Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting
of the WBFSH


Date & Venue: September, 30th 2004, Hotel Golden Tulip Rainbow, Brussels.
Present: Klaus Miesner, Rudi Eerdekens, Dermot Ryan, Nicholas Finnerty, Helen O’Toole, Xavier Guibert, Johan Knaap and Karina Christiansen.
Dr. Füssel and Dr. Sprenger for item 5.


Agenda:
1. Approval of the minutes from last meeting on 01.04.2004
2. Final agenda for the seminar
3.Certificates and trophy for the General Assembly
4. Update on rankings
5. Update on UELN (Klaus Miesner will try to invite Dr. Füssel and/or Dr. Sprenger to this topic to inform DG SANCO about the results with Weatherly’s, WAHO and other international organisations!)
6.Update on XLM pilot project between France and Belgium
7. Web-site
8.Members
9. Protection of the natural breeding stock (e-mail from B.F. Raitzky, USA)
10. Planning of future seminars together with FEI concerning training andjudging of young horses in theOlympicdisciplines
11. AOB

1.  Approval of the minutes


Klaus Miesner made a special welcome to Nicholas Finnerty, the new member of the WBFSH Executive Committee.
The Minutes from the last meeting on 01.04.2004 were approved.

2.  Final agenda for the seminar


Jan Pedersen asked the Executive Committee to come up with some headlines for this presentation about “Cooperation between the sport and breeding sectors”. The Executive Committee proposed the following:
a. Importance of the UELN.
b. The importance of recording pedigree information on starting lists.
c. FEI maintenance of the database. FEI must encourage studbooks to provided pedigree information.
d. WBFSH Young Horse championships.
e. How the Changes to rules in eventing will affect the breed societies
f. Collecting information for the estimation of breeding values (Interstallion)
g. FEI should accept the original passports and not change them.
h. More seminars in co operation with FEI
I. Closer relations with FEI, which strengthtens lobbying power in relation to EU legislation etc.
The Executive Committee also recommended Jan Pedersen to contact Bo Helander to coordinate their speechs.
Dermot Ryan contacted the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) for a speaker on the topic of Young Horse Competitions in the United States. USEF were not in a position to provide a speaker on this topic but offered for a Mr Denny Emerson to speak about “the qualities of soundness and stamina as seemingly increasing irrelevant in modern breeding associations. Hugh Bellis-Jones of the American Hannoverian Society, offered to speak about “Stallion licensing and performance test in the USA”. The Executive Committee discussed these proposals, but did not think either proposal would fit into the topic about “Breeding and sport”. Dermot Ryan will inform Mr Bellis-Jones. Klaus Miesner will contact USEF to try to find a person to talk about Young Horse Championships etc. in the United States. If this is not possible, there will only be a speaker from Canada and one from Argentina for the topic “Breeding and sport”.
Xavier Guibert suggested a speaker from France to talk about “Comparison of the conformation of 20 international levels and 20 low level jumping horses done by 3-d video morphometric measurement method – a new tool for breeding programs”. This topic corresponds very well with the topic about “Analysing jumping ability”. Johan Knaap will talk with Rene Van Weeren about this. If it can be combined, the speaker from France will be invited.
Dr. Sluyter cannot come and speak about “Veterinary aspects of international movement”. Instead Johan Knaap suggested Dr. Rik Mitchell, Team Vet. from the United States. Johan Knaap will contact him.
Karina Christiansen asked for the activity reports from each department by Monday, the 8th of November at the latest so that the final agendas can be sent out to member studbooks.
Annual plan 2005
The Executive Committee suggested some topics for the 2005 Annual Plan for discussion at the next Joint meeting.
1. Planning of the championships together with FEI.
2. Establishment of a working group on EU legislation together with FEI and COPA.
3. Communication between studbooks and FEI for the supply of pedigree information to the rankings.
4. Breeding information on starting lists.
5. Sponsorships.
6. Further seminars on judging in cooperation with FEI.
7. XLM.
8. Interstallion.
9. Young Breeders Competition, including a new page on the WBFSH web-site.
10. Closer contact to the EAAP horse commission.

