The following article (reprinted with permission) appeared in the March 2005 issue of Horse Tales & Sales, the official publication for the Kansas Horse Council:
100 Day Stallion Test: Breeder Stakes Money & Dreams On The Ability Of Her Horse
by Dia Fowles
Jennifer Mosier, a thirty-three year old dressage rider/Warmblood breeder who bases her horse operation on 100 acres between Abilene and Enterprise put her reputation and money on the line and came up a winner with the top score at the Federation of North American Sport Horse Registries 100 day stallion test at Paxton Farm in Batavia, Ohio. Not only did her horse win, he won with the highest score in the history of the North American testing and the third highest score of any horse from any coutry [sic] ever.
Obviously it was a very prestigious honor for her horse, Galeno Tyme, but it was an absolute necessity to her fledgling breeding program. Without at least a passing score her stallion would have been prevented from getting a license to breed.
Good or bad, most horse breeders in the United States can breed any stallion they want to any mare of their choosing. There are some restrictions; finances, logistics, time and desire. But they are the breeder's self imposed restrictions.
Of course, there are basic rules that must be followed in order to insure that the resulting offspring can gain registration papers, but generally U.S. breed associations do not refuse to allow a stallion to reproduce just because he lacks quality.
So what if the rules were changed and breeders had to prove their stallion's worth through either a show record or inspections before they could become a sire? Very predictably, there would be a huge uproar, most every breeder enjoys their freedom and feels that a lack of money to show or pay inspection fees should not prevent their stallion from siring registered foals.
Warmblood horse breeders in this country or abroad do not have that freedom.
For all of these major sport horse registries, Hanoverian, Oldenburg, Trakhener, and others, stallions, and mares must be approved and/or licenced [sic] before registration papers are granted for the resulting foals. Because a stallion can produce many more offspring in a lifetime than a mare, therefore having a greater influence the gene pool [sic], they are inspected and tested much more thoroughly before receiving a license to breed.
That's a lot to put up with. It's a process that requires a steadfast belief in the quality of a stallion. And it also requires a very steep financial stake, the final requirement for stallion licensing is a 100 day riding test which costs owners nearly $10,000 in fees and expenses.
So it is quite amazing that Mosier, far away from the hot spots of Warmblood breeding centers was able to choose, prepare and then send her stallion to the test, let alone have that horse come out with the best score ever.
Galeno Tyme, German Oldenburg, bested 18 other Warmblood stallions and one Thoroughbred stallion at the test with a record score of 155.87, over 20 points above the reserve scoring horse. The score takes into consideration intangibles like character, temperament, trainability and willingness to work as well as gaits and jumping.
Result oriented in everything she does, Mosier, agrees with the theory of the 100 day test and believes it is the right thing to do.
"If your goal is to produce international performance horses (performance as in the three Olympic disciplines of show jumping, dressage and three day eventing) and not just breed because this is your favorite horse, you have to adopt the goals of your organization," she said. "The quality of Warmblood stallions in Europe is tremendously high, in order to compete with the offspring of those horses we have to set a standard of continuous improvement for our own stallions. And the only way to do that is to scrutinize."
Much easier to say when your horse is on the top of the pack, but Mosier felt confident that Galeno Tyme would pass. She said that the first indication of his potential was his pedigree.
"There are six generations of international competitors in Galeno's pedigree," she said. "As I look through a stallion's pedigree, I ask myself 'how many of these horses do I know?' If there is a horse I don't know or can't look up and find out more about it, I'm probably not going to breed to it. If there is any horse in the first three generations that I don't like then I know I won't breed to it."
Mosier believes that many American mare owners can be more critical of stallion quality, mare quality and pedigree, especially since there is so much information available on the Internet. She recommends any of the Warmblood breed registry sites as well as a wonderful book called Selected Sires Of Germany.
"When you look at enough offspring of similar pedigrees you start to recognize certain lines that have been very successful genetic combinations. And then you know there is a reson for Galeno's (100 day test) scores."
A second indication of her stallion's upcoming success was the easy manner in which he broke to ride and his athletic ability. When Mosier took her first ride aboard the grey horse it was on a longe line with an assistant holding the line and whip. At the end of the session Mosier asked the horse to "whoa," while simultaneously her assistant thought she said "go" and sent cracked [sic] the whip. When Galeno went forward and then felt the bit and Mosier's seat telling him to halt, he tried to follow both commands at the same time. This resulted in piaffe, an upper level dressage movement where the horse trots in place.
"Of course I didn't let him do it very long," she said. "But I thought wow, if he can do that the first day he's really going to be something."
So when Galeno left Mosier's farm for the 100 day performance test hoping for a breeding licence [sic], she knew she was taking a risk, but she fully believed it was a "calculated risk" and that the odds were in her favor.
At the testing site a group of riders from Germany rode the young stallions under the direction of Helmut Schrant, a transplanted German who operates the Meadowbrook Farm training center in Elgin, Ill. Throughout the first 97 days of the training period Schrandt scored the horses, the last three days were reserved for a performance test of the stallions with outside expert judges scoring the stallions.
The final test consisted of free jumping, a course under saddle, a basic dressage test, exhibition of gaits and a cross country jumping test.
"I was so excited when he did so well," Mosier said. "I love that horse, but it was obvious that the judges liked him too."
--[SIDEBAR]--
Who Is Jennifer Mosier?
Just who is Jennifer Mosier?
That's what people posting on the various warmblood Internet message boards were asking just a few days after Galeno Tyme topped the 100 day stallion testing last fall. Well, here's the scoop.
The 33 year old horsewoman was born in Alaska and is a self proclaimed "army brat." Her father's military career took the family to many places but luckily most of Jennifer's high school and college years were spent in Kansas. At most of the places the family was stationed there was a Pony Club, in which Jennifer became very active, eventually attaining her H-A rating.
After college, a friend of a friend directed her to a dressage barn were [sic] she got her first real job with horses. Canadian Olympic rider, Cindy Ishoy, often came to that barn to teach clinics, where she noticed Jennifer's skill with horses.
"Six months before the Atlanta Olympics Cindy and her husband Neil lost most of their working students. She had 36 horses and only one working student," said Mosier. "It was a right place at the right time kinda thing and in three weeks I had moved to Canada."
She stayed with Ishoy for three years before making a move to the barn of another Olympian, Evi Strasser of Montreal. At Strasser's Goodtyme Stables Jennifer was able to show and eventually reach the Grand Prix level on Alegria, a big Thoroughbred gelding she later sold to finance the purchase of Galeno Tyme.
Her plans for the immediate future are to stand Galeno and continue his training. She has a few foals by him that were bred when the stallion had his restricted licence [sic] and could breed just ten mares. Jennifer does see a potential conflict on the horizon. As her training of Galeno Tyme progresses she realizes he will have to be shown internationally. Mosier plans to show him herself in dressage, but an Olympic level show jumping rider will be needed.
"I don't want to punish him and his career because I don't want to do show jumping at the highest levels," she said. "This horse deserves to be one of the best, and somehow we will work it all out."
Although the allure if [sic] the international levels is very enticing the gifted trainer also enjoys her homelife. "Showing is not the end all for me. I like to break and train and for me that is enough. I'm very comfortable with what I am doing."