Show Registration and Awards

Show associations and awards in a nut shell (Friesian Focus) 

Horse registration – to show in the below your horse has to be registered with papers of some kind. Can be KFPS/FHANA or one of the many other Friesian or part Friesian associations. But start with having registration papers.

USEF  - United States Equestrian Federation https://www.usef.org

This is the show governing body, makes the rules for all the breeds and disciplines.

The rider, owner, trainer AND horse will need a membership or you pay an additional fee at the show. To get points you need to have the active membership, but paying the non member fee at the show will not get you points. So if you go to more than 2 shows it’s worth paying for the active membership because the fees are similar.

Human  - To compete you’ll need a Competing Membership. Membership is for one year from the date that you started your membership. The competition year is 12/1 of each year to the next,  but your membership is for 12 months from the day you sign up.

Forms are here https://www.usef.org/join-usef/membership-forms-resources

As of 2018 Active is $80 and Life is $2500 Fees can and will go up from time to time so check the link to make sure you get the current year membership form/prices. You can register online. But the form has the prices clearly laid out.

This is where you declare if you are a professional (makes $ for shows/training) or Amateur (no compensation for shows/training)

Horse – a horse ID is free but you are not eligible for USEF qualifying points. This is enough to have for showing if you don’t care about USEF points or year end awards for that horse.

IF your horse is born that year and you register them for life it’s $35 (as of 2018) so if you plan on ever showing don’t miss out on this discount because the next price for horse life is $300 for life (as of 2018). The annual recording fee as of 2018 is $95 and this will qualify the horse for year end points. If they have the lifetime Recording then you do not have to renew the horse annually.

Awards - For awards the horse, rider, owner and trainer have to be members if the owner, rider and trainer are all the same person then that is covered under the 1 owner membership. For USEF they record the points for you on the web page. You can see the points that your horse has earned by logging in, going to My USEF, clicking on the horse that you are interested in, Scroll down to a Cup symbol “view details and results” click there and you’ll see the points for that horse. The shows can take 4 weeks to be loaded into the system.

USEF Breed specific for Friesians

IFSHA (International Friesian Show Horse Association) https://www.friesianshowhorse.com

                This is the Friesian based USEF organization. If you don’t have a membership to this organization you will only have to pay an additional fee at USEF shows that are recognized by IFSHA and USEF. Your horse will also have to have a membership at IFSHA recognized shows. Fees https://www.friesianshowhorse.com/Fees.htm

                 Human membership - https://www.friesianshowhorse.com/cgi-bin/Members/NewMember.pl

                For showing you will need an Annual membership (Jr, Adult, open) or Lifetime. As of 2018 the fees were $35/year Jr $50/year Adult/Open and $1000 lifetime.

                Horse annual is $35 BUT if you get your horse signed up as a weanling it’s $35 for life. It goes up incrementally after that but see fees link above to get the most current pricing. (as of 2018)

Awards- This organization has an awards point system for showing. You can submit your show information online prior to a certain date that is close to the regional shows. After that you have to email them to the IFSHA office for them to enter the scores. They will record IFSHA regional and national shows results for you. You can see the points online at any time and the rankings of each division at any time. It’s a little delayed if you have to email the scores in because a human has to enter them, but the year end is November 30^th of each year so you’ll have your ranking by then.

USDF – United States Dressage Federation https://www.usdf.org/

                This is the Dressage organization.

Dressage tests

Here is a link to the tests offered by USDF https://www.usdf.org/competitions/competitors/tests.asp  USDF does not have the Training level and above on their web page because those are actually USEF tests and can be found here https://www.usef.org/compete/disciplines/dressage/2015-2018-dressage-tests. The USEF tests change every 4 years so please make sure the year is correct on what you are learning. The USDF page also does not have the tests for Western Dressage because that is through the WDAA https://westerndressageassociation.org/wdaa-tests/ .

Human - To have points count towards year end awards the rider must be a Participating Member of the USDF ($90 in 2019) Here is a link to the forms https://www.usdf.org/downloads/forms/index.asp?TypePass=Membership

You can also compete through a Group membership by joining your regional Group. https://www.usdf.org/clubs/gmo/  For example I’m in Colorado RMDS (Rocky Mountain Dressage Society) is my group. By joining them for $60 (2019) I can show USDF, but not qualify for USDF yearend awards only RMDS yearend awards. The Group also has a sub chapters. My area is AVDA (Arkansas Valley Dressage Association) the group membership includes that chapter level also. Chapters usually have schooling shows but may also have recognized shows. The RMDS shows usually are recognized by USDF.

                Horse – Your horse needs to have a membership also. A Horse ID (HID) is $35 (2019) and a lifetime horse registration (LHR) is $115 (2019). It doesn’t matter what age the horse is this is a flat fee. The LHR makes the horse eligible for awards and points. The HID allows them to participate.

                My RMDS local group requires the horse also be registered with them for a 1 time lifetime fee of $40 (2018), so make sure that you check your group membership requirements for the horse also.

                AWARDS - USDF horse awards program is very tricky and if you miss the dates is very costly so don’t miss this one. By August you have to pay the $35 (2019) annual fee if you miss that there is a $100 late fee for 30 days then a fee of $300 and absolutely no acceptance past Sept 30^th of that year so watch out for this one. The first time you send in the application you have to send in registration papers for your horse for the registry that you specify as the PO for your horse. The form has the list of participating organizations (PO) for the year end awards program. FHANA is listed as well as a few others.  To get most of these awards you need to look at the class requirements for each class. I know USDF awards usually require 3 shows.

