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This is the Brabant Bulletin

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brought to you by the European Brabant

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Registry of America,

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where people, passion and preservation

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are our mission.

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Welcome, Brabanters. I'm Stacy Pearsall.

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Today

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I am with our Registrar, Rebecca Courtney,

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to do some “talking registry.”

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Welcome to the show, Rebecca.

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Hey, Stacy. It's good to talk to you.

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Same. I know last time we talked,

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we were really diving into the

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the stud books that the EBRA offers.

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And we kind of touched lightly

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on the European Brabant Stock

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sort of being one of those feeder stud

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books

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for the breed up program

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and the qualified Mare program.

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But we didn't dive into that. We were kind of pushing that off

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for a later date.

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So I figured we would kind of pick back up

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where we left off

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and dive a little bit more into that.

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So, Rebecca,

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can you talk to me a little bit

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about the Brabant Stocks studbook first?

1:02

let's recap that,

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and then we'll go into the programs

1:05

that we sort of offer around that.

1:10

Yeah. So just as, a summary,

1:13

the stock stud book is open to horses

1:19

with at least 47%

1:19

verified European Brabant heritage.

1:25

And that basically means

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that one of their parents has to be

1:29

or the equivalent of one of their parents

1:29

has to be, purebred, European Brabant.

1:34

And then the balance of their

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pedigree has to come from a heavy draft

1:38

breed.

1:42

That would be, say, your Percherons,

1:42

your Suffolks, your American Belgians.

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it would not include a light horse cross.

1:49

It wouldn't include cross with a cob.

1:52

So a small draft such as a Gypsy Vanner

1:52

or a Halflinger or, but those, those large

1:57

heavy draft breeds are what qualify,

1:57

for that Brabant Stock cross.

2:03

And then these horses in the stud

2:03

book are really,

2:06

the foundation of our breed up program.

2:11

So we recognize that there are not

2:15

a lot of purebred European Brabants

2:15

certainly in North America,

2:19

but even globally,

2:19

in the big picture of things,

2:24

and a small population

2:24

can present some challenges

2:27

when it comes to things like inbreeding,

2:27

but and just having your genetics too

2:32

closely related. So the breed up program

2:33

really allows people to out

2:38

cross those purebred onto some other

2:38

breeds to gain some of the benefits

2:42

of, of genetic diversity and heterosis.

2:47

And then they can continue

2:47

to breed those offspring

2:50

to purebred European Brabant

2:50

increasing the percentage

2:54

of European blood each generation

2:54

until you reach purebred status.

2:59

So that Brabant stud books Brabant stock

2:59

said, excuse me, is really the

3:04

the holding place for those horses

3:04

that are not considered purebred

3:08

European Brabants, but we recognize that

3:08

heritage and the, the owner,

3:12

their goals to,

3:16

to kind of, work towards purebred status.

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Okay. Is there anything

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that would disqualify a horse from maybe

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being included in the Brabant stock,

3:26

aside from being, say, a light draft,

3:30

like you mentioned, a Fjord or Halflinger

3:30

or Gypsy?

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Other than that,

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was there any other disqualifiers?

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There is nothing that would necessarily

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disqualify a horse

3:44

from being in the Brabant Stock stud book.

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One thing that we do

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try and make people aware of

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is that when you get to a horse

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with purebred,

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blood status, which is 93.75%

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or greater, that horse cannot have any

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non-conforming colors or patterns.

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So it can't, for example,

4:05

have tobiano or a cream gene.

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so you do have to be

4:09

a little bit careful,

4:12

because those genes can carry

4:12

through the generations.

4:16

if you, for example,

4:16

use used a spotted draft cross,

4:24

and that tobiano gene continued to carry

4:24

through the generations.

4:27

That horse would not be eligible

4:27

for purebred status, in the future.

4:32

So it doesn't necessarily disqualify

4:35

them from being a Brabant Stock

4:35

horse, but,

4:38

genetically,

4:38

you just want to be a little bit careful

4:41

with some of those colors and patterns

4:41

that aren't standard to the breed,

4:45

that you're not propagating that

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through the generations.

