Inbreeding and too much relatedness have been a problem in harness horse breeding for years. In order to reduce inbreeding and promote relatedness within the population, breeders of lowly related foals are financially compensated. The first foals have already been registered; this can still be done until 1 June.

The Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO), responsible for the recognition of studbooks, sounded the alarm 1.5 years ago with a clear message to the KWPN: intervene to prevent the harness horse from becoming a dying breed. The inbreeding increase within the harness horse population is around 1.18% per generation and needs to be brought down to 0.5 to 1%. In order to promote this, a special working group on Inbreeding and Relatives and the Breeding Council for Harness Horses have taken various actions. After the approval of the General Board, this has led to the fact that harness horse breeders who breed a live foal with a relative in the classes low to average, low or very low in 2022 and 2023 will be financially compensated.

Contribution

What does this mean in specific terms? Breeders of a foal born alive with low kinship receive a 150 euro registration discount and a breeding premium of 150 euro per foal. Please note: financial compensation is possible for a total maximum of 100 foals per year. Each registrant can register a maximum of one foal per year for the financial compensation. In order to be considered, you should notify us of your coverage no later than 1 June, exclusively by e-mail to Mariëlle van 't Klooster: klooster@kwpn.nl.

The financial compensation will be awarded in order of receipt, until the maximum of 100 has been reached. After receiving your e-mail, you will be informed if the coverage is indeed eligible for the compensation on the basis of the conditions set. If this is the case, the breeding premium of 150 euros and the credit of 150 euros on the registration fee will be paid together to the breeder in question in the autumn of the year of foal registration (after the foal has been born, microchipped and registered with the KWPN).

Inbreeding percentage

Inbreeding and relatedness are indicated in percentages, and on My KWPN, you can see exactly how high the relationship and inbreeding of your mare is with the stallion of your choice. A useful tool for this purpose is the inbreeding tool: when you go to the relevant mare after logging in to My KWPN, you can click on 'Inbreeding calculation' in the menu on the right. When you choose the breeding direction of the foal and select the breeding direction of the father in the selection bar, you will see an overview of stallions with the inbreeding percentage and relationship of the future foal (see also the Inbreeding Tool manual).

Within the stallion database, the inbreeding percentage ranges from 'very low' to 'very high' (see the table below).

 

very low	<6.1
Low	6.1 - 8.2
low - average	8.3 - 10.4
Average - high	10.5 - 12.6
High	12.7 - 14.8
Very high	>14.8

 

Conditions

To qualify for the financial compensation, several requirements apply:

• The expected foal must fall in the relationship class 'low to average' or lower
• The pedigree class in which the foal will fall is calculated on the basis of the data from the year in which the mating took place.
• Financial compensation for a maximum of 100 foals per year available. Registration in order of entry, full is full
• Each registrant can register a maximum of one foal for the financial compensation per year
• Only foals by KWPN-approved harness horse stallions and KWPN Hackney approved stallions for the harness horse breeding direction are eligible (so no stallions from other breeding directions, from other studbooks, non-approved stallions or licensed stallions)
• A maximum of 25 foals per stallion can be considered for this compensation.
• The mother must be registered in the KWPN breeding direction showjumping horse or be registered with a KWPN-recognised studbook for the breeding direction showjumping horse.
• Only foals that are registered in the foal book or in register A for the breeding direction harness horse will be considered.
• The mare must be registered in the name of the breeder at the time of the breeding and the birth of the foal.
• In case of a still-born foal or a foal which dies before it has been microchipped, no financial compensation is given (no free registration and no breeding premium).
• If the mare is sold prematurely, the financial compensation is no longer valid.