By Suzanne Krauss
On January 1, 2022, my husband and I drove Oliver (2.1), our scrappy little royally bred Thoroughbred, who I had hand-fed on the day he was born, to his new semi-retirement home. He took care of our daughter in the hunter/jumper world, and when our daughter went off to college, he and I jumped our hearts out, earning year-end reserve champion for three consecutive years, moving from the 2’3’ to 3’ division. Later, we took on dressage and even qualified for First and then Second Level at the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 8 Championships.
Three days later, my husband and I traveled from New Hamphsire to central New York to pick up Olover (2.0), a German-born Hanoverian. His lineage has proven to be of very fine dressage horses. He also is a mighty fine jumper, as seen on a barn surveillance camera after a tree fell directly behind his paddock. He was a 6 year old in our first year together, and if you are familiar with 6 year old horses, they are like children who are 2…the terrible 2’s!! We’ve had our challenges. Firstly, getting to know each other. Then feed issues. Beware my friends … not all horses tolerate grain!
Our first year together was his first show season. We had tons to learn. We did qualify for the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 8 Championships at Training Level. There, we had some confidence complications getting into the championship class, so no score. We finished our first show season at a USEF-recognized show with a 70.34% at Training-3 and earned a High Point award. We also had two qualifying scores under our belt for the 2023 Regional Championships.
He is now 7. We just went to our first recognized show this season… and wow, there were cobwebs that needed to be cleared out. With our second show, things went a tad better! And now we are going to Saugerties in September, to ride at Training and First Levels!!
So without a question, we needed to get this guy registered with the American Hanoverian Society. USDF has many awards for all different breeds of horses through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards Program. I am goal driven, and I like awards.
Registration is a process, but it’s not as overwhelming as I thought it would be. Olover was born in Germany. He was brought over to the US by the woman I bought him from. He has the pink passport. Here is what I did.
I went on the American Hanoverian Society website and slowly worked my way through the directions for registering a horse. His pink passport was vital in getting him registered.
There is lots of information about mares already entered in to the German Stud Book, choosing a name to match sires first letter, and length of the name, but this is what pertained to my application: include (upload) a copy of the front cover and pages 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 for passports issued prior to 2017 and for passports issued in 2017 or later, a copy the front cover and pages 21, 22 and 23 OR a copy of the front of the Certificate of Ownership. The owner of record will be amended in the AHS database and stickers will be mailed to the new owner to affix onto the original passport.
I scanned the required pages, renaming them so I wouldn’t get confused as I uploaded them, and gingerly hit submit. I did get my sticker in the email to put into his passport.
The next step was logging onto USDF and declaring him for the American Hanoverian Society All-Breeds Awards. This can be done by clicking onto AWARDS at the top of the homepage, and going to the All-Breeds section. This page describes the awards and includes a link to the list of Participating Organizations. You must declare your horse to be eligible for All-Breeds Awards. Under AWARDS is the All-Breeds Declaration Form. It’s pretty straight forward, listing the declaration fee, and details of what needs to be included. Sadly, the print is small – I’m 61, and even with my readers on, I’m afraid I’ll miss something!! But I didn’t! For Olover, this was what was important.
For horses with foreign passports, please provide the following pages:
- Front or cover page.
- Pages listing the horse’s date of birth, breeder, and pedigree.
- Page with seal or stamp from issuing registry with signature.
Before I wrote this article, I confirmed that I had indeed sent along all the required information, and they confirmed that he is officially declared for the American Hanoverian Society All-Breeds Awards.
Take the chance and declare your well-bred horse for the awards that USDF has to offer. We work way too hard and spend way too much money not to be reminded of it all. I know my friends who have declared their horse and received an award are darn proud to see it on their Wall-of-Fame!
Want to read more from Suzanne Krauss? Check out her stories Who Knew?, Secrets of the USDF Training Manual, and Adventures in Qualifying.
