By Jo de Roo
Photography: Jo de Roo

Unlike last year, 2022 saw the SBS stallion expertise resume it’s International Selection Show when 29 showjumping, three dressage, and one pony stallion (driving option) were licensed. Many of those licensed were influenced by similar familial bloodlines.

Cornet Obolensky/ex Windows van het Costersveld, Diamant de Semilly, Nabab de Rêve, Ogano Sitte and Kannan were all very present – more about that later in this article. Following the expertise we interviewed Marc Pierson and Daniël Maillart.

Q I can imagine that you and the SBS team are very satisfied with the fact that the stallion expertise could take place this year?
MP: Absolutely. We have worked in very special and exceptional circumstances. At the time of finalizing the program we were still in a very strict sanitary regime. This regime became systematically freer. In the end we were able to organize our stallion inspection under acceptable conditions. We made a few last-minute changes, with regard to checks, for example, but the expertise was allowed to go ahead and that was important. Generally speaking, the stallion expertise went well from an organizational point of view. There was also a lot of quality, which we noticed in the number of approved stallions, 33 to be exact.
With regard to the four-year-old showjumping candidates, the owners could choose between entering their stallion in free jumping or showing him under saddle. It was the first time in the history of our inspection that this choice could be made.

Q The assessment on the hard surface was done outside by a few judges, while five other judges simultaneously judged the stallions inside the arena. Is Covid-19 related to this way of working?
MP: Initially, we aimed for each stallion to arrive and leave half an hour later. After all, both the stallions and the persons present were not allowed to cross each other. It was of course not possible that the jury had to go from inside to outside for every stallion and vice versa. The only solution was to deploy a second group of judges, specifically for the assessment on the hard surface. At the same time, it was an opportunity for us to launch some new jury members. They have done their job very well. It is not certain whether we will keep this formula in the future. In the past, the stallions were judged one-by-one on the hard surface and then one-by-one on conformation. In other words, we never did two parts of the expertise at the same time. Moreover, there was only one team of judges. Integrating a maximum of number of jury members will remain our aim. However, it is not said that we will always work with two groups of jury members in the future... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

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