4:49

Right? Well, and there is a home

4:49

we have the Appendix Record for horses

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who are non-conforming in the color type.

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Absolutely. Yep. great.

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So when we are having

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people using their Brabant Stock

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horses, let's say I've got one.

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She's 75%. I breed her to a purebred.

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Her offspring is 88%.

5:13

So she just turned two and,

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obviously is now at the age

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where she's eligible for an evaluation

5:18

to become a qualified mare.

5:23

Can you talk a little bit about that?

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Yeah. So qualified mares are Brabant Stock mares

5:31

that are at minimum 87.5% European blood.

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and these horses,

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when mated to a purebred stallion,

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have the capability of producing

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offspring with the blood percentage

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to qualify as purebreds.

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now, before a horse

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will be admitted to the purebred stud book

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from the breed up program,

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they have to pass a breed

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standard evaluation, which is basically,

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a review from trained and qualified

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committee members

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who take a look at that horse and say,

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does this horse reflect the pure bred

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breed type that we're going for?

6:19

so any horse

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that is entering the purebred stud book

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will undergo this evaluation,

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with one exception.

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If an owner has

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what we call a qualified mare,

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so she is 87.5% or greater,

6:33

European doesn't qualify for the purebred

6:39

stud book, but she can undergo

6:39

that breed standard evaluation.

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And if the mare is deemed up to purebred

6:44

breed type,

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she's designated a qualified mare

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and those offspring are out of Purebred

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registered sires can just go straight

6:55

into the purebred stud book without having

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to undergo an additional evaluation.

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it's kind of a way to.

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So say you have, you know,

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let's take your filly, for example.

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she's got her whole life ahead of her.

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So she produces, I don't know, 8 to 10 foals

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in the future,

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rather than putting every single

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one of those foals through the breed

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standard evaluation process.

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You can just have the mare evaluated. And if she is deemed purebred quality,

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that will eliminate

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the need to go through that process

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with every every foal that she produces.

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Now for evaluations,

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whether breed up or through a QM

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evaluation,

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what kind of things are required

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for that process?

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Yeah. So there

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there's a whole page on the website

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dedicated to the breeder program

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and those QM evaluations.

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So anyone who's interested

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should definitely take a look at that

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because that will provide

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a lot of really helpful information.

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But but the short version is,

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you will submit an application

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for a breed standard evaluation,

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which just basically covers

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the details of the mare.

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You know, her, her name,

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her registration number, height, weight,

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any infor background information

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that you want to provide.

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You know, are you sending me a picture

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of a mare that's ten months in foal?

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Because she may, you know,

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there may be some things we know on her

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that wouldn't necessarily be the case

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if she wasn't that pregnant.

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that kind of thing.

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So first, I'll submit the application. And along with that application come

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a set of conformation photos, which are

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basically every side of the horse left view, right view, front, back,

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and a headshot.

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there will be a short video

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where the horses

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just tied or standing,

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and you do a 360 degree walk around.

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So that lets us see some things

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that maybe in a a still image, it's

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hard to capture because that's just one

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split second in time.

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and then in addition to the 360

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walkaround,

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there will be a movement video,

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which is showing the horse

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at a walk and at a trot,

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both from the side

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and then walking and trotting away

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and back.

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And again, the the webpage

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provides a wealth of detail

9:26

and examples of these photos and videos.

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so anyone wanting to do

9:30

it should definitely

9:33

take a look at that,

9:33

because that's really helpful information.

9:37

and then the other key component

9:37

that doesn't necessarily go with the

9:42

evaluation application itself,

9:42

but that does have to be done,

9:47

is, a full color and pattern panel.

9:51

And this gets back to the

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question we had earlier about

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things that would disqualify a horse.

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and if we find any of those

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color genes

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that don't fit with a purebred Brabant

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that would disqualify that, that horse

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from passing the evaluation.

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so all of that information

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can be submitted.

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You submit the application,

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and then we'll send you a link to a folder

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where you can upload the photos

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and videos.

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and really

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the breed standard evaluation

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is looking certainly at confirmation.

