technology. The Spanish stud book is online, for example, so one can easily use an app to search it with a smartphone, tablet or computer. In addition, the ANCCE is conducting in-depth genetic studies to identify producers of top dres- sage offspring. They are also identifying lines that produce pleasure and morphology horses (morphology is breed/ conformation/halter classes). Finally, Kim is proud that the USPRE has completely auto-
mated its registration process. It’s not so long ago that all records—and requests—were on paper.
Connecting with the Breed Already a dressage rider, Kim fell in love with the PRE and its place in the Spanish culture while staying at a friend’s family home in Spain. “I don’t know that I would still be in dressage today if I hadn’t discovered Spain and the horses. That’s how strongly I feel about them,” says the owner of the Grand Prix stallion Grandioso, who represented Spain in the 2012 Olympics, the WEG and two European Champion- ships. Today, Kim is an active breeder and amateur dressage rider at her Hampton Green Farms located in Florida and Michigan. Incoming president Betsy
fell for the breed’s kind- ness and willingness to try when she was looking for the second horse she had ever owned. “I was riding three- year-old PRE stallions with only 60 days under saddle and they were so generous with me as a rider that it was impossible for me not to fall in love,” she recalls. At the time, she worked in California’s Silicon Valley as a
software engineer. When marriage and children came along, she and husband Chris decided that full-time ranching was a good lifestyle for themselves and their children. “Chris is a rancher with a passion for cattle and horses. So we had the space and the passion and, well, you know what happens if you have space—you naturally fill it. So we grew as PRE breeders,” Betsy explains. Among their imports was their foundation breeding stal-
lion Faralay II whom they bought in Spain as a three-year- old and brought up to Grand Prix. They recently moved him to Wellington, Florida to compete with young rider Chelsea Reed under the supervision of U.S Olympian Lendon Gray. The Ketcham family also recently moved. Now in their
fifteenth year as PRE breeders, importers and competitors, they relocated the horses and cattle from northern Califor- nia to Oregon, where they continue to grow hay and breed horses.
58 March/April 2016
New Roles and Goals Betsy has been active in the USPRE for a number of years, having served on the Breeders Executive Committee as chair- person and board liaison, and also as USPRE vice president. She was unanimously voted in as president last October with her term beginning this year. “Kim did such a fantastic job of laying out clear goals and
organizing the right people to accomplish those goals. My job is to continue the great activities we have in place, includ- ing the burgeoning registry services and the dressage recog- nition programs, which are better and better subscribed each year. One of our challenges is to encourage more breed shows,” Betsy says. “I would like to see more ANCCE breed shows further east
than Las Vegas. It is my hope to work together with other show organizers, such as IALHA (International Andalusian and Lusitano Horse Asso- ciation), to offer combined shows with more opportuni- ties for performance classes,” she continues. Although the USPRE and IALHA have not worked together in the past, she would like to develop that relationship for the sake of breeders and owners. Both Betsy and Kim are
eager to see more PRE horses competing at open shows and to see USPRE support this growth with awards programs and clinics. “I would like to see a PRE
Betsy Ketcham, the new USPRE president, at her family’s Ketcham Ranch in Oregon.
on the U.S. Equestrian Team,” says Kim. “I know that when one is ready, it will happen. In
America we need that elite ‘freak’ horse that everyone is look- ing for in every country that we can get with the right rider.” Like Betsy, she would like to see more morphology
competitions on the East Coast. In addition, she hopes the Breeders Executive Committee will establish a standard of custody and care, a code of ethics for the organization “where people put the horse’s best interest first at all times. We are not a federation with rules like USEF or USDF, but I think our breeders committee should come up with something that calls for high standards among all the PRE communities.” As she steps down from the presidency, Kim will not
completely leave the organization. She will serve on the dres- sage committee and work with the USPRE Breeder’s Cup. Her main focus, however, will shift to her new position as chair- person of the USEF Dressage Owners Task Force. “My identity has been so wrapped up in USPRE that this will be a change,” she explains. “But it has been a joy and I will always look back at those years with great fondness and satisfaction.”
Courtesy Betsy Ketcham
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