Tom Best in Scottish Horse: Blair excels and ponies assessed

Well, really? Is it not the case that horses simply live for food, water, shelter from extremes of weather and do what most living things do which is to reproduce a further generation in order to secure its future? As for living for the cross-country phases of events, how delusional is this?

I have yet to find any scientific article let alone proof that sets out the case for what horses think about things although the behaviourists will align certain observed actions and behaviours of the horse to their attitudes towards specific things and situations. You don't have to be a scientist to do that.

Let's face it, we all have our own observations which will back this up; we know what our horses do and don't like and how they react accordingly. We also know from experience that not liking something doesn't necessarily mean that a horse won't go along with it although equally we all have our stories to tell about situations when there is an outright refusal.

So, as for 'horses that live for the cross-country,' who's kidding who? That said, I'd be the first to acknowledge that some horses perform better across country than others and that's down to a whole load of things, not least of which are temperament, conformation, fitness and training.

There is no doubt in my mind that there is a very strong bond between the horse and rider, so much so that the horse seems prepared to go to extreme measures in order to either please the rider or programmed to compete totally unaware of the potential dangers which belie them both on the cross-country course.

Is the rider aware of the potential dangers implicated in a disastrous attempt to jump a cavernous spread on the cross-country – well, yes, the rider is. And what about the horse – well, of course, it doesn't.

This comes home to me annually as I wander around the cross-country course at the famous Land Rover Blair Castle Horse Trials, which were held recently at its ancestral home in Perthshire.

The contrast between the dozens of fences situated on the valley floor over-looked by the castle contrasts greatly with those set high on the hill alongside and above it. It appears that the specialist eventers rate very highly the venue as the fitness of their horses is tested in equal measure to their ability over the challenging course of jumps in a way seldom experienced in Britain.

While there is no doubt that Blair attracts some of the most successful names in the eventing world, the huge entries in the 'grass roots' classes over less severe but still substantial courses, proves that there is an attraction to compete at every level.

Like almost every one of the 40,000 people who attend Blair annually, I love it for all sorts of reasons, not least of which is the way it celebrates equestrianism in Scotland across the board.

It is no surprise that it has become a Mecca for many Scottish competitors, who literally travel the length and breadth of the country to take part. For many, it has become their Horse of the Year Show – what's not to like about that?

For visitors, there is an option to spend time on the cross-country course, spectate at the dressage and show jumping arenas, watch the variety of showing classes over the four days, look round the tented village of shops or simply take in the atmosphere of this picturesque venue. With competitive and varied pricing of tickets, parking and camping for the event, the organisers have a keen eye on their customers and pull out the stops to please.

Nevertheless, I would offer a word of caution to them. As important as the trials side of this event is, there is no place for complacency as all the activities on offer during the four days of the event are inter-reliant, as proven by good spectator numbers at the side of the non-trials related arenas.

Behind the scenes, there is an apparent lack of organisation backing up the activities in the five subsidiary arenas and the need for an experienced show manager to over-see them is obvious.

Given that all spectators walk past these arenas via the main entrance on their way to the cross country course as well as the shopping experience, which many come to enjoy, the organisers are missing a trick if they don't optimise on the delivery of the activities taking place there.

While the top class riders receive much of the attention at Blair, for others the horses hold centre stage. There is a real focus on British-bred competition horses nowadays and Scotland, while a bit slow to start, is now holding its own thanks to a small number of dedicated breeders.

It goes without saying the continental Europe remains the dominant producer of competition horses, a fact not lost on the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) which has sought to extend and improve its equine development programme through the formation of a new organisation operating under the name of British Breeding.

With a mission, 'to support British breeding and help it thrive and grow,' it is the organisation's intention to increase participation in sports horse breeding and foster stronger links between breeding and the sport.

I came across this organisation via an excellent and free post-Covid on-line service during the winter, which focused on all areas of breeding and delivered by some of the leading authorities in the country. The other activities which are run under the British Breeding banner include a stallion show, a magazine with sports horse and pony breeding as its focus, young stock evaluations known as Futurity and the Equine Bridge, an annual two day 'performance test' style event.

The latter is open to horses and ponies aged four to six years which have completed a British Breeding Futurity evaluation as a three, four or five-year-old and achieved a score of eight or above, as well as demonstrated a level of ridden competence. With substantial training prizes on offer, it provides opportunities and support for the equines as they move into the sport.

According to its literature, the British Breeding boasts a ' world-leading evaluation series for foals and youngstock' through its Futurity Evaluation programme, which this year has been held in eight venues across the length and breadth of Britain during August and September.

Thanks to the generous support of Baileys Horse Feeds and working in close collaboration with British Showjumping, which assists with the running of the series, British Breeding held its Scottish leg at the Scottish National Equestrian Centre, at Oatridge, on August 29.

The day was well organised by British Showjumping's Scotland area development officer, Lucy Moss, with the evaluation split into two – the first a soundness assessment conducted by a vet followed by a frame/movement assessment carried out by four evaluators based on conformation and movement at walk trot and canter.

During both phases, there was an extensive and complicated set of criteria outlined, which had to be assessed and graded on a scale of 0-10 with the latter being the perfect score.

Coming to it for the first time, I found it hard work to get into the mind-set of the grading let alone the way in which final scores were calculated. Suffice to say that 32 frame/movement scores along with 23 soundness scores magically led to a score out of 10 and, better still, exact to three decimal places – any score 9 and over was graded Elite; 8-9, Gold; 7-8 Silver; and 6-7, Bronze.

From a technical point of view, in order to maintain a set standard across all Futurity Evaluations, I'd be interested to know what training has gone into the assessment process as well as who assesses the assessors.

From the seven evaluation dates up to and including SNEC, 118 foals were graded, 10 of which gained Elite status, 82 gained Gold and 26 Silver. At SNEC, no Elite foals (according to the assessors) were presented, however there were seven awarded Gold and a further five Silver.

While the scores of all the horses and ponies presented were given orally by the assessors on the day, full details can be found on the British Breeding website. From a spectator's point of view, it would have been really interesting if a commentary on the proceedings had been given by the assessors to explain their thoughts at each stage, however, with only five people in attendance for the afternoon session, it may have seemed hardly worth the trouble.

I found the process interesting and consider it an opportunity missed for anyone interested in horses let alone those with a special interest in breeding for performance. In this respect, there is surely a lesson here for British Breeding's PR machine, which needs to get its message out to a wider equestrian audience.

Ironically, there is nothing to be found about the Futurity Evaluations on the news pages of its major supporters, British Showjumping, British Eventing and British Dressage, which, in itself, sends out a message about the real interest in breeding our own competition horses and ponies in Britain despite the best intentions of British Breeding and the BEF.