BY MILOU VAN ENGELAND
PHOTOGRAPHY: DIRK CAREMANS
A preferent mare achieves what every breeder hopes for: passing her quality on to her offspring. She has proven her ability to produce multiple foals with good conformation and aptitude for sport. The fact that fewer than
Predicates make the quality of a mare measurable and therefore form an important tool for breeders. Most predicates say something about the horse’s own aptitude, but the preferent predicate is one of the exceptions. When a mare becomes preferent, it is because her offspring have performed well at inspections. This proves her ability to produce foals with correct conformation and the necessary talent.
To obtain the preferent predicate, three of the mare’s offspring must have earned the ster, keur, or elite predicate, or must have been selected for the second viewing of the KWPN stallion selection. If a stallion has been approved by a KWPN-recognized studbook, this also counts toward his dam’s preferent status. A mare may also be declared preferent posthumously if her offspring achieve these results after she has passed away
More dressage horses
The horses included in these figures and tables are registered in the dressage, jumping, or riding-type breeding directions. The vast majority of preferent mares, nearly 5,500 – or 81% – are registered as riding-type mares. This is explained by the fact that specialization was only introduced in 2006. Mares born in 2006 or later, or those presented at inspections from that point on, were assigned either the dressage or jumping breeding direction. This includes a total of 1,212 mares, of which 777 are registered in the dressage direction and 435 in jumping. Notably, these proportions are the opposite of what we see among prestatie mares.
After the introduction of specialization, more jumping mares than dressage mares have earned the prestatie predicate. Sport and breeding are inseparable and increasingly intertwined, yet this difference suggests that dressage breeders place greater value on inspection results, whereas the emphasis in jumping breeding lies more strongly on sport performance. Additionally, fewer jumping horses than dressage horses are presented at studbook inspections, giving jumping mares fewer opportunities to earn the preferent predicate.
Predicates
What a mare possesses, she can pass on. The preferent predicate therefore rarely stands alone; the vast majority of preferent mares also hold additional predicates. Nearly 92% of preferent mares are recorded in the studbook, while only 1% have never been presented at an inspection. The remaining 7% were entered through the former ZZ predicate, a predecessor of today’s sport predicate. This predicate was awarded to mares competing at ZZ level before the current sport predicate was introduced...
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