Warmbloods at the Sydney CDI by Jody Hartstone Hi there everybody, Marie has asked me to compile a little bit of information about the breeding of the dressage horses at the Sydney CDI. I flew Belmont Golden Boy over to compete at this event in April of this year. Sydney CDI is well known as Australia's top International dressage show, with many of Australia's talented horses and riders living in NSW. I thought it may be interesting to look at the breeding of the horses competing here, so we can see the trends that are emerging. I am sure things have changed from 10 years ago and I am sure that things will keep progressing in future years. NZ tends to follow in Australia's footprints so these could be some trends that we will follow. Looking through the progamme I came up with the following statistics which encompass the FEI Horses as well as the Young Horses: There were 30 horses competing under the umbrella of Australian Warmblood. This was by far the biggest group. There were nine listed as Australian-bred Holsteiners and four Australian-bred Trakheners. The Thoroughbred was represented by only 6 horses, which I guess is a major trend change. Out of the Imported Horses two were listed as Oldenburg, two as German Warmblood (?!!), one German Hanoverian, four KWPN from Holland, one Belgium Trakhener, one Danish Warmblood, one Sweedish Warmblood and one Danish from Great Britain. That is a total of 13 imported horses! One has to be a little careful when looking through the results as to the accuracy of the listed breeding. Robin Potter and I have discussed these issues when it comes to NZ competitions as well. For example, you may find what is listed as a "dutch warmblood" is in actual fact a NZWB by Ramzes II. I feel it is important that we get the breeding listed correctly on our NZEF stickers and paperwork so that the NZWB gets the recognition it deserves. We need to educate the equestrian public that a horse's breed should be listed as the Breed Society that it belongs to. Just because your horse is by a Swedish Warmblood, this in no way makes the foal a "Swedish Warmblood" too (unless of course the Swedish assessors come to NZ and agree to brand it with their Verband). If the Stallion is approved for breeding in NZ and you register the foal, then the foal is a NZWB. If it is not registered then I guess it is only fair to call it a Swedish X bred. Sorry, that is a bit off track -- back to Australia. There were four NZWB's listed in the programme. Kalista Field had Julius and Jamahl, and there was a third Jaguar progeny, Janus. And then I rode Belmont Golden Boy by Ramzes II. There was an assortment of other breeds represented, with one each for Morgan X, Clyde/TB, Andalusian/WB, Anglo Arab, and two CB X.