Letters toWT WT
I would like to respond to your article that ran in No- vember/December 2015 entitled “Can the U.S. Produce a Valegro or Hello Sanctos?” New Normandy Farm is a breeder of jumpers and also a stallion semen broker. I work with many talented breeders and I feel comfort- able saying the United States can definitely produce horses with great potential. However, as a breeder originally from Europe, I find it can be a challenge to find riders and horse trainers here in the U.S. with a strong and consistent academic background. That is unfortunate, because these profes- sionals are key to developing our horses. Sometimes I feel that there are as many ways of riding as there are trainers here. While I certainly appreciate the flexibility that the
absence of bureaucracy gives, we need to structure our sport to provide a better education at every level of the chain—breeding, training and riding—in order to be able to successfully bring our horses (and their riders) to international competitions. I can’t speak for all of Europe but in many countries,
riders have to pass different exams before they are al- lowed to compete in registered shows and trainers have to have diplomas to be able to teach. All this certainly gives an edge to Europeans, as they have to learn the trade before being allowed to train or ride at a high level. Having one foot in the United States and the other
one in Europe, so to speak, I don't feel crossing the pond to buy horses is worth it. While the U.S. rider may find a better trained horse there, he/she won’t find horses with better potential. High potential horses do exist in the U.S., and for a better price. But again, training is the only difference between our horses and theirs. A well-trained horse ridden poorly, imported or not, won’t remain at the top anyway.
12 March/April 2016 I wish the serious, talented U.S. rider would put
more trust in U.S.-bred horses. It is interesting to see how our clients demand the best bloodlines here in the U.S. but bring horses back from Europe with lesser- known pedigrees.
Arnaud de Crèvecoeur New Normandy Farm Cochranville, PA
It certainly was a pleasure meeting you at the USHJA Annual Meeting this year in Orlando. I am a great fan of Warmbloods Today, and it was very exciting to spend time with you at the convention. Congratulations on the success of the magazine. We are very happy to be distributing and sharing cop-
ies of Warmbloods Today with our competitors, trainers and visitors at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy, Texas! We are in the middle of our four week Winter Series Horse Show where we will have over 1,400 horses competing. The Great Southwest has about 225,000 people walk
through our doors every year. They are very appreciative to find Warmbloods Today being distributed at the horse shows there—most everyone leaves with their own copy. We look especially forward to working together in the future and think that Warmbloods Today and the Great Southwest is definitely the winning ticket! Again, congratulations on your outstanding equine
publication. Your January/February Issue was very well received by everyone in Texas.
Kayce Douglass,
Director of Marketing, GSWEC Katy, TX
CORRECTION: On our cover last issue (Jan/Feb ’16) we inadver- tently credited the photo to the wrong photogra- pher. The cover photo of the jumper mare Osophia and Kevin Winkel was not by Alden Corrigan, but was by Deb Dawson. Our apologies for the error.
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