Futurity

Gold awards at

British breeding futurity evaluations

The British Breeding Futurity evaluations started back in 2005, with the aim to identify British bred, young potential sport horses and ponies that are destined for careers in dressage, eventing, show jumping or endurance and may even find the Olympic Champions of the future. Entries are categorised by discipline with different age groups for foals, yearlings, two and three-year olds.

It became clear earlier in the year that the coronavirus outbreak would affect everyone well into the summer season. With restrictions on international travel and the need to take the right steps to maintain social distancing while still allowing everyone to interact, to give the evaluators a chance to discuss their observations, the Virtual Futurity 2020 was formulated.

For the first time The British Breeding/ Baileys Horse Feeds Futurity Evaluations saw breeders submitting their entries in a digital format in sets of detailed videos taken on hard and soft ground that were examined by a team of international experts, including a senior veterinarian, Baileys Horse Feeds nutritionist, linear scorer and highly experienced International evaluators from the UK, Holland and Germany.

Endurance magazine talks to the owners of the amazing horses that achieved the coveted Gold award in the endurance category, who have qualified for preselection into the first ever Futurity Elite Online Auction, to be held in September this year in cooperation with ClipMyHorse.TV.

Nutritional Building Blocks

Baileys have supported the British Breeding Futurity Evaluations since their inception in 2005, and been actively involved in the assessment of youngsters, through Body Condition and Muscle Scoring, since 2010. The combined input of Vet and Nutritionist provides unique and invaluable feedback for breeders, to help ensure their young horses are given the best possible start in life. Body condition is a reflection of the horse’s diet and the Futurity, whether virtual or in “real life”, allows this to be adjusted accordingly. “It’s about providing nutritional support and the right building blocks for correct growth and development,” says Baileys Director of Nutrition, Liz Bulbrook.

What the Evaluators said… “Tannasg Adonis was a lovely prospect for endurance with effortless movement and a nice, elegant frame.”

“Tannasg Aurelius showed great potential for the future with nice even paces and a very attractive frame with good functionality for endurance.”

The colts achieved scores of 8.575 and 8.375 respectively for their Endurance evaluations.

Tannasg Arabians Stud in Dunning We have been breeding top quality Arabian horses since 2002. Our focus has always been producing horses that can do anything from endurance to dressage to hacking. To achieve this we have bred horses with excellent conformation, natural athleticism and above all, wonderful temperaments.

Tannasg Adonis is by Tannasg Ansomrob (Psyches Boy x Tannasg Roulette) and out of Kazanan (Tamayuz x Bosphorous Queen). Tannasg Ansomrob is a homebred FEI qualified stallion who has competed up to FEI 1* 80km level. He is currently the only stallion to have completed the extremely tough Cairngorm 100 challenge (100 miles, 1 horse, 1 day). He completed the last 20 miles of this challenge on his own, in the dark and never wavered. Tannasg Aurelius is by WW Moonlight Venture out of Tannasg Alya. WW Moonlight Venture is a registered Cremello American Quarter Horse and the dam, homebred, Tannasg Alya is a purebred Arabian (Psyches Boy x Tannasg Parfait).

Future plans We were absolutely delighted that at the recent British Breeding Futurity evaluations our two entries were both awarded Gold awards in the endurance section. We put forward our two part bred yearlings, the first being our Anglo Arabian gelding, Tannasg Adonis. Adonis is the first foal by our homebred stallion Tannasg Ansomrob and is rather special as he represents three generations of our breeding here at Tannasg, Ansomrob is out of a homebred mare by our foundation stallion. Adonis’ dam is an ex racing thoroughbred who we purchased to start our Anglo Arab breeding programme. Adonis is being retained at the stud to be Iain’s future competition horse, mainly aimed at endurance but he will also do some dressage and maybe some eventing in future. Our other entrant was Tannasg Aurelius, a half quarter horse, half Arab gelding out of a homebred mare, Aurelius also represents three generations of Tannasg bloodlines. Aurelius's sire is an American bred quarter horse who we chose because of his conformation and temperament and we wanted to add some size and power as a bigger endurance horse, but he will do any job! Aurelius will be available for sale.

Iain Paterson

What the Evaluators said… “A harmonious, elegant-looking young horse convinces with lovely conformation and very good gaits, he is a super prospect for endurance.”

Achieved an excellent score of 8.825 in the Endurance category

Zobeyni Arabian Stud Zobeyni Magnus is by the wonderful stallion Zobeyni Nurani from Alexia Ross’ Zobeyni Arabian Stud which is based on the bloodlines of The Crabbet Stud, founded by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt in the 1870s.

Zobeyni Magnus is out of Bint Magnetta who Alexia Ross loaned from Daphne Cocksedge of the Romac Stud in South Wales. Daphne has been breeding Arabians for over 50 years and back in the early days she bred for racing as well as endurance. Bint Magnetta was sired by a competitive endurance stallion called Celtic Shadow and is of 100% Old English Arabian lines, most of which come from the Crabbet Stud programme.

