A horse breeder in Yorkshire has created a new type of competition horse that she eventually hopes to register as a new breed in Britain.
Sue Wilkinson from Ayton Hall Farm Stud founded her “Zafran” bloodline using an Iberian stallion imported from Andalusia eight years ago. The stallion covered two mares with predominantly Anglo-Arab and thoroughbred blood.
Now she is in talks with Defra about registering a new breed and establishing a stud book.
Mrs Wilkinson consulted a number of experts on breeding specifically for performance.
From her founding trio, there are now eight youngsters.
“As long as we have something else no one has bred, we can register as a new breed,” she explained.
“Defra has said we can open a stud book, but we can’t become a passport issuing authority [PIO] until we have 17 stallions and 50 mares.
“If we registered with passports from PetID or a similar PIO we couldn’t at this stage record the breeding data, so it would defeat the object.”
The Zafrans are currently passported by Weatherbys.
A Defra spokesman said: “Anyone wishing to register a new breed must email the horse passports team requesting a recognition pack.”
They added that once all criteria was fulfilled and documents completed, an independent adviser would investigate and a decision on whether or not to grant approval would be made.
• Visit: www.zafranhorses.com
This article was first published in Horse & Hound (11 June, ’09)
