In December the Icelandic Horse Association in New Zealand, IceHNZ, was lucky to have Silke Feuchthofen (FEIF breeding, FEIF sport judge and level 4 instructor), travelling around in New Zealand and being available for a breeding seminar, riding lessons and assessments. The breeding seminar, held in Christchurch, was well attended and gave us a good insight of where we stand with the breeding in New Zealand. Silke made the link between conformation and riding abilities clearly visible during the theory and with the practical assessments she was able to give us some good ideas how to improve our horses here in New Zealand. As Silke was able to assess most of the breeding stallions the mare owners now have some more tools to make a choice between the stallions. As we are far away from the great variety of stallions available on the Northern Hemisphere it is very important for us to know the qualities of the stallions here Down Under.
The conditions under which some of the assessments were done, were a little different to what is normally done. The next time she or any other breeding judge will come to New Zealand we will offer a suitable facility and make it into an official (linear) breeding assessment following the Young horse assessment guidelines!
Unfortunately it does not happen very often that someone with those qualities is travelling through our beautiful country so we enjoyed it the full!
Seminars in New Zealand