Our story so far In June 2017 an adorable foal picture popped up from Alexia Ross of the Zobeyni Stud. Video footage of his movement confirmed this might be the one! I visited him at 4 months to meet him and take photos of angles and limbs to discuss with my dressage trainer

Magnus arrived in July 2018 as a yearling, registered and gelded. He was handled for 6 months before being turned away until February 2020. I was thinking about the futurity as I knew Alexia would be keen for me to give it a go. I spotted that it was still going ahead online and with help from friends I could do this!

The videos required soft/hard surfaces and an arena to run free. Anne Dicker of Catherston Stud was very helpful, after a call and a visit we booked an afternoon to film! I gathered a small group of friends and planned what shots we needed. He was trimmed up by the farrier and washed.

He was a star and took it all in his stride, away from home he was alert and interested. In the loose assessment he really showed himself, however, I had no idea how well he would do!

Magnus loves humans and has a great trust, enabling me to progress him this summer through lunging and long reining to backing and walking out under saddle on the lead rein. The plan is to continue through the paces until Christmas when he will have a break. Next year schooling will continue along with hacking out and the aim will be to train with dressage until he is strong and moving correctly and then start doing some endurance once he is around 7 and matured physically.

Rebecca Gant

What the Evaluators said… “A super example of an endurance foal with harmonious lines and effortless movement showing a lot of promise for the future”.

Gold Premium score of 8.7 making him a contender for the Gold Leader Board.

SBM Arabians We are a pure-bred Arabian stud on the edge of Dartmoor. We breed by instinct, not necessarily by fashion. Instinct was the way, some years ago, whereby we came to purchase a miniature Shetland called Farthingwood Romeo who, two years later in 2000, became the first British Miniature horse champion at the Horse of the Year Show. Instinct is the way in which we have bred several of our Arabian horses, one of the mares with the same sire as Carlangelo SBM’s winning her in-hand class at the top UKIAHS ECAHO ‘A’ show in 2019 with 91 points.

We breed for correct conformation and freedom of movement. We have recently successfully sold three of our lightly backed Arabians to endurance homes. A few years ago the Government of Pakistan selected a colt of ours to enhance the breeding programme at their State Stud. We cannot retain all the horses we breed and so offer for sale from time to time youngsters for in-hand showing and lightly backed older (4/5/6 years old) horses for performance (endurance/ridden) careers.

Who is Carlangelo SBM? He is a very personable, sociable and inquisitive 5 months’ old foal who has inherited the characters and delightful temperaments of both his sire, the 1996 Brazilian National Champion Lothar el Nyhl ( Nyhl el Jamaal (Ali Jaamal) / AF Lissa ) owned by Shirley and Charlie Watts of Halsdon Arabians and his dam, Angelita, purchased by us as a yearling in 2006. 0ur grooms love him and remark that he is the easiest colt foal that we have bred.

Angelita’s previous foals include a gelding (All Spice SBM, by H. Tobago) recently sold to a well-known endurance home and Carlangelo SBM’s full sister, Lolita SBM, whose future we also see in endurance, both of which claimed the title of British National Silver Foal Champion at the 2015 and 2018 AHS Championship Shows respectively. Angelita’s sire line was Vodofon Kossack (NL) (2001-2020) purchased from his breeder in 2008. He was straight Russian, the National Champion Foal of The Netherlands. His sire was Balaton (Menes/Panagia), bred by The Tersk Stud in Russia and known as ‘the Sire of the Century’. His dam, Verba, also Russian, was a racing mare.

At present we have no future plans for Carlangelo SBM. We are totally taken aback by his Futurity success. Naturally we hope that he will develop into a great and credible endurance horse for the future and produce successful progeny.

The British Breeders' Futurity With Carlangelo SBM, what you see is how he is. The video tells it all!! -and we think that he is even better in the flesh. We would encourage breeders to ‘go for it’, to enter the Futurity whether on video or actual event, because like us, you may not know what you have in your yard. We would also say follow your instincts in breeding and selection, as we have done. Following fashion may or may not result in what you hope for.

Sarah & Peter Howard

EXCELSIOR SBM, 2017 grey AHS Licensed Stallion (Excalibur EA (ES) x Tosca de Forgehill (FR)) ECAHO ‘C’ Gold Champion 2018 and other successes. Bred from 2014 World Champion (Excalibur EA) and 1990/1991European Champion (Drug - RASB) bloodlines with prominent, historic, athletic and racing influence. HADIYYA SBM, 2015 grey mare, (Psadisho Ibn Esstashan (DE) x Tosca de Forgehill (FR)). Half-sister of EXCELSIOR SBM. Also prominent athletic bloodlines. Currently with foal at foot, she will be available unbacked after his weaning, or backed in the weeks thereafter. ECAHO ‘C’ Silver Champion and other successes.