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lions will have no limits for the time being, provided their category is up to date. It has been established that embr yo supplying mares must be registered in the Breeding Register of the PRE Stud Book. This rule shall be applied as of January 1, 2013, but foals born in 2013, fr uit of embr yo transfer with the limitations established in point 6, may be registered. Dressage competitions officially recognized by the RFHE (Royal Equestrian Federation of Spain), whether national or international, in addition to the Young Horses Selection Tests will be incorporated as Performance Tests for Dressage. The genetic categor y of “Qualified Breeding Stock” has been incorporated into the PRE Breeding Program. It has been established that Elite Breeding Stock must have achieved the category of Improver Breeding Stock for Conformation and for Dressage. It has been contemplated that those horses achieving any of the categories for Breeding Stock, established in the PRE Breeding Program, will be awarded a diploma accrediting them with this category and this will also be noted in their Equine Identif ication Document (EID). Likewise, this information with regards to these breeding horses will be disclosed, to facilitate their use within the breed.
NEW ASSESSMENT RECORD SHEET FOR BASIC APPROVAL AS BREEDING STOCK AND GENETIC ASSESSMENT FOR MORPHOLOGY As was reported, the Official Gazette (of Spain) nº147 dated the 28th of May, 2012 includes the new Rules and Regulations for the PRE Stud Book and Breeding Program, which went into effect upon publication. . The idea of the Breeding Program is not to guide the breed along a specific route, as that is the free will of breeders, but to generate a tool that allows improvements in the quality of the horses on their stud farms without any interference with the direction in which each breeder wants to go, in accordance with the PRE breed pattern. These Rules and Regulations establish that the performance test for morphology for a subsequent genetic assessment shall be carried out during the Assessment for Basic Approval as Breeding Stock. Thus, it will take advantage of this visit to the stud farm to extend the Breeding Program, without additional costs for breeders. In an effort to attain these two objectives—assessment and performance testing—the record sheet has been designed in conjunction with the technicians at the MERAGEM Research group. This new record sheet will facilitate the collection of specific data about the horses (using zoometrical measurements and Lineal Morphological Scores), which shall allow the Genetic Assessment of the horses seeking to become PRE Breeding Stock to be carried out. Until now, this data collection was limited to TQBs and at certain Conformation competitions.
The application of this record sheet offers a number of advantages. These include, but are not limited to: a) The breeder becomes an active and direct participant in the Breeding Program, with the possible advantages that may be derived from this activity. b) All horses presented for Assessment for Basic Approval as Breeding Stock shall be genetically assessed, thus facilitating the participation of horses in the Breeding Program, and avoiding t ravel time. c) The number of genetically assessed horses within the breed will increase, thus providing more information about what those horses can transmit genetically (reliability of the genetic values obtained will increase greatly) while at the same time, collect information for the Breeding Stock Catalogs that are published periodically. d) After their genetic assessment, it will then be possible for horses to achieve the category of Young Recommended Breeding Stock (between 4 and 6 years of age), and starting with 6 year-olds, Improver and Elite Breeding Stock for their Aptitude for conformational traits and Dressage.
El Caballo Español
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