REPORT MADE AT 2009 WAHO CONFERENCE:

My name is Sylvie Eberhardt, I am the German delegate for this Conference and I am today standing in for the Chairman of the German Arab Horse Society Mr. Wolfgang Eberhardt, and our General Secretary, Mr. Dieter Von Kleist. I also bring you greetings from all the breeders and owners in Germany.

Before I inform you about the statistics of the purebred Arabian horse breeding in Germany, first let me tell you that we have just finished our new German Arabian Stud Book for purebred Arabian horses, this Volume includes the breeding stock of the Main and State Stud farm Marbach, and the horses bred in Luxembourg. It covers the period 1999-2006, including the registered foals until 2008.

At the end of 2008 we had a total number of 2,771 Society members. We registered 1,090 purebred Arabian foals in 2008, with 1,592 breeding mares and 627 breeding stallions. As reasons for the reasons for the decrease of breeding mares and stallions over the last 3 years, we assume not only the age factor but also the market situation. On the other hand, we can take the increase of registered foals in 2008 as a positive development due to the promotion strategy of our Society. In 2008 we registered 100 imported purebred Arabian horses and exported 307. The increase of imports and decrease of exports over the last 3 years reflects healthier breeding policies.

Based on the experiences of our Sub-Commissions, which are organizing plenty of different activities around the purebred Arabian horse, we have to lift up the estimated number of living purebred Arabian horses in Germany in 2008 to about 25,000. DNA is used for parent verification. The use of microchipping is currently optional. We allow 5 foals per mare per year by Embryo Transfer. In the last weekend of September each year, the German Arab Horse Society organizes the famous All Nations Cups Show at Aachen. Since 2006, this has been held together with the German National Championships Show. The awarding of the WAHO Trophy is a very important part of the All Nations Cup. This important event weekend is followed by our Stallion Show, also held at Aachen.

The German Arab Horse Society organizes two riding competitions, one at Strohen and one at Aachen on the occasion of the All Nations Cup. These competitions offer classes for dressage and showjumping and both saw an increase in the number of riders and horses in 2008. In Strohen for example there were 87 horses, and 90 at Aachen. In 2008 we also had 6 ECAHO halter shows of different levels organized by private persons.

For racing, we have the German Society for Arabian Horse Racing, they work in cooperation with our Society but organize and run the racing independently from us. For endurance riding, there is the German Society for Endurance Riding and Racing, this Society controls the organization of endurance rides and administers all the results. There are between 120 and 150 endurance rides in Germany each year. Thanks to the fact that in every region of Germany, Sub-Commissions of our German Arab Horse Society are organizing breeders’ seminars, breeding and riding competitions, endurance riding, western riding, dressage, showjumping, and cross-country events, we have a lot of activities for purebred Arabian horses. The goal of the Board of our German Arab Horse Society is to educate our breeders, and by demonstrating the various possibilities to use the Arabian horse to open new markets for the breed in our country. The tools are the original Sub-Commissions and the activities. For more detailed information, please visit our website, www.vzap.org . This was the report of the German Arab Horse Society. Thank you so much for your attention.

REPORT MADE AT 2007 WAHO CONFERENCE:

In April 2007 we had a new election of our Society’s Board, now Mr. Wolfgang Eberhardt is the Chairman of the German Arab Horse Society, and Mr. Dieter Von Kleist is our General Secretary. The office of the German Arab Horse Society is still located in Hanover. Our Society registers purebred Arabian horses, Shagyas, Anglo-Arabs and Partbred Arabs. Our Society also registers the Arabian horses kept in Marbach main and State Stud Farm, and those in Luxembourg. Therefore these horses are also included in our statistics.

At the end of 2006 we had a total number of 2,983 Society members, divided into 1,559 active members and 1,424 non-active members. In 2006 we registered 1,007 purebred Arabian foals. We had 1,787 purebred mares and 769 purebred stallions were registered for breeding, of those purebred mares 1,647 were covered by purebred Arabian stallions. The main and State Stud Marbach owns 25 purebred mares and 6 purebred stallions and in the year 2006 we registered 10 foals for them. These horses are also included in the total amount as I mentioned before. The foal registrations have dropped by 48% during the past 11 years, comparing to the year 1995 when the maximum number of foals we ever registered in our Society totalled 1,959. Our mares are mostly covered by natural service, but Artificial Insemination via fresh, chilled, or frozen semen, both domestic and imported, is allowed, as well as Embryo transfer. In the year 2006 only two studs were interested in Embryo transfer but no foal was actually born or produced by Embryo transfer.

In the year 2006 we imported only 62 purebred Arabians, mostly from Italy, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. On the other hand we had the extremely high number of 476 exported horses, mainly to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Belgium. I can tell you that we have already 142 exported purebred Arabian horses for the first 3 months in 2007. At first, this seems to be good but it only reflects the difficult market situation for purebred Arabian horses and also the common financial and economic situation in Germany. The number of living purebred Arabian horses is still estimated at about 15,000. The last hard-covered printed stud book we published was volume number 6/7, which included all mares and stallions up to 1998 and their purebred Arabian foals. We do not consider to produce a printed stud book any more, but we have produced a CDRom in September 2002, which contains all purebred Arabian horses we have ever registered since our Society was founded and we plan an update soon, at the end of 2007.

We still organize our Stallion Show at Aachen each year in October, where any stallions which the owner would like to have entered for breeding are presented for identity verification, re-taking samples for DNA, SCID testing and measurements such as height, depth of birth, and cannon bone circumference. Since the year 2003 we changed the method of parent verification completely from blood-typing to DNA. Since 1998 we have issued passports for all foals and since July 2000 the EU has required us to issue passports for all horses born before 1998. We issue two documents, the passport plus the document of ownership. We also have a computerized database for registered Arabians.

Since 1999 we developed an Elite Broodmare and Stallion scheme, not only to acknowledge and honour Arabian mares and stallions of particular significance but also to provide as much information as possible for the breeders and to help them with their planning and breeding decisions. Further information as well as the Elite Mare and Stallions can be found on the homepage of our website, www.vzap.com

The principal activities for purebred Arabians in Germany are breeding, showing, endurance riding, racing, dressage, showjumping and cross-country as well as western riding and of course just pleasure riding. In the last weekend of September each year the German Arab Horse Society organizes the All Nations Cup Show at Aachen, always in co-operation with the All Nations Cup Committee.