SWANA looking ahead
Katarina Antens – Miller, President of SWANA
Dear fellow SWB breeder and rider,
I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and to communicate the mission of SWANA, all the new services SWANA will offer this year and our plans for the future.
The objective of the Swedish Warmblood Association of North America (SWANA) is to promote Swedish Warmblood horses and the Swedish breeding and educational method in North America.
SWANA is an organization open to breeders and riders of SWB horses, and traditionally our members have been either riders and/or breeders of Swedish horses with a substantial emphasis on dressage horses. However, we’d like to see riders and breeders of all SWB sport horses irrespective of breed and discipline.
We will continue to offer our breeding services – including; registration of foals as well as older horses, licensing of stallions for breeding and organizing of annual inspections. The breeding rules and standards of the SWANA are consistent with those of the Swedish Warmblood Association in Sweden (SWB). Year-End Awards and recognitions will continue to be offered for your accomplishments throughout the show season.
In addition to our traditional services we will now also embark on several new services by expanding our suite of offering to better support our members.
WHATS NEW IN 2018!
As you all may be aware, having passports issued for your horse is increasingly becoming a mandatory requirement not only from sport organizations but for identification purposes in general. To support this trend, we are happy to announce that effectively immediately SWANA will issue passports for all new US bred and registered SWB horses. As a member you also get the benefit of our group discount of the purchase of the equine microchip which is also needed and required in many instances.
Breeders and stallion owners in the United States have raised major concern about the Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome (WFFS). You now have the option of having your SWB horse tested through SWANA to establish whether your horse is a carrier for the WFFS gene or not.
We all know how hard it is to train and prepare the young ones; so for all of the young horse trainers and riders, we will publish 7 educational videos on our new website. In these videos our SWB experts give short tutorials and tips of how to best train and prepare your young horse either for the 3-4 – year old test or just in general.
To learn more about SWANA and its services visit our NEW WEB SITE swana.swb.org, that has a new look and improved user experience.
WHATS NEXT!
We want SWANA to be your “go to” equine organization for breeding services, training, education and a source for collaboration. We have conducted surveys over the years to learn from you how we can improve because without your feedback we can’t succeed with our mission. Based on that; we have some suggestions for additional activities we think can be of interest, but let us know please!
Exchange and Connection programs – For breeders/riders and young horse trainers we will offer support, education, recognition and a connection to Sweden by organizing tours and trips to major events
Breeding Evaluation online – if you can’t take your horse to an inspection for an official evaluation we will offer unofficial online evaluations provided by official judges.
Breeding preparation sessions – many stallion owners irrespective of breed need help preparing stallions for the evaluation tests and also know what’s required. SWANA has many years of experience and can help by offering timely training sessions in preparation for evaluation tests in various regions.
Clinics with Swedish trainers/educators – series of jumping, dressage, breeding clinics with top Swedish trainers.
Market Place– how about a market place for Swedish Horses that help breeders, sellers and buyers from all over the world get access to the North American Market and heighten the awareness and exposure of the NA born SWBs. A commercial web application sponsored by SWANA that provides sellers and buyers with tools and information helping users make sound decisions.
Last but not least; don’t forget to renew or sign up for your SWANA membership so that you can benefit from all the interesting and new things we have to offer.
Cheers,
Katarina Antens-Miller
President of SWANA, aka Swedish National, SWB stallion owner and breeder, SWB dressage rider and competitor!
Photo by Jan Eisner