This sentence has been on my mind for a while. I am the Registration secretary for the Akhal-Teke Association of America, so I help facilitate registering Akhal-Tekes. We (the ATAA) have tried to make the process as easy as possible for all people registering their horses. Yet, I still see horses that aren’t registered, people that ‘don’t believe’ they need to register and people that don’t finish their registrations.
One of this year’s foals, Anahita, AAKT462
So, here are some reasons to register your horse, either with the ATAA (if it’s a Teke or Teke cross) or with VNIIK (the Russian mother studbook). This would also work for other breed registries.
- We can help keep track of your horse. Sure, you bred that foal with the intention of it never leaving you, so why bother paying an extra $40 and having it DNAd and go through the trouble of taking photos, filling out paperwork etc? You KNOW that Fluffy will be taken care of forever at your place. Well, we are seeing older Tekes now appearing at various horse rescues. One such one was registered and the breeder is contacting the rescue to see what they can do. Another horse showed up at a rescue and I personally spent several hours combing through our database looking at photos and marking descriptions to see if we had registered this horse in the past. The answer was no, the horse wasn’t in our database, BUT, social media and networking did find the previous owner. The new owner has had to do bloodtyping (the horse is older and the parents were only bloodtyped and bloodtyping is expensive and going away) so we shall see if that proves the horse’s parentage. I would assume that the owner’s of that horse thought it would be taken care of in it’s ‘Forever home’. Well, sadly, that doesn’t always happen. Someone’s life circumstances change, illness or job loss hits and suddenly, Fluffy needs a new home. If Fluffy goes with registration papers, there is the possibility a previous owner or breeder can be contacted. I had this happen to me. A horse I bred and sold as a weanling to a good home, ended up in a pasture in another state, facing being lion food. Happily, the pasture owner contacted me (as the breeder) and I came and got the horse. I would have NEVER thought that would happen, as the person was a ‘good owner’. But, stuff happens.
- Being registered makes the horse more valuable. Sure, the horse is the same with or without papers, but the ATAA is a closed studbook (meaning both parents must be registered and just because your horse ‘looks like’ a Teke doesn’t make it one) and we can prove parentage. In a small, rare breed, this is very necessary. I’ve had people contact me, saying they have a Teke, because it is slim or has a shiny coat, and wondering why we can’t just register it. Even if they do a DNA test that shows Akhal-Teke markers, unless we can match it to a purebred Teke (and those are two different things, markers and DNA matching) it can’t be registered. So, if a breeder has gorgeous Tekes two generations removed from registration (and those people are out there), unless you DNA and match all the parents, those horses can’t be registered as Tekes. This has happened in Iran; gorgeous horses that are almost certainly purebred Tekes are several generations out of the mother studbook and now cannot be registered as purebred Tekes. We have breeders in N. America that are breeding horses that are several generations removed from the studbook. To get any of those horses registered is a time consuming and expensive task. If they aren’t registered, they are just beautiful, athletic grade horses with no past. Sure, people that only compete, not breed, could argue that registration doesn’t make the horse faster or have more stamina. But, having excellent offspring is a feather in the breeder’s cap, as they can offer results from their breeding to prospective buyers. Think of TB breeder’s looking at lineage. The offspring of certain lines, sires and/or dams can go for many more dollars than others, because of their prospective athletic futures. Same with Tekes, once we get enough competing, certain lines will be noted for their jumping ability, or their endurance and prospective buyers will respond to that.
- Registering is the responsible thing for a breeder to do. If you care enough to pick a lovely stallion for your mare, go to the trouble of producing a foal and then raise that foal, why wouldn’t you register it? I’ve been breeding for almost 30 years and I know that it costs (me at least) around $3500 to get a foal to weaning. The little bit extra for registration is a drop in the bucket and helps make that horse more valuable and safe.
- You start the process (get a pending ATAA number) and never finish it. Without a DNA match, we can’t prove your horse is your horse. We do have photos (when they are sent) and markings descriptions, but the end all is a DNA match. If your horse is stolen and you haven’t done DNA, we might be able to help, but then again, it might NOT be enough.
So, to end my rant, register your horses, update photos periodically and stay involved in the lives of horses you breed.
