and owners have affordable venues, modeled after those in Europe, to expose young horses to the show atmosphere. The show offers both at liberty and jump chute classes as well as under saddle classes for four and five-year- olds. These shows also create a sales environment favorable for buyers to view many horses in a single location. How does that differ from a breed show? “Dressage and
hunter breed shows have value but I find them limited be- cause the horses are never let go,” Jean-Yves explains. “When they are shown in hand, you see a few good trot steps and no canter. What is a sport horse without canter? And also a trot at liberty is not the same as in hand. At the Young Horse Shows, the judge can evaluate all three gaits.” “The goal is to develop a system of shows, with prices kept low, where youngsters can perform and be seen. A lot
of business is being done at these shows,” he says of the events, which have had up to 65 horse entered. “A lot of horses are being sold at the shows. Twenty years ago you had to go to Europe to find horses as breeding stock but not today. An ample amount of horses here have been imported or bred here from European bloodlines and are very good. A lot of breeders are getting it.” “You can see young [jumping] horses now that we have these classes for five-year-olds,” says Anke. “If you want to buy a three-year-old, you go to the breeder. If you want to see five-year-olds, at least in California, you go to HITS Ther- mal or the Oaks.” “A big change we have seen in the last five years is that
trainers don’t have time to travel from farm to farm to look at horses for sale because they are constantly at the shows,” she adds. “So now they buy and sell horses at shows. They bring their young horses with them, even if they aren’t showing them. And the veterinarians are right there to do pre-pur- chase exams.” While dressage and eventing trainers don’t live on the
road as much as the hunter/jumper trainers do, some shows are holding sale horse exhibitions. Last fall, the California Dressage Society offered an evening sale horse presentation, recognizing the show as a marketplace for potential buyers. Volker suggests that shows should take the opportunity
to better recognize and motivate breeders. Adding the breeder’s name to the announcement of the winner and of- fering a breeder’s monetary reward, however small, when a horse does well both validate a job well done. He describes the breeder’s dream scenario: “As a breeder
you get zapped by the annoying electric fence. You get your boots stuck in the mud. You get kicked by a yearling. When finally you kick off your muddy boots and put an ice pack on your thigh where the yearling kicked you, you open a little packet with a certificate from USDF or USEF congratulating you because Bunny, the horse you bred seven years ago and sold five years ago, won Third Level. You get ten bucks and you feel okay with getting zapped by the electric fence.”
THE AMERICANWAY Americans have always been suc- cessful problem solvers. It is our specialty. Now that our sport horse breeders are on the road to breeding wonderful horses, will we formulate a sys- tem that will correct the deficits and continue to close the Euro-U.S. shopping gap? Likely the solution will not mimic the cultural-rich European system. All the transplants we interviewed recognized individualism as a characteristic of the American way of doing things. So whatever form those solutions take, they will likely be inno- vative in an American style that works for sport horses bred in America.
Warmbloods Today 51
Frstino Trab
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