Reviewing last year's DSHB awards.

From time to time, I like to look at competition statistics. Who knows why, it just interests me. What I'm doing today is looking at the final breeding competition scores for 2011. These are DSHB scores from the United States Dressage Federation's official website. There are five categories: This Year's  Foal, Yearling, 2-Year-Old, 3-Year-Old, and Mature Horse. What I was interested in was how many horses of each age were able to complete the 3-score minimum for the year. Here's what I found, along with the high and low median scores for each category.

Current Year Colt                    17 (84.1-66.5)

Current Year Filly                    10 (81.4-74.4)

Yearling Colt                            28 (83.8-70.4)

Yearling Filly                            26 (81.3-68.9)

2-Year-Old Colt                      23 (78.3-68.8)

2-Year-Old Filly                      32 (81.7-66.4)

3-Year-Old Colt                      20 (81.4-67.9)

3-Year-Old Filly                      23 (84.1-68.7)

Mature Stallion                        10 (80.3-69.1)

Mature Bred Mare                   7 (78.0-70.75

Mature Yeld Mare                   21 (80.9-66.9)

First of all, we need to understand that the primary reason for showing in breed competitions is to make a sale. The owners are trying to sell the foals themselves or breedings to their sires. That's why it is surprising to see so few Current-Year foals and so few Stallions in these results. Perhaps a lot of people simply couldn't afford to breed much in the bad economy, or couldn't afford to come to shows even if they did breed. Yet Yearlings and 2-Year-Olds are harder to handle than weanlings, although they no longer have to travel with their mothers. Hmm, hmm, hmmmmm.

I guess the most valid result I can get from this list is that you can't come to many conclusions from studying a single year. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to pull up the final scores for any other year. I did have a specific question when I started out, though. If we end up showing our colt Freester as a Yearling, how much competition will he have? Answer: a lot.

Bring it on!

Freester: finally footloose!

Becoming the DSHB Horse of the Year Reserve Champion wasn't as easy for Freester as it may have been for other colts. You see, Freester fractured a long pastern bone when he was only a couple of days old. We have no idea how it happened, although it is possible that Dazzler--a first-time mom--stepped on one of Freester's super-long legs in the stall. The next few months were harrowing for my wife and me, what with a cast, stall rest, bandaging, and everything else.

You can read about this experience in the latest issue of Warmbloods Today (the January-February, 2012 issue). Check out the issue. The article on Freester begins on page 38.

Reserve Champion Horse of the Year

The 2011 Season was a good one for Black Bay Farm, located in the Florida Panhandle. Our weanling colt, Freester (Fabayoso/Dazzler) earned the Reserve Champion USDF Horse of the Year Award for Colts of 2011. That means he is the second-ranked colt of his age in the entire U. S. His scores ranged from 75.3 to 80, with a median score of 77.5. But that doesn't tell the whole story.

Dalziel, the only colt who topped Freester had three very high scores, but he also had two scores in the low 72s--more than 3 points lower than Freester's lowest score. We would very much like to see a head-to-head competition sometime in the future. And who wouldn't want to see two very beautiful chestnut colts frolicking together. Too bad Dalziel lives in New York!