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That's a huge part of it. And how the horse reflects,

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the European Brabant standard.

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But we're also taking a look

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at things like movement.

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And does this horse,

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have maybe some of those hitch horse genes

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carried through

10:45

from their Percheron lineage

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and they're moving a little bit too

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high kneed and too much action

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for for breed standard.

10:53

And also looking at temperament.

10:58

Does the horse appear to exhibit the mind

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and the gentleness

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that the breed is known for?

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they're not crazy and flighty

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and taking off.

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So really trying to dig into

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how well this horse reflects

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a purebred European Brabant

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both in their build and in their mind

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and and their character.

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12:00

And now back to the show, do badda da bop

12:03

pop up a dub dub dub dub dub dub.

12:06

Yeah. Now, if somebody is at home thinking,

12:10

I don't know if my horse qualifies

12:14

for either of these because I don't

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know my horse's percentage.

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how do you go about calculating that?

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Is there any tips that you can give

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for people who are listening?

12:25

yeah. Well,

12:26

if your horse is out of registered stock,

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the easiest thing to do is to track down

12:32

the percentage of the parents.

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and just average them. So add those two numbers together

12:40

and divide by two.

12:45

if your horse is, say, Belgian Corp registered and,

12:50

you know, they don't use percentages

12:53

the same way that we do

12:53

as the Brabant registry,

12:56

you are welcome to email me,

13:00

[email protected]

13:00

and provide a copy of that pedigree.

13:05

And I'm happy to help trace back.

13:09

it's not a difficult process,

13:09

but it can be

13:12

a little bit complex just sorting through

13:12

which horses were imported

13:15

and which were, US bred

13:15

and how that plays into their percentages.

13:20

But, yeah, certainly

13:20

if the parents are registered, it's

13:23

very easy to just

13:23

just average those numbers together.

13:26

Okay. those who are members of the EBRA

13:27

have access to Grassroots.

13:31

Is there any quick, down

13:31

and dirty way to ascertain

13:35

a horse's percentage on Grassroots?

13:38

if you go into Grassroots

13:38

and search for the sire

13:44

and the dam, you should be able to click into their record

13:45

and it will show their percentage.

13:48

Well, for anybody who's out there

13:48

who is a member of the EBRA

13:51

and you have access to your grassroots

13:51

system, which is one of the benefits

13:55

you can go on to your profile, click

13:59

on any one of your horses

13:59

and pull up their pedigree.

14:02

You'll be able

14:02

to, to see their registration.

14:07

It is going to also tell you,

14:10

what percentage

14:10

there is on their profile.

14:14

So right now

14:14

I am looking at my little filly,

14:17

Agnes, her sire, which happens to be

14:17

Rebecca's sire or stallion.

14:21

Chris and I'm. I see he's 100% under his listing.

14:27

Now, if you're going to try and do a test,

14:27

a mating feature,

14:32

you can pull up any one of your

14:32

your mares.

14:36

All again, I'll just use Agnes here and,

14:39

then I will search for a male.

14:42

the thing is, within this system,

14:42

within the grassroots system,

14:45

you're going to kind of have to know

14:45

what stallion you're looking for

14:49

to perform a search against, your mare,

14:53

and that will kick out, you know,

14:53

whether they're a good match or not.

14:58

based on overlapping inbreeding that

15:01

Rebecca was talking about,

15:01

because this breed is quite small.

15:04

This feature helps us to avoid certain

15:07

bloodlines that may overlap

15:07

with ones that we have on our farms.

15:11

that said, it's

15:11

not going to spit out a percentage for you

15:16

if you were to pair them,

15:16

so you have to do that

15:19

homework yourself ahead of time.

15:23

Yeah, yeah. Crossing those,

15:26

crossing those two horses

15:29

obviously comes status is 87.5%.

15:32

So that will tell you if the offspring

15:32

would qualify to be a qualified mare.

15:36

And then if you are,

15:36

if you have a qualified mare

15:39

and you're wondering about her offspring,

15:39

you want to just take a look

15:43

and see if the resulting foal

15:43

will be 93.75% or greater.

