Studbook Selection - Studbook Inspection

Studbook Inspection

The first method of evaluating breeding stock in many warmblood registries is the studbook inspection. Fillies may be evaluated at age 3 at a local mare and foal show, and colts may be evaluated at age 2 at the Körung, which translates to "breed survey", "bonitation" or "licensing".

Typically there are prerequisites in terms of pedigree and height, which vary depending on the registry. Most registries would like to see colts at least 15.3 hands high at the withers, and fillies at least 15.2hh, with the expectation that they will grow a bit more.
Pedigree requirements also vary, and many studbooks expect to see only stallion sons of Main Mare Book mares. This encourages local breeders to keep high-quality mares in the region. Preferably, future breeding stock have at least 4 generations of approved sport horse pedigree. Mares with less pedigree, or less than is desirable to her registry, may be entered into a "Pre-Mare Book", though she generally cannot produce stallion sons. What constitutes "approved" also depends on the registry.

Most studbook inspections follow a similar outline. The horse is judged on their conformation from each side, and then led to and away the judge(s) at the walk and trot on a hard surface to show the gaits. To evaluate the canter, horses are turned loose in an enclosed area one at a time. To evaluate jumping ability, the horse is sent down a chute over fences without a rider ("free jumping").

Horses are scored from 1 to 10 on a variety of traits, which may include any of the following: