So Many Firsts : International Young Breeder World Championship Austria
The first time you experience something you become overwhelmed with excitement that compares to nothing else. Even something very mundane is thrilling for the first time you do or witness it. I had so many of those moments the past week that my hands are still trembling from adrenaline.
Before I go over my trip I want to give you some info on what the Young Breeder program is. On a international scale “Dr. Ludwig Christman wanted to involve the youth more intensively in breeding matters.” “The ideas about the International Young Breeders Competitions are to bring young breeders together across breeding associations, countries, and languages. They are going to compete in five disciplines, but above all, the aim is to get together, make new friends, and create new contacts. This overall aim already seems to be fulfilled.” Taken from the IYB website on history. For more information this is their website.
On a national level there are breeding “clubs” of each region or registry in Germany and other European countries. Which was hard for me to understand having not known the Europe culture just yet. But after talking with the teams during the competition it is relateable to the USA on how we have different breed registries that put on competitions and education to promote their breed. However the “warmbloods” are more specific as to they are sporthorse focused. By that I mean we have the AQHA, AHA, APHA, AMHA and other breed registries that have competitions and breeding classes. But they are not sporthorse focused but more specific to their exact bred type. They offer sporthorse classes but the breed themselves aren’t “warmbloods” so I was confused. Because from my understanding our warmblood registries here in america use the sports like USDF, ASHJA, USEA and others to hold the competitions then the breed registry recognizes performance and gives such awards at the annual meetings. We have to do things differently than in Europe because of so many factors. The main two are, firstly we are so much more spread out here in America, secondly husbandry and equestrian sport is not so readily known by the public and what they do know is western events…our CULTURE. Europe has cultural festivals where they have equestrian demonstrations; we have rodeos!
However to promote breeding our sports and breed associations and been creating opportunities; for example the USDF Young breeder program and the young horse classes and breed shows. The American Hanoverian Association runs a young clinic/camp every year in addition to the annual meeting where they educate and recruit new future breeders and handlers. AHS was also the organization that prepared and sent our team to Austria for the World Championships. The goal of these young breeder programs is to promote breeding for the next generation through education, connections and competitions.
THE TRIP
Our Hanoverian young breeder team was to travel as a group from Detroit to Munich and then caravan in 2 vans to our competition site Pferdezentrum Stadl-Paura. Unfortunately the airplane gods had a different plan for me. My connection form home to Detroit had a flat tire and then my rescheduled flight had a delay then lastly the airline sold my international flight to someone else. So I arrived 24 hours late…the day of the competition. I have never been to Europe before and so began all my first!!!! Never wear Texas style bling jeans you will feel every sparkle on that 9 hour flight.
From Munich I rented a car and drove on “motor ways” and took “ausfharts” to get to Stadl-Paura. When landed the competition had already began and they were taking the written portion that I was able to make up later. However in the late morning the free jumping was scheduled and I really wanted to make it. So there was no time to site see but had to book it. I still think it is crazy that with an american drivers license they let you drive over there. I normally drive a dually so I am used to my vehicle barley fitting in the lanes. But I rented an imported Ford focus and there were centimeters of wiggle room. Then the speedometer was in metric which made you feel like you were going so fast. The red target signs with numbers, which I guessed where speed limits, would say things like 100 and above, which was only about 62 miles per hour, as people went double in the lane next to you. I secretly loved it hehehe…I was living a Top Gear episode it felt like. When I got to the boarder for Austria I needed to stop at a gas station to get a toll road sticker for the car and use the restroom. Strangest thing to an american happened. I had to pay 70ct for the restroom! There was a line for it and people’s faces who watched me attempt to wave my credit card in front of the machine was priceless!! When I went inside to purchase the toll sticker they were able to give me change for my euros so I could use the restroom.
When I arrived at the competition at about 1pm, I had already missed the jumping, but just in the nick of time for the conformation. At this point I had been traveling for the past 48 hours and just drove 3 hours though Germany and Austria all by myself. I was so relieved and dazed to have finally arrived.
The Competition
The competition was held at a beautiful equestrian center. What Pferdezentrum Stadl-Paura exactly is could be lost in translation by me but my understandably is that it is a equestrian/agricultural collage and competition center for horse and cultural shows. As well as used to be the state run stud farm for the national horses but that portion in now privately run. They had the main indoor competition ring with grandstands and concessions. With several more adjacent indoors and outdoor arenas all with the top of line footing . A huge outdoor where we did the conformation and in hand judging. And what looked to be a cross country and carriage driving course in the back. The stables were beautiful authentic structures and a stallion station.
The sportsmanship fair play award was a chocolate cake!
The Conformation phase was in the large outdoor where they had 2 triangles set up. One for the junior team and one for the senior. There were 4 judges. 2 judges per team. One person from each team was to stand in each corner of a triangle as the horse was presented around us. However there are 4 participants. That was confusing because they kept ordering us in German to do the impossible. Our score sheet is shown below and the goal is to match our marks to what the judges give. So to calibrate ourselves to the judging we get to see two demo prejudgment horses where we score them and then the judge tells us their scores. Then the graded portion is where we get 3 horses to grade privately with out any discussion and they score us biased on how close we were to the judges scores. Each portion of the horse and gaits gets a score but what to look for and what is ideal vs a major fault takes many years of training to identify. You must have a quick judging technique and be able to weight what you know to what is expected by the organization you are grading for. My technique is a formula derived from what I learned in the L program and judging clinics plus the USDF young breeder seminars in addition to the Hanoverian breed standards. Also hearing judges give marks and comments at inspections. There is kind of a secret question I have always had as to why we only seem to utilize the top portion of the scale…6 and above. That was NOT the case in Austria. They were not afraid to give a horse a 5 for major faults. But they were lenient on more aesthetic things like femininity, head and top line fat. I literally adjusted my scores mentally by 1.5 to have my eye match what we are told here in the US. Which paid off!!! I placed 12th in the World championships.
All the teams gathered around the prejudgment horse…what a saint!
score sheet example
The Turnout phase is where as a team with groom the horse to our best ability for an allotted amount of time. You pray that the horse you were given didn’t sleep in its urine the night before. Us 4 seniors knew each other’s strengths. Michaela was can do a speedy tight tail braid coming from the hunter world. Anna and Michaela having worked for some big names knew some handy grooming techniques combed the american flag on the haunches with team help. I did the mane’s dressage braids. Thomas’s eye for detail brushed and baby whipped the mare till she gleamed. He is also the most charismatic of the group so we voted for him to be our presenter.
Our team Thomas, Erin, Anna and Michaela presenting our horse for the Turnout phase
The tail braid and American flags
A close up of the art!
The In Hand phase was held the next day and was in the same arena. The format was that you are given a randomly selected horse from the event organizers and information about the horse you have to memorize and present back to the judge. You only have 15 minutes before your time in front of the judge to get to get to know your horse.You enter the ring at a walk and make your way around the triangle before halting in front of the judge in an open stance and giving your speech. Mine was “Hello! My name is Erin Altman representing The American Hanoverian Society presenting Sarah Noel, a 13 year old warmblood mare, by Quidam de Revel out of a Samba mare.” In theory you are supposed to list the breed an the dam however those were not provided to me. I honestly find talking a root memorized statement very hard. So that is what practiced the most. Then you proceed walking on a straight line away from the judge and back to them. From there you pick up the trot away, along the back, and back to the judge in a way where they can see the straightness and movement of the horse to it’s best ability. I was very lucky to have been given a confident good moving horse to present. We had one misstep where she trotted out of our halt instead of walked but that was alright because we recovered quickly and received 9s and 10s for our other movements. I was given a 94% and placed 10th in the World Championships against 71 other top handlers in the world.
Erin trotting with Sarah Noel
The breeder of one of the horses we used for the in hand phase was so proud he asked for a picture with the whole team! You can see him in red in the back.
The Social experience comes in number one for me for my highest ranked “first experience”. EVERYTHING was in German. The 3 words I will never forget are. Ausfarht (exit), Pferd (horse) and Verboten (forbidden) for some reason… maybe because it was written on gates I wanted to walk though lol. Also we bonded with the Irish, Canadian, Swedish and French team because we didn’t know German and we were united in our confusion of directions. Body language is universal and I know how to listen to that thanks to horses. Dancing is universal. Everyone loves to learn new moves. The boot scoot’en boogie is not for beginners…Apparently the chicken dance is very popular?! Germans like loud music…and don’t need sleep or air-conditioning. They just need beer, cigarettes and bread to kick ass. We lived in a dorm while we were there. Each team had a room in a 3 story building. It was very clean and modern besides the lack of AC and tiny widows without air circulation. The German teams carried a boom box around with them and played German techno and pop music at max volume till 5am then woke you at 6am with a conga line for breakfast. Which was AMAZING! The bread and milk was so rich! There are seeds or grains idk on everything so delicious! NO plastic bottles was so nice! Everything glass. However they only drink mineral water that is carbonated… I guess it is never hot enough there to need normal water because you are dying of thirst. I didn’t get the chance to figure that one out yet.
The landscape and culture of Austria is breathtaking. Literally the air is so pure in the mountains and water is ice cold from the rivers. On Sunday the air rang with the sound of bells every 30 minutes. The old and the knew matched. There were buildings dated back hundreds of years next to brand new ones. We got to go swimming at a local spot in the Traun river. Ride in a boat that was pulled by horses which has been done since the 10th century to bring salt down from the mountains. Go on a carriage ride through a ancient town to a trolley that took us up to the top of a mountain where we hiked!
our boat ride
Beautify old building with a sign on the door Verboten
Long beautiful trolley ride
Hiked to a top
Picturesque