Hi everyone,
I am actually sitting in some sunshine currently as the Year of the Fire Horse begins. Hopefully this will bring some energy and clarity to us all.
It has been a horrendous winter for everyone with livestock, with the relentless rain and price of hay has been a huge challenge for all of us. We hope that you are all surviving and you still have some sense of humour intact!
Kim and I are still ploughing on with DEFRA re-jig. We have to fill in a form that has epic proportions……in fact, War and Peace may be a doddle compared to this.
The changes only apply to the UK register; nothing changes with USA registered horses. The Part-Breds are the most affected and are now classed as being on our Supplementary breed register and going forward will only qualify for an ID only breed passport from their registered breed society. This means they do not have a full Zootechnic certificate which protects their higher welfare as non-meat animals. The ApHC UK are still going to be providing lovely Part-Bred passports to these horses which will include their pedigree breeding in the back of the passport but not the full Zootechnic certificate.
What this means is that if you travel your Part-bred to Europe to compete or want to export, you will have to comply with strict lairage principals, long travel times and mountains of paperwork. If this applies to you, we strongly suggest you think about over-stamping with a Sport Horse Society or if your horse is a gelding and fits the USA hardship criteria consider registering them with the ApHC USA via their hardship clause. This will make them eligible to upgrade to our Main Register. See the fact sheet on the USA website https://sub.appaloosa.com/pdfs/HardshipFactSheet.pdf
If you are planning breeding for this year, please think carefully about what you are hoping to breed and make sure all your paperwork is done correctly. We can no longer accept Part Breds onto our breed register that are Paint, Cob, Pony, Draught or Vanner characteristics or do not meet the minimum height criteria of 14hh.
Please use a registered and licensed UK stallion or registered USA stallion to cover your UK or USA registered mare. If you have a full-bred mare and breed to a non-Appaloosa the foal will only be eligible for the Supplementary register (as above). You will also find that as we will have percentages for up-grading offspring through the UK register, this will affect where the future offspring are added in the register. Even Main register to a permitted out-cross will only produce enough Appaloosa blood to go on the lower part of the register in the 50% category. We will publish the full class categories and percentages once they are approved by DEFRA.
In lots of ways we are luckier than some of the other breed societies, so we are hanging on in there and trying to stay positive as we think it will improve the already awesome quality of our horses and stop indiscriminate breeding which will improve welfare and breed standards.
Sorry my article is soooooo dry this month (at least something is!!! ) – I promise it will be more exciting in the next one!
Stay warm and dry…. Spring is on its way!
