Member Report from Zimbabwe
REPORT MADE AT THE 2025 WAHO CONFERENCE
Matt Harwin, Zimbabwe: Mr. President, Executive Committee, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Matt Harwin and together with my mother, Bridget, we are the President and Vice-President of the Arab Horse Society of Zimbabwe. I would like to start by firstly extending our utmost gratitude to our generous hosts, the Emirates Arabian Horse Society and His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who have made it possible for us to be here in person. This is the first time in over two decades that Zimbabwe has been able to send Delegates to attend the Conference. Abu Dhabi has historical significance for us, as Zimbabwe obtained full WAHO membership 29 years ago at the WAHO Conference held here in the Emirates in 1996.
Our Arabian Society was first established in 1980 and lapsed in the early 2000’s and was reinstated in 2022. Our Arabian Society is incredibly small with only 4 active members in total, and 3 of these being registered breeders. With the fluctuating economic situation in the country, financial survival at times is difficult for us, however funds generated from membership renewals and registrations is what contributes to our survival.
Since the last Conference in 2022, our Society has registered a total of 18 locally born foals, Whilst a total of 15 horses have been imported from South Africa and Namibia and 1 horse has been exported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aside from our local community, we act as the Caretaker registry for the Arabians in Lesotho and Botswana. At present, there is now only 1 active breeder in Botswana, and we are currently working on processing registration applications for 7 of these Botswana born foals. Lesotho is yet to register their first purebred foals with us as they face geographical and language barrier challenges. Last year, we published the 4th volume of our studbook and are presently accepting applications for foals for our 5th volume, in which we also hope to include the first few Botswana-born foals. At present, we do not have an online studbook database due to financial restrictions and our studbooks are distributed in PDF format.
Our nearest ISAG approved member laboratory is in South Africa which means all our DNA samples have to be shipped to South Africa for processing. Breeders are permitted to use artificial insemination and embryo transfer as breeding methods in line with WAHO and local government guidelines. Per our constitution, 1 embryo transfer foal is allowed per mare per year. Although it is an approved breeding method, advances in embryo transfer technology are relatively new in the country and are costly to the average breeder, and we are yet to have an Arabian foal born locally as a result of this method.
Arabians participate in a variety of sporting disciplines locally, with dressage and show jumping being the more popular. To encourage Arabians as ridden horses, in 2024 we introduced an ‘Arabian Sport Horse’ trophy which is awarded to a horse, purebred or derivative, that the committee deems to be an ideal ridden ambassador for the breed in the country.
In April 2024 we held our first ever Zimbabwean National Arabian Championships in approximately 20 years, and we now aim to host it annually. The event had halter, ridden and liberty classes that were judged by international judges, and was organized as part of our showing coalition with the Arab Horse Breeders Society of Namibia, with whom we have built a very great and special friendship. This year’s National Championships are scheduled to be held in July in partnership again with Namibia. Since the resurrection of our Arabian Society in 2022, we have awarded the prestigious WAHO trophy on an annual basis and shall continue to do so. Perhaps our biggest claim to fame is the fact that the World Champion mare, Tehama Ballalina, was born and bred in Zimbabwe, who now resides at a stud farm not too far away from Abu Dhabi.
In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks to WAHO for all their support throughout the years, specifically in the past when our membership was effectively dormant due to our economic struggles, and more recently since becoming fully active members once more, of which we are incredibly proud. I would also like to make a special heartfelt thank you to your incredible Executive Secretary, Kina Murray, for all her efforts with correspondence and continued helpful advice and always being there to support us in any way she can. Thank you all for your time.
2022 REPORT
Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings from the President and Committee of the Arab Horse Society of Zimbabwe. My sincerest apologies for not being able to present this report in person. My name is Matthew Harwin and I am the President and current serving secretary of the Arab Horse Society of Zimbabwe. As you know our society originally collapsed in the early 2000s due to Zimbabwe’s troubled political and economic history and our membership effectively became dormant. Many breeders immigrated to neighboring African countries, particularly South Africa with their horses or had no choice but to sell and disband their breeding programs. A handful of breeders remained and were able to continue breeding although on an extremely limited scale without the help and support of a fully functioning society, as a result purebred horses born after 2004 were effectively left unregistered up until this year. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincerest gratitude to WAHO for all your continued support and understanding of our situation throughout the last two decades.
In January 2022, local breeders grouped together and began the process of re-establishing our society and renewing our membership with WAHO. We are delighted to be fully active members of WAHO once again and look forward to what lies ahead in the future. We have had a backlog of registrations and administrative work dating back to 2004 for us to complete this year. The second volume of our studbook was left in draft format for approximately 20 years which includes horses born between 1996 and 2004 and was only officially completed and handed over to WAHO in April 2022. Our third volume is presently being drafted and expected to be submitted in November 2022. From a registration perspective, we have registered a total of 32 horses so far this year, many of these were born in the late 2000s and 2010s that were previously unable to be registered due to our society being non-operational at the time. The 2022/ 2023 foaling season will be our largest in recent years which we look forward to. DNA analysis is difficult for us as we have to ship all samples in bulk to South Africa for testing as we do not have an ISAG approved laboratory in Zimbabwe. We have a small membership of just under 20 individuals with 4 of them being ‘registered breeders’, 2 ‘honorary life members’ and the remainder being ‘associate’ or ‘friendship’ members. Presently we have just over 48 living purebred Arabians in the country, with 14 of them being breeding stallions, 28 mares and the remainder being geldings. Given our close proximity to South Africa, breeders continue to take advantage of this and import horses directly from there. Later this year we are expecting our first ever import direct from the UAE. So far, one purebred has been imported this year into Zimbabwe with more to be expected. Artificial Insemination and embryo transfer are permitted in line with local government guidelines.
As of May 2022, we have been granted permission to be the caretakers of and register all purebred Arabians born in Lesotho into our studbook. Lesotho breeders are required to become members of our society as well as abide by all our rules and regulations in line with WAHO.
At present we do not have any purebred Arabian shows as we used to, but we plan on hosting two a year starting in 2023 with international judges being invited to judge. In terms of bloodlines, we have some of the finest bloodlines in the world in our horses both old fashioned and modern. Arabians are popular in dressage, show jumping and endurance in Zimbabwe and prove to hold their own in competition against heavier warmbloods. Aside from our purebred studbook, we have 3 derivative ‘herdbooks’ for Anglo Arabians, Partbred Arabians and Arabian Warmbloods which horses are recorded into depending on which category they fit into.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank your incredible secretary, Katrina Murray for all her efforts with correspondence and continued helpful advice over the course of this year in guiding me in not only publishing studbooks but also on how to run our society effectively, I feel as though her and I have established a valuable personal link between Zimbabwe and WAHO.
PREVIOUS REPORT
Zimbabwe has a small Registry, which has been badly affected by the economic hardships and general difficult situation in the country. Several Arabian owners and breeders have emigrated with their horses, others have sent their horses to South Africa for safe keeping. Normally the Society used to hold 2 shows per year, and Arabians were used mainly for showing, dressage, endurance and for improving riding stock.