3.  Certificates and trophy for the General Assembly


Johan Knaap will prepare the certificates and the trophy as usual.
Last year there had been some problems with “Wind Fall”, the winning horse of the eventing discipline. The certificate was given to the owner and not to the breeder. It was decided that the certificate should always be presented to the studbook in which the horse is registered. The studbook can then present the certificate to the breeder at a special national event.

4.  Update on rankings

Hans van Tartwijk has done a lot of work with the data from FEI. Around 5.000 horses were unknown and he therefore contacted the studbooks to get more pedigree information. Out of 49 contacted studbooks, only 11 replied within time.
The provisional rankings were available to member studbooks on the WBFSH website for a couple of months so that members studbooks could make comments or amendments. Hans van Tartwijk received only two remarks on these provisional rankings. He therefore plans to make the rankings official on the WBFSH web-site next week.
The Executive Committee discussed how often the rankings should be updated. It was decided to update the rankings for the horses, the sires and the studbooks every month.
The year of calculation should be from October 1 to September 30, because the overall rankings have to ready in time for the General Assembly. The rankings on the web-site should be updated every month from January 1 to September 1. In the Months from October to December the rankings will not be updated. There are normally no changes to the standings during this period, because of the small amount of competition results. The results from the new period will be accounted for in the rankings the following January.

Hans van Tartwijk received a letter from the Polish Horse Breeders Association, which are registered as associate members in the WBFSH. This Polish Horse Breeders Association is apparently an umbrella organisation, representing more studbooks and they want the WBFSH to list the horses in the rankings by the different names of their breed. Dermot Ryan will write a letter to them stating that the horses will be assigned a breed code in the rankings according to the name of the organisation that is a member of the WFBSH.

5.  Update on UELN

Xavier Guibert pointed out that the microchip code cannot be used as an unique number, as a chip can be un-readable or destroyed, people can put several chips into the same horse and manufacturers are able to issue a second chip with the same code. He therefore strongly recommended the UELN as identification of the equine.

Xavier Guibert informed the meeting about the UELN meeting in Paris on the 16th of September 2004, where the international organisations WBFSH, ISBC (thoroughbred), UET (trotter), WAHO (arab) and FEI met. They all agreed that the UELN is needed and all organisations will support the system by writing a letter to the European Commission.

Furthermore the Interstallion group, COPA and a working group from Equine Canada Project are supporting the UELN by letters.

Dr. Füssel explained about the new proposal (rev. 5) from SANCO to the Zootechnical Commission concerning method of identification of Equidae. Rev. 5 says that all registered horses from 2006 must have a microchip to link them together with the passport. Furthermore all horses must have a lifenumber according to the UELN developed by the WBFSH under which records about the horse should be saved.

Dr. Füssel also pointed out that the drawing of the horse in the passport is good, but not enough. This is the reason why they suggested that all foals should have a chip, unless they are slaughtered as foal.

He also explained that article 7 (3) will protect the UELN. It says that the UELN code must not conflict with the established system of the WBFSH. Xavier Guibert recommended also adding ISBC and WAHO.

Johan Knaap asked about the problem where FEI are replacing the original passport from a studbook with an FEI passport. Dr. Füssel explained that according to article 3 (3) this should not happen anymore. Article 3 (3) says:” Where a new identification document is issued in accordance with second indent of §2 for an adult equine animal identified in accordance with this Regulation, the original document shall be returned to the issuing body according to Article 4 (2) and indicated in Section II of the identification document”. Dr. Füssel explained that this paragraph only includes the non-registered horses, where an issuing body has identified the horses. In that case the horses are going to compete international, the FEI could issue a new passport and return the original papers to the issuing body. The FEI can no longer change the passports issued by the studbooks.

