By Roberta Milani (Translated by Caroline Padilla) / ABCCH
Photography: Courtesy ABCCH

The Brazilian Association of Showjumping Horse Breeders will be launching a tour iniative and exchange program in 2022. According to previous participants, an exchange trip is a very positive and beneficial experience which not only combines leisure and professional work but also, more importantly, helps engage horse breeders.

With that in mind, the Brazilian Association of Show-Jump Horse Breeders (ABCCH), together with Belgium breeders, has designed the 1st BH Breeders’ Tour to Belgium.

The main objective of the program is to provide BH breeders with an opportunity to live the Belgian breeding experience for 10 days. During this time, they will be able to analyze and understand its processes compared to their own national breeding program, taking into consideration the endeavors in which it has succeeded and those in which it may have failed.
According to ABCCH President Gabriel Khoury, “This will be a great opportunity to interact with the Belgian breeders who are widely recognized for their production of showjumping horses worldwide.”
The tour will include visits to studfarms such as Zangersheide, based in Lanaken; Tom de Craene’s Stal den Bisschop, Melle; the Terryn Family’s Quality Stud, Middelkerke-Slijpe; the Overis Studfarm of Gerald Lenaerts in Peer; and Stal De Muze in Sint-Niklaas, the home of Joris de Brabander.
ABCCH will be in charge of the logistics involving the visits and the trip, which will take place in April 2022 with a limited number of eight partici-pants.
Khoury continued to explain; “Exchange pro-grams have the potential to transform realities, providing great changes to our understanding and composition as horse breeders, whose complexities are increased day-by-day. Therefore, to all who long to get to know new cultures and share experiences in this enchanting horse environment, my advice is that you be willing to interact and learn in detail all that is to be shared. The main objective is to increasingly foment the enhancement of the national breeding in Brazil.”
So as to encourage breeders to participate in the Brazilian Show-Jump Horse Exhibition, which will take place in November 2021 at Clube Hípico de Santo Amaro, in São Paulo, vacancies to join the exchange program will preferably be given to those who attend the Festival, according to regulations.