Minutes of the Joint Meeting
of the Board and Executive Committee of the WBFSH
Date and venue:
Friday, 30 June, 2006, at the Golden Tulip Rainbow Hotel,
Brussels Airport.
Present:
Jan Pedersen, Paul Hubert, J. E. M. van Campen, Jim Flanagan,
Rik van Miert, Dr. Thomas Nissen, Karina Christiansen, Xavier
Guibert, Johan Knaap, Nicholas Finnerty, Rudi Eerdekens,
Klaus Miesner, Christina Brogaard Lund (ref.)
Agenda:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Approval of the minutes from the Joint Meeting on 02.12.2005
Interstallion - evaluation of the meeting with the Breeding Managers
Rankings – new calculation from Hans van Tjartwijk
Seminar and General Assembly
agenda for the seminar
workshop
special invitation for the General Assembly
5. New structure
budget for the secretariat
new voting- and payment system (Nicholas Finnerty)
6. WBFSH stand at Aachen
7. Zwolle International – e-mail from Hank Van Campen, dated 2 April
8. The Chantilly Conference – report by Xavier Guibert
9. Commission draft regulation for state aids in the Agricultural Sector 2007-2013.
10. General accepted name rules for stallions (Johan Knaap)
11. Amount of foals per straw (Xavier Guibert)
12. Miscellaneous
1. Approval of the minutes from the Joint Meeting on 02.12.2005
The minutes from the last joint meeting on 02.12.2005 were approved.
2. Interstallion - evaluation of the meeting with the Breeding Managers
Everbody aggreed that the Interstallion meeting had been very good. The following was
decided:
a) 7-8 studbooks will go on and a steering group should be formed.
b) Jan Philipsson will convene a new meeting with the relevant studbook
managers
c) Each of the participating studbooks will make a contract
d) WBFSH can support the project with money
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3. Rankings – new calculation
The new model proposed by the Interstallion Group was not considered as an acceptable
solution, because many breeding societies have more than one breeding objective, for
instance the KWPN which is parted into dressage, jumping, harness horses, and
gelderlands. The breeding population would therefore not be as big as it could seem.
Xavier Guibert said that looking at 1,000,000 entries at national competitions in France
there would be 60% jumping entries, 30% in dressage, and 10% in eventing. This
number could very well apply for Germany and Denmark as well, but how about for
instance USA and Italy? Culture and country could show a different discipline percentage,
so it was agreed that it would be too inaccurate to use in the calculations.
It was also agreed to keep the old system with discipline ranking of studbooks, but to
quit ranking of the overall winner of studbooks.
4. Seminar and General Assembly
a)
Agenda for the seminar
Eric Bruns would like to speak at the seminar, but maybe with another title of the item.
Klaus Miesner will find out. The item Interstallion gets an hour all in all, which pushes the
lunch break half an hour. Lunch will then be at 12.30 a.m.
Regarding part II of the seminar, Dr. Alf-Eckbert Füssel is interested in speaking on the
harmonization of EVA tests in all labs. Peter Rottiov could not come, so a new speaker is
needed on EVA. Regarding cloning, Flemming Velin seems to be interested in speaking
on the thoughts behind, and Dr. Prof. Peter Sandoee, who works on a big EU project on
cloning, will present the ethical and legal aspects of cloning.
b)
Workshop
Flemming Velin, Ulf Helgstrand, Alf-Eckbert Füssel, Eric Palmer, and Peter Sandoee
should be asked to join the workshop groups on cloning.
c)
Special invitation for the General Assembly
It was decided that representatives of the National Equestrian Federations should be
invited for the seminar and the general assembly. This must be done by the member
studbooks of the respective countries.
5. New structure
a)
Budget for the secretariat
There was a proposal from the executive committee to raise the budget for the
secretariat with 5,000 € p.a. because of the increased work load. The board members’
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position was needed in this decision. It was agreed to a 1-year-solution with 5,000 €
more p.a. for the secretariat.
b)
New voting- and payment system
Nicholas Finnerty had examined the present voting- and payment system, please see
enclosure 1 being p.13 from the Statutes of 1999. It was obvious that only Germany is
underrepresented in terms of payment and no. of foals. Before making changes, we
should bear in mind that we already do things by consensus. We have only voted once
during the last six years. It was therefore decided to keep the present system.
