Royal Dutch Sport Horse
The Feed the Fire:
USDF’s Youth Breeders Seminar Sparks the Next Generation By Michaela Tolman
o me, the epitome of dressage is the warmup ring at the KWPN Stallion Show. February in Holland is dreary. It always rains, some- times hails, and the wind comes straight at your face no matter which direction you walk. But all that doesn’t matter at the show. Inside the Brabanthallen, before you get to the main ring, right next to the stalls and the beer garden, there is a warmup ring. It is pure magic. For three days, hundreds of stallions come through that ring. Tey dance, feet pounding and sweat glisten- ing, seemingly to one beat. Tis is where you can find the old breeders, wearing worn
T
overcoats with corduroy collars. Te ones who picked a single mare to start their breeding program, and now they stand next to ten young horses selected for the championships, all by the grandson of that mare. Tey don’t speak English and I don’t speak Dutch, but I wish I could, just to hear their stories. What did they just point to in that stallion? How do they pick whom they breed their mares to? Tey have that amazing ‘eye’ that ev- eryone talks about—what do they see? Months later back in Colora, Maryland, the weather is
perfect. We are at Hilltop Farm for the USDF Youth Breeders Seminar. Kristi Wysocki and Natalie DiBerardinis are seeing a trend in U.S. dressage breeders: they are getting older! Where is the next generation clamoring to take the torch? Well, there aren’t that many of us. Breeding is expensive, there isn’t a lot of recognition and there aren’t a lot of opportunities to learn about selecting stallions, managing mares and raising young horses. Kristi and Natalie came up with an idea: the pilot USDF Youth Breeding Seminar, focusing on ‘Life on the Breeding Farm.’ So one morning in July, 24 of us descended on Hilltop Farm
from all corners of North America: Texas, Washington, Florida, Canada and Massachusetts. In a day and a half, we started at inception and went all the way through training the Grand Prix horse. We saw the heartbeat of a 29-day embryo, measured Riv- erman’s sperm motility, and learned the form and function of dressage horse conformation and movement. Michael Bragdell, Hilltop’s head trainer, taught us the patient and methodical training system he has developed over 20 years at the farm. In a mock material class, we scored each horse’s movement and then got to take the tack off and measure their angles and propor-
Top photo: Lisandro NSN, a 2016 colt (Totilas X Ferro) bred by Marcia Haley and owned by Leah Wilkins.
Participants concentrating during the first USDF Youth Breeding Seminar held at Hilltop Farm.
tions. Suddenly, we all started to predict that using the body would be hard since the back was a little long, or that there would be not enough expression in front since the shoulder angle was a little steep and the front leg was a little short. Educational experiences like this one are a crucial foundation for being able to accurately evaluate not only horses in the show ring, but our mares at home who we want to improve by choos- ing the right stallion. In the closing hours of this whirlwind course, I had a couple
thoughts. First, why had I not learned this sooner? Second, we need to do so much more! We tossed around a few ideas, includ- ing longer trainings; regional hubs for youth communities and education; and generating yearly trainings for handlers, young horse riders and young breeders. Currently, this youth breeders seminar is a pilot program with the USDF. I can’t thank Kristi and Natalie enough for put-
SPECIAL KWPN-NA SECTION Warmbloods Today 43
KWPN-NA Marcia Haley Michaela Tolman
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68