October 24, 2007

Red Deer, Alberta – Earlier in 2007 the Canadian Performance Futurity’s Prairie Zone held its Dressage classes in Edmonton, Alberta. A quick glance at the results for those classes reveals a lineup of Canadian Warmbloods as the prize winners. On August 31st, the Hunter and Jumper classes were held at the Alberta Hunter Horse Society Year End Show. Once again, the ribbons awarded through to fifth place, in the four and five-year-old classes, went to Canadian Warmblood horses.

This is no surprise, as Alberta is one of many hotbeds of warmblood breeding in Canada. The national program, which is open to registered horses, sees entrants which are Hanovarian, Oldenburg, Canadian Sport Horse, Thoroughbred and much more. The common factor is that these horses are Canadian bred.

Regardless of the registry of choice, owners and breeders of the horses nominated to the futurity share a common vision, which is to demonstrate through performance that these horses have the qualities to be competitive internationally.

Waterloo II was one of those horses. As champion of both the Four-Year-Old Hunter & Jumper classes, he demonstrated that pedigree selection is important. By Larino and out of a Ferro daughter, the gelding bred and owned by John and Jacquie van den Bosch was ridden to top honours by their daughter Femke.

It was a graduate from the Fall Classic Breeders Sale who took home the winner’s cooler in the Five-Year-Old Hunter class. Tyr, by MJ Pax and out of a Wermiszel mare, was purchased as a two-year-old by Anne Stollbert from breeder Heather Osterhout. Tyr was a Futurity finalist the previous year under the same rider, Cody Peach.

Top position in the Five-Year-Old Jumper class went to a Foxhunter / Wodan son. Flurry’s bloodlines were showcased by rider Shawna Cook from Carosel Ridge, the owner and breeder of the young jumper.

While the program is in its infancy, its vision is long-term. “Nominating your young horse will be a big sale point in the future”, commented Jennette Coote, Chair of the program and owner of a young stallion which participated and placed in all three disciplines. She cites the support and recognition successful competitors receive: “This is a very good program and it is starting to get the recognition from riders and trainers.”

The Canadian Performance Futurity, which is open to registered and Canadian bred horses, is funded in part by the Canadian Breeders' Initiative Fund (CBIF). CBIF supports Canadian breeders of horses for the FEI disciplines, providing financial assistance to initiatives which profile multiple breed registries, with a preference to Canadian organizations. The CBIF is administered by Equine Canada and funded with charitable donations.

More on the Canadian Performance Futurity, including information for nominating horses, can be found at www.CanadianPerformanceFuturity.com.