It is a fact that associate members of WBFSH do not pay the same fee as the full
members of WBFSH, but still, apart from the voting, they have all the same advantages
as the full members of WBFSH. It was agreed that breeding societies that actually meet
the requirements of a full membership cannot choose to be an associate member.
6. WBFSH stand at Aachen
At the last meeting it was decided that we should not be present with a stand at WEG in
Aachen. However, Merial, our sponsor, along with Breeding News, are very interested in
sharing a stand with us there, covering the expences as follows: Merial 50%, Breeding
News 25%, and WBFSH 25%.
7.
Zwolle International – e-mail from Hank Van Campen, dated 2 April
Please see enclosure 2.
It was decided to continue focussing on and improving our own arrangements, i.e. the
Young Horse Championships, and not to get involved in Zwolle International.
8.
The Chantilly Conference – report by Xavier Guibert
Xavier informed of the Chantilly Conference where an identification project from USA had
been presented. The American Quarter Horse Association and a Canadian breeding
society had been involved. Furthermore, there had been a technical presentation of UELN
and XML.
The Irish politician, Mrs Doyle, attended the Chantilly Conference as well.
It was proposed that Mrs Doyle, who has a genuine interest in horses, would be a good
lobby person on EU level for the horse industry. With a group of chairmen from the
various horse related organisations behind her – for instance kind of a Horse Council –
providing her with adequate information, she could bring together EU parliamentarians
and open up for the possibility of influencing on EU horse-related subjects.
It was decided that Jan Pedersen should be WBFSH’s representative within this group,
and that a set of formulated guidelines should be made regarding how and when as well
as for which items the logo and registered name of WBFSH could be used. The name
“Horse Platform” was proposed for the interest group instead of “Horse Council”. Two
items were decided to be brought up by Jan Pedersen in the new interest group:
Transport and Chip/Branding.
9.
Commission draft regulation for state aids in the Agricultural
Sector 2007-2013.
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As it is by now, there is a general position in the EU regarding no state aid in the
agricultural sector. Please see enclosure 3 which is a written request forwarded by the
German Equestrian Association, FN, to a range of EU sport horse societies, asking them
to send a protest against the above mentioned guidelines. It was discussed whether to
send a common protest from the WBFSH or not.
Bringing in memory that for instance the KWPN, DWB, and the BWP do not get any kind
of state aid, some were of the opinion that these guidelines will increase the fair
competition. No consensus to support the letter of Dr. Hanfried Haring could be
established.
10. Generally accepted name rules for stallions
At the request of the Executive Committee a draft regarding possible new generally
accepted name rules for stallions was presented by Johan Knaap, please see enclosure 4.
It was generally agreed that since we already have the UELN it is not that important to
have stringent name rules. The name of birth is the name of birth in the breeding world,
but we have no influence as to what the National Equestrian Federations do regarding
names.
It was proposed that the subject could be an item of a workshop at the seminar 2007. If
we make a working draft for the workshop, a set of guidelines could be the outcome.
11. Amount of foals per straw
In some cases, stallion owners have experienced that a shipment of straw of semen
results in more foals than intended.
Theoretically,this could be solved, if the mare owner is obliged to inform the stallion
owner/semen intermediary about the mare’s name and UELN, and when the foal is
registered at the studbook, the studbook should ask the stallion owner/semen
intermediary to send the covering certificate. But in practice, this may not work
efficiently anyway, and it is already possible for the stallion owner/semen intermediary to
make a contract with the semen-buying mare owner.
Additionally, there was a general opinion towards not interfering when it is actually
reducing the mare owners’ costs at breeding, also keeping in mind that stallion owners
sell semen and not foals.
12.
Miscellaneous
The American Holstein Society has applied for full membership and Nicholas Finnerty is
processing the membership application.
Within the Interstallion group, there is a need for replacement of Egon Fraehr and Lynn
Aldrigde. It was agreed that Karina Christiansen from Dansk Varmblod should replace
Egon Fraehr and Inge Meuhrens from the BWP should replace Lynn Aldrigde.
Next Joint Meeting will be on Sunday, 22 October, 2006 at 2 pm in Verden.
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Thomas Nissen thought that it could be a good idea to revive the championships for the
best young mares – for instance in connection with the Young Breeders’ Championship
every second year. It was agreed that this should be an item at next meeting’s agenda.
Vilhelmsborg, 8 September , 2006
Christina B. Lund
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