ASF 2019
By Sandra Harding
I
THE WAY TO GO
n 2013,two years after the Africa Saddle Horse Futurity started, the initiator thereof, Ross Millin, indicated that ‘the ASF is now really on a roll and the most successful incentive to breed Saddlebreds in South Africa. Breeders and owners have the opportunity to have a real return on their investment through breeding. It has also become a huge marketing opportunity for our beautiful breed’. Even the toughest critics of the ASF now have to admit that the competition has opened opportunities for Saddle Horse breeders in the country and that it has, since its inception in 2011, gone from strength to strength. Like the previous eight years, this year’s competition again had its fair share of highlights and a number of challenges. MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2019 Of the thirty one foals entered for the competition, twenty one would eventually compete in the preliminary rounds during the SA National Championships in Bloemfontein during April 2019. The morning started off cold, foggy and wet. The weather conditions were less than ideal and some of the foals had to be shown in pouring rain. This year’s judges were Allison Deardorf and Matthew Roberts from the USA and Carine Stephan, Jaco Jonker and Wim Bester from South Africa. Ten foals would ultimately be selected to compete on Thursday, 25 April 2019 during the final of the ninth ASF competition. On Monday afternoon the ASF Stallion Auction took place with forty two of the best stallions in the country on the list. Services to the value of almost R400 000 were sold. Auctioneer Johannes Maasdorp did a sterling job with his knowledge of the stallions entered and the saddlebred industry in general.
140 THE INTERNATIONAL SHOW HORSE