The Executive Committee was very happy with the new situation of the draft commission regulation of establishing the method of identification of Equidae. The draft now has to be sent to the Zootechnical Commission.

6.  Update on XLM pilot project between France and Belgium


Rudi Eerdekens explained that BWP were having problems with their computer expert and as a result there have been no further developments on the XLM project between Belgium and France. BWP have now employed a new computer expert who will now meet with the computer experts from France. Rudi Eerdekens and Xavier Guibert both think there are no technical problems, but they need to find the time to solve the problems. They hope the XLM pilot project will be ready in time for the General Assembly.

7.  Web-site


Karina Christiansen presented print outs of several pages from the WBFSH web-site that needed to be updated. There are no results and photos from Verden and Zangersheide 2004 and there is no information about the championship 2004 in Le Lion d’Angers. Furthermore the page for “News” needs to be updated regularly. For example, the invitation to the seminar on eventing should be presented on this page.

Johan Knaap pointed out that updating the web-site is very time consuming and that an office is needed to bring news on the web-site every day to make it more interesting.

It was decided to make a new page for the Young Breeders Competition. As the next competition will be held in Denmark 2005, Karina Christiansen promised to send more information about this to Johan Knaap.

8.Members

The Department Development has received an application from AWÖ (Arbeitsgameinschaft für Warmblutzucht in Österreich). There are 8 member studbooks in the AWÖ, all approved under the relevant EU legislation and all having a very small number of foals per annum (in total around 500 foals).

The Executive Committee decided to recommend to the Board that the AWÖ become members subject to the following:

a.  Each of the 8 member studbooks of the AWÖ are required to supply a letter to the WBFSH starting that they request that the AWÖ will represent them at the WBFSH.

b.  Should one or more of the 8 members wish to become individual members of the WBFSH, then the AWÖ may not represent the remaining members.

c.  There will be one breed only, to be known as the Austrian Warmblood Horse.

If the 8 studbooks join the WBFSH as individual members, the cost would normally in total be Euro 8.000. The WBFSH is because of the small amount of foals prepared to give a discount of Euro 5.000, meaning a membership fee of Euro 3.000. This fee has to be reviewed annually depending on the number of foals registered. The Development Department will continue to correspond with the AWO regarding their application.

The AWS (American Warmblood society) are associate members and have now applied for full membership. As they now fulfil the requirements for the pedigree to be proven by a covering certificate or DNA typing, the Executive Committee recommended to the Board that they become a full member. The Board accepted the recommendation, and the proposal will be put to the GA.

The Department Development has sent an application form to the Sports Pony Studbook Society and to the National Stud in Morocco. It was discussed if a pony association could be members of the WBFSH as they do not compete in the Olympic Games. If was decided to discuss this further if the WBFSH receive the application.

The NZSHPB (New Zealand Sport Horse Promotion Board) did not pay the fees for 2002 and 2003. Dermot Ryan will write a last letter to them saying that their associate membership will be cancelled if they do not pay before the General Assembly 2004.

9. Protection of the natural breeding stock

This topic will be discussed on the next meeting.

10. Planning of future seminars together with FEI concerning training andjudging of young horses in theOlympicdisciplines

This topic will be discussed on the next meeting.

11. AOB

The Championship on Zangersheide was discussed. Again this year, the distribution of wildcards not been done in accordance with the schedule. Due to the heavy rain this year at Lanaken the ground was in a very poor state. The large amount of wild cards assigned did not help with the ground conditions. The Executive Committee suggested that Jan Pedersen should write a letter to the FEI to mention the problems again. Helen O’Toole will provide Jan Pedersen with the relevant information regarding entries and wild cards.

The Executive Committee suggested having a joint meeting with the Board on Sunday the 12th. of December in Mexico.

Vilhelmsborg, 06.10.2004

Karina Christiansen

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