                RMDS also requires volunteer hours for the year to get yearend awards so be aware of what your group requires for you to get yearend awards.

With the USDF awards most registries have their own awards programs. FHANA has a list of awards that they offer if you submit your scores http://www.fhana.com/sport/performance-awards . For the USDF All breed award for FHANA you don’t have to submit anything, that is already calculated and relayed back to the organization.

Summary for weanlings that you may show get a USEF and IFSHA membership the year they are born so you can save money. Even if you never use it it’s still a good just in case. And when you sell the horse it’s on the transfer fee not the full registration amount. For all other ages IFSHA the younger they are the better to get a life discount.  USDF is not horse age specific so you can do that when you are ready to show. BUT watch out for the awards points application deadline. The late fees are huge.

Frozen Semen and Friesians

I get really frustrated when I hear a lot of people say Friesians are not good with Frozen semen. So many people and steps are involved in getting a pregnancy from frozen semen. The stallion semen quality at ejaculation, the handler's ability to follow the freezing process properly, the right extender at collection and for freezing, the right concentration in the straw, the temperature used to thaw and time in the water bath, the proper instruments (no rubber), maintaining the freezing temperatures, post thaw protocol being followed, the timing of the mare's ovulation, the mare's reproductive health, mare's physical health, mare's follicle viability, mare uterine reaction vs deep horn for insemination, the mare clearing her uterus prior to the cervix closing, a good cervix, and ultimately the embryo retention.... and a few more things inbetween...... so is it the mare...the stallion... vet.... yes and no.... a lot can go wrong at any of the steps for the process to fail

The Stallion side

It's true not all stallion's semen recovers from the freezing process the same and some don't recover at all, but that is a man/semen thing not a breed thing. Currently Post Thaw Motility is the industry indicator for evaluating semen. Obviously if you can get ahold of fertility rate with frozen semen that is most ideal. But when dealing with frozen fertility there is also a lot of error on the side of the insemination.

So lets start with what is normal. Right now 30% + post thaw motility or better is considered acceptable. You can get conceptions with lower motility but this is the industry lower number for now. Each dose should have a minimum of  250 million sperm. The stallion collection site, on the day they do the freezing, will determine the number of straws for the dose. The person packaging the semen in the 1/2 cc straws will know how many million sperm are in each 1/2 cc
So if you need 250 million progressively motile sperm for a dose and the post thaw motility is only 30% you will need to start with 833 million sperm. If each 1/2 cc straw has 200 million sperm then you would need 8.3 straws (8 or 9) if the post thaw motility is 50% then you would need 500 million sperm to start or 5 straws for that dose.
The stallion side will also know what extender is used and would have tested a few to see which is best for that stallion and which freezing method is best for that stallion. And remember motility does not = fertility, it's just the current best indicator because if it can't swim it can't get there.

Mare side

You will get the semen frozen. It should be in liquid nitrogen from the time it is frozen till right before it's put into the mare. If the semen thawed out at any time during travel the semen will not survive and will likely infect your mare with a bacteria or fungus.

your mare may or may not respond properly to hormones so the ultimate best way to handle a frozen insemination is to ultrasound the mare every 4-6 hours to make sure you are getting the ovulation and insemination timed close together. Ideally just before ovulation is best, but post ovulation is ok.

when the vet is ready to do the insemination they need to follow the instructions provided by the stallion side. If there are no instructions the industry standard is 8 straws in uterine body, 37'c water bath for 30 seconds, use a NON-rubber syringe and inseminate just the contents of the straws after it's thawed. Testing for post thaw motility at 10 minutes post thaw.  The only time the vet should stray from these instructions is if the stallion side sent different instructions. For example Botucrio is optimal at 46'c for 20 seconds. Some stallions need 15 min post thaw to be evaluated because they are slow to wake. There is only one acceptable deviation to the norm and that is doing 1/2 dose insemination pre ovulation and 1/2 post ovulation. This is used incase the mare holds her follicle (I have seen some 55mm's held for 5 days before ovulating)
               
common mistakes -
             1. adding extender to the thawed semen. Do not do this unless instructed to by the stallion sender and only using their instructions. Different semen handles different antibiotics and proteins differently and mixing extenders or using the wrong one can cost the pregnancy. if antibiotics are needed for the mare's protection the vet should administer them 4 hours post insemination in the uterine body. If the vet is worried that high sperm concentration will irritate the mare's uterus or she has a history reactions to frozen semen then use deep horn.
              2. incorrectly doing a deep horn insemination a. not getting to the deepest part of the horn so essentially doing a deep body insemination. b. putting too much volume in a deep horn insemination - 1-3 straws deep horn is sufficient there is limited space. There are single straw insemination pipettes that can be used.
              3. using too many hormones with a Friesian to get them to work on the vets schedule. Friesian mares commonly have lower fertility on the cycle after leutalize is used. Friesians tend to have larger follicles so ovulation timing drugs (even combos) that say to use at 35mm+ actually for a Friesian would be 50mm+ follicle. BUT not all Friesians get oversized follicles so it can work from time to time, or have no effect on timing the ovulation, or worse, delay ovulation
              4 not confirming ovulation. as mentioned above if the vet gives a 24 or 36hr shot to a mare that tends to have a larger follicle it could actually ovulate 5 days after they see it as a 35mm. Some Friesian mares are not even in heat with a 35mm and we have seen follicles over 65mm.

There are many more points and tips to breeding Friesians but