By Jean Llewellyn
Photography: Sarah King
Canadian Warmblood founding Chairman Chris Gould was recently added to the list of Honorary Members of the WBFSH during their 2022 General Assembly hgeld in Dresden, Germany, from October 9-12.
A member of the WBFSH Board for six years and one of the longest-running attendees, Chris joins a dozen others; founding members and long serving directors. BN spoke to him shortly after his return to Canada.
Q This is a significant honour. How did you react when you first heard your name?
It was towards the end of the Gala Dinner and as President Jan Pederson started to speak I was shocked to hear my name. I was deeply moved and completely surprised. I really cannot thank them enough for this honour.
Q You attended your first meeting in 1997, just three years after the WBFSH was formally established. What changes have you seen since then?
Several things have changed, but before I talk about that I would like to mention what has not changed, and that is the collegial atmosphere of cooperation and welcome. From the very beginning I and the CWHBA were treated with respect as equal members. Remember we were a new studbook and the first full member from North America, so to feel so welcome was a real boost. And that atmosphere persists to today. Going from 25 members to around 80 has not changed that.
But what has changed? A lot has changed in our industry with implications for how our studbooks operate. For one thing studbooks now have to compete for customers, where-as previously they had members drawn from geographic jurisdictions.
The WBFSH has moved from a friendly sponsor of Young Horse Championships and breeder awards, to a very proactive organ-ization working on behalf of the breeders. Projects such as the very successful UELN initiative and building a strong working relat-ionship with the FEI. It is truly the best forum for discussions of imp-ortance to the sport horse industry and for developing policy... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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