THE STANDARDBRED AND TROTTING HORSE
ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
THE STANDARDBRED NEWS Issue 21 JUNE / JULY 2004
website: www.standardbred.org
Stallions can be advertised on STAGBI website for £15 per year other adverts including banners etc are subject to agreement. Don't neglect this effective method of advertising which is available 24 hours everyday, and every day of the week. Please also remember we would like to hear from anyone who has a story about Standardbreds - the most versatile breed in the world.
2004 FOAL REGISTRATIONS
Further to the notice in the last newsletter I would like to confirm the arrangements for the registration of 2004 foals. As you know all foals have to be marked up by a vet or recognised authority while they are still with their dam and in any case by the time they are 6 months old. The procedure we have adopted should make this as efficient and economical as possible incorporating the required integrity for both the breeding and racing industry.
Part 4 of the service certificate for all 2004 foals should be returned to
STAGBI at Forest Inn, New Radnor, Powys. LD8 2TN
along with £10 for each certificate.
You will then be sent a registration pack, which will include a registration form for your vet to mark up the foal, a microchip which the vet will insert in the foal, and the packs for the DNA samples.
DNA Packs and Samples MUST be returned to STAGBI - Forest Inn, in the envelope provided.
NOTE: As from this years foaling, all Broodmares will be DNA profiled by STAGBI at NO cost to the owner (This does not apply to AI or parental verification)
Owners wishing to have Full DNA parental verification of their foals may do so at the same time at a fee of £25.00.
It is hoped that we will be able to do a number of random foals as well and once we have all the broodmares then we may be able to help with the cost of all new progeny DNA
Registrations can be sent to STAGBI, BHRC or IHRC along with the usual fee of £20 for a new passport, the foal's papers can then be processed and its passport produced.
This will give the advantage of the microchip inserted at the time of identification and it being a part of the passport and so gives lifetime identification of the horse which will be useful whether a horse enters racing or some other field of activity.
REMINDER
In England all horses have to have a passport by the end of June 2004 Wales have decided on the autumn as the date when the European legislation has to be implemented but all the home countries have agreed that all horses must have passports by next winter, so please make sure that you have your horse's papers updated there can be a fine for non-compliance and there could be restrictions on drugs that can be used on your horse if it does not have a legitimate passport containing the pages referring to whether the horse will enter the food chain or not. If in doubt ring STAGBI and check.
Note:
STAGBI are now up to date with passport production so please send in any outstanding work now.
In the last newsletter there were some mistakes in the list of STAGBI fees.
Please see the correct fees below:
Updates £10 per horse
2 - 9 horses 15% reduction ie £8.50 per horse
10+ horses 25% reduction - £7.50 per horse
the grey STAGBI passports, and the black or blue BHRC passports should only need the new pages added.
Older registration papers will need to be replaced with a new passport which will cost £20 with the same reduction.
2 - 9 horses - £17 per horse
10 or more £15 per horse
New registrations are £20 per horse.
Transfer of ownership £10 per horse
Please remember that you need to be a member of STAGBI to have a transaction (new passport, update or transfer).
Membership - £5 per year or £25 for a 6 year membership.
NOTES FOR STALLION OWNERS
Please can you make sure that all the covering return forms for the 2004 season are completed and returned to STAGBI - Forest Inn, New Radnor, Powys. LD8 2TN by 30th September, your printed service certificates can then be sent to you on payment of £10 for each certificate required. Every foaling will require a service certificate so please include all mares using the Standardbred or Non-Standardbred forms as appropriate. By sending the pre-printed certificates this should save stallion owners considerable time on the tedious job of filling in the same information 4 times, so that only omissions and signatures will be needed.
STAGBI NEWS
You will probably all know that Elisabeth Blazak our secretary and registrar has not enjoyed the best of health for some time. Earlier in the year Elisabeth resigned from her duties of secretary and registrar while continuing her work on the stud-book.
Elisabeth has been the leading figure in breeding matters in this country for many years she has given sterling work firstly to BHRC and latterly to STAGBI. In fact STAGBI probably owes its existence to her foresight and hard work setting up a breed society for the Standardbred horse in Great Britain. It was not easy, and many would have given up, but Elisabeth was instrumental in forming a democratic organisation which aims to help develop the Standardbred as a breed in this country. Her love for the breed is evident by the hours of lowly paid work she has put in on behalf of everyone who owns a Standardbred. All the directors of STAGBI are grateful for her work on behalf of the breed and we hope to carry on her work within the society. She once told me that it would be ten years before the full benefits of STAGBI would be evident but even at this stage the breeding industry in Great Britain has made some progress with all Standardbred horses coming under a unified registration process.
Elisabeth has kindly said she will continue to work on the stud-book database. This she has worked on for many years building up the information from many sources. Lately she has had to contend with data from at least 3 non-compatible databases and by re-typing data from these various databases she hopes to eventually have all the historical data available for publication. Here I feel it is important that we make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes again and that all current registrations (no matter which authority processes them) are updated on to the main STAGBI database so that publication of a stud-book does not become such a mammoth task. Elisabeth has been concentrating on all animals born between 1990 and 2000, and when all the anomalies from this period have been ironed out we hope to move forward to the next stage.
On a personal note Elisabeth has been looking to move and having sold her house and found a suitable place unfortunately the chain collapsed and so she is back on the house trail. So please make sure you address all STAGBI correspondence either to STAGBI -Administration, Forest Inn, New Radnor, Powys. LD8 2TN (passports & stallions) or membership secretary, Lower Lundy, Painscastle, Builth wells. Powys. LD2 3JJ (memberships or newsletters).
DNA PROCEDURE
STAGBI have now secured an agreement which enables any DNA sampling to cost less. This saving is being passed on to our members so that the new arrangements are as follows.
For any DNA sample
The Vet after identifying the horse by its papers will take hair from a clean dry mane.
A minimum of 30 hairs pulled complete with roots for each sample (DO NOT CUT HAIR) as root bulbs are required for test.
The hair should be put in the sample bag provided sealed and secured with label provided.
The Vet completes the DNA sample form and returns the form with the sample to STAGBI in the envelope provided, along with the appropriate fee which has now been reduced to £25.
Both the Vet and the owner can keep a copy of the form for their own records.
DNA sampling packs are available from STAGBI administration.
RULE CHANGE
Following a postal ballot of STAGBI directors the following amendment will be implemented with regard to DNA of stallions wishing to stand at stud. The following rule will take effect immediately.
Any horse intended to be used as a stallion for mating purposes must be DNA typed full parental verification will be required where possible.