15:48

if you're wondering

15:48

who is looking at these horses.

15:53

we've recently

15:53

kind of revamped the evaluation program,

15:57

and we have a committee of every members

16:01

who have volunteered

16:01

to be a part of the evaluation committee.

16:04

they've gone through some breed

16:04

standard training that was provided

16:08

for us, from Monique in Belgium,

16:12

who is one of the certified

16:12

judges of the Belgian horses.

16:17

so some pretty in-depth

16:20

discussion there of what

16:20

what constitutes correct confirmation.

16:25

and then some, some training,

16:25

you know, together

16:28

as a group to just make sure everybody's

16:28

kind of on the same page.

16:31

so those that committee

16:31

is the first line of evaluation.

16:36

when you submit that application,

16:36

it will go to three committee members

16:41

who will take a look at it

16:41

on several different parts of the horse.

16:47

You know, we really tried to break it down

16:47

into scoring the head, the neck,

16:50

the the feet and legs, the hindquarters.

16:54

and and assign a, a score to that horse.

16:59

If for some reason a horse does not pass

16:59

the breed's standard evaluation,

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the owner does have the option to apply

17:05

for, well, to.

17:11

Sorry to appeal that decision.

17:13

and apply for an evaluation

17:13

by a breed expert.

17:17

a lot of times we use Monique.

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If she's not available, we have some some

17:19

backup evaluators who can help with that.

17:23

so there is an appeal process

17:23

if if a horse were not to pass.

17:29

one of the most helpful tips

17:29

that I can give folks is,

17:34

you know, the European Brabant

17:34

is a slow maturing breed.

17:39

So obviously, if you're going to breed

17:39

a three year old mare,

17:43

you kind of want to know,

17:43

has she passed this evaluation or not?

17:47

If you're not breeding

17:47

or you're not in a hurry,

17:49

a lot of times just giving that horse

17:49

an extra year or two to really fill out

17:53

and reflect the breed

17:53

standard can really help their scores.

17:59

if you know if they're marginal or don't pass

17:59

the first time, you can wait a year

18:04

or more and and do that evaluation again.

18:08

Yeah, that's a fair point

18:08

I think right in the handbook as well.

18:12

The revision also allocated

18:16

one reevaluation.

18:19

So if your horse is a juvenile,

18:22

let's say you submitted a horse

18:22

that's 24 months or 36 months.

18:27

And, you know, they were right on the line

18:31

but didn't pass the inspection.

18:33

you have the ability to wait one.

18:36

You have to wait at least one full year

18:36

before you can submit

18:41

to have that horse

18:41

reevaluated by the committee.

18:45

You know, that's if you don't want to jump

18:45

to an outside judge, you're more than

18:49

welcome to push your horse

18:49

right up through,

18:53

to the, outside.

18:56

Inspector. But that decision is final.

18:59

So if you give your horse time

18:59

to, to mature,

19:03

whether that's a year or two years. And as Rebecca said,

19:04

it takes so much time for these guys

19:07

to actually fill out, you know,

19:12

then you can have the evaluation committee

19:13

look at them again.

19:16

And of course, at that point,

19:16

you know, given it, you're

19:19

you're going to want to re accomplish

19:19

all the photos and the videos.

19:23

You don't have to redo your DNA

19:23

because that's obviously a one time test,

19:27

but you will have to redo the media

19:31

stuff that goes for the application.

19:34

Correct. If you want to learn more about the breed

19:38

standard evaluations,

19:38

please visit the website.

19:42

Hit europeanbrabant.com/breed-standard-evaluations and that'll

19:42

bring you to the evaluation

19:50

space. Or you just go to the main page.

19:52

Go to that top toolbar under programs.

19:54

You'll see them both listed there.

19:56

If you have any questions,

19:56

feel free to email Rebecca,

20:00

our Registrar

20:00

at [email protected].

20:05

until next time, everybody. I'm Stacy.

20:08

we've been lucky to have Rebecca on

20:08

with her time talking registry.

20:14

And until next time, remember to ride

20:14

a Brabant is to fly without wings.