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Brand New East Coast Halter Futurity: An Affordable Futurity For Everyone

robynd

 

By Gabrielle Sasse, PleasureHorse.com

ECHF logoMarch 27- It all started with a Facebook post… Glenn Gieschen of New Jersey has been in the horse industry for 25 years; breeding, showing, training, judging, he’s done it all. An avid Halter horse breeder and competitor, he found himself searching for a place for the “little guy” amongst a sea of big time breeders.

“I asked a Halter forum on Facebook if the big Futurities were making it harder for the smaller breeders to compete, and it blew up from one comment to over 500. People were agreeing with my theory, and that is why I started the East Coast Halter Futurity,” Glenn explained. The East Coast Halter Futurity began with an idea and has since grown into something far larger than Glenn could have anticipated.

“We’re trying to make a Futurity that is more affordable for the backyard breeders,” Glenn continued. “Halter is a fading breed, and the gene pool is getting smaller and smaller each year. Baby after baby is coming out of the same stallion, and so many great studs don’t have the opportunity to expand the gene pool because people are only breeding to a few big names.” Glenn has two breeding stallions himself, and is having a hard time finding breeders for his stallion who has a World Champion and two Congress Reserve Champions with just three foals.

Glenn decided to ask his friend Tiffany Miller (in Pennsylvania) of her thoughts on the subject, and she jumped on board. “[Glenn and I] have a very good relationship and the Futurity sounds fantastic,” Tiffany shared. “I’ve visited a lot of halter breeders throughout the country, and I’ve leased a lot of Halter mares out for breeding. I was checking out mares in Florida, and talking to breeders about shows-  A lot of these breeders had negative ideas of the big futurities such as the Iowa Futurity. They didn’t like the limit on how many stallions could enter, and the enormous amount of money it takes to nominate their stallions.”  

Glenn made Tiffany President of the Futurity, along with a committee of  Marcy Walker (Vice President), Robin Slade (Treasurer) and Jim Scarpa (Secretary). The five have been working tirelessly to grow the Futurity into a major event, pursuing stallions and sponsors for the September 6th show.

“We already have about 52 stallions on board,” Glenn exclaimed. “And we’ve already got others on board for next year that don’t have babies on the ground in 2014. We are so incredibly excited. You need the ‘small people’ in every part of this industry- we want to give the little guys a place to compete along with the ‘big wigs’.”

Glenn is hoping to bring the total number of stallions up to 60, when he can then guarantee a purse of $25,000. “I can’t even give a final number out yet for the purse,” Glenn explains. “It just keeps growing.”

“There are breeders from all the way at the bottom of Florida to Wisconsin who are interested,” Tiffany says excitedly. “Even California, Louisiana, all over. We kept nominations low at $500, with no limit on number of stallions entered, and we’ve included Appaloosas as well as other stock breeds.”  

“We’re doing this to save the Halter discipline,” she continues. “I absolutely love halter and I ride, but to me, there is nothing prettier than a Halter horse. I’ve spent years collecting the mares I have, and it’s a fabulous idea and bring people back to the Halter industry. The closest one to us [on the East Coast] is Iowa, and we want to bring something closer to us. Everyone’s got a fair chance for this show; it’s not run as ‘who gives us the biggest donation’ and everyone who is involved knows that. We have had a tremendous response by stallion owners and breeders alike.  I’ve had stallion owners calling me out of the blue and they are asking for their stallions to be nominated because they have gotten phone calls from