The 2009 Baileys Horse Feeds/British Equestrian Federation (BEF) Futurity Evaluations are already seeing a high standard with some quality young stock attending the early venues at The Grange EC (Devon), College EC (Bedfordshire), Plumpton (East Sussex), Arena UK (Lincolnshire), Myerscough (Lancashire) and Sunny Brook (Caerphilly). This series of evaluations helps to identify British bred, young potential sport horses that are destined for careers as dressage horses, eventers, show jumpers, endurance horses and sports ponies, and could discover potential sports horses and ponies that become future Olympic or British Team stars.

With entries limited to 60 at each venue, places have been quickly filled with over half the entry being foals. Entries are categorised by discipline with age groups for foals, yearlings, two and three year olds and each horse is evaluated in hand and loose in a safe indoor environment as well as undergoing a vet’s assessment.

After six venues, fourteen horses have so far scored an average of 9 marks or above to earn a coveted Elite Premium, with the top score of 9.54 going to Christine Trednell’s lovely 2 year old filly, Flamingo, seen at the College EC venue. A British bred Oldenburg, Flamingo is by renowned dressage stallion, Flemmingh KWPN, whose offspring include international Grand Prix Dressage horses such as Anky van Grunsven’s Krack C. The dam, Hawaii, is a Premium Oldenburg Verband by Harvard, a renowned sire of talented dressage progeny with excellent conformation. “There is no British register for Oldenburgs, so I have to decide whether to register her with BHHS (British Hanoverian Horse Society) or as a British Warmblood”, says Christine, who is also a dressage judge. Her young horses are produced by Paul Friday who is a dressage trainer in Warwickshire.

At Plumpton, the 3 year old stallion, Handels Classic, earned a score of 9.32 and an Elite Premium in the show jumping section. Owned and bred by Vikki Evans of Chailey Stud, Handels Classic is by the top jumping stallion Handel II, who was highly successful with Michael Whitaker and now has offspring competing in all three main disciplines. Already broken and ridden away, Handels Classic is showing huge potential when loose jumped and Vikki and her husband, Adrian, are sure he has a top career ahead of him.

Frances Ewings’ superb coloured foal, She’s A Kinda Majik, earned the highest score in both the dressage and endurance sections at The Grange and earned an Elite Premium grading in the dressage section. Frances bought the dam, Magik Domino 9 years ago as a scrawny 3 year old gypsy cob. “We did some dressage and the judges did not look very impressed when we entered the arena, only to change their mind when we began to ride the test”, explained Frances. Having lost her first foal, the mare was put to the well raced Arab, Ecliptic, who held the Dubai Race Course Record for several years and has competed in endurance. “We wanted to prove that this sire has a lot of qualities as he has done so well but is not very well known”, says Frances who was delighted with the result. “The evaluators commented that she carried herself like a horse, even though she is only 3 months old. She is bred to be my next dressage horse”, she said.

Also at The Grange, an Elite Premium went to Brenhines-R, owned by Romanni Jory of Plymouth. This 3 year old showed a marked difference on her return to the BEF Futurity Evaluations, having been presented last year as a 2 year old and scoring a second premium.

This year down the jumping lane this mare showed her worth with a “bold approach and lovely style over the fences” said evaluator Lesley Peyton-Gilbert.

Sports ponies came to the fore at Myerscough with Gill and David Jolleys’ Dressage Ponies UK stud well represented. Their DPUK Night Dancer, a filly foal by local KWPN dressage stallion, Mooiman, scored 9.07 to gain an Elite Premium and was described by the evaluators as “an upstanding, free moving filly, very correct and well proportioned with an exceptional walk, trot and canter. She has an exciting future ahead of her”. DPUK Moon Blue and DPUK Rhapsody in Blue also scored well to earn a First Premium.

Classic Juan continues to feature at the top of the stallion rankings in 2009 with 9 progeny scores and an average score for the top three of 8.92. His offspring include Classic Mellidy, the top scoring dressage foal so far who earned an Elite Premium at the College EC for owner/breeders, Jill and Dee Clements.

BEF’s Head of Equine Development, Jan Rogers, was delighted with the results. “The Futurity’s support has exceeded all expectations this year and the standard has so far been excellent. The Futurity is showing itself to be an assessment system which British breeders value, because it enables them to demonstrate, long before a horse is able to compete, that it has performance potential. It is serving as a valuable marketing tool for British breeders and we are delighted that so many people want to be part of it”.

The BEF Futurity Evaluations are held at 12 venues throughout the UK and young horses go home with a BEF Premium (grade), a stylish rosette and a detailed, informative score sheet. An attractive certificate to keep and frame follows on after the event. All results are published on the fully searchable Futurity site, and afterwards feature with those horses’ performance records on NED, the National Equine Database. For more information, visit www.bef.co.uk/british_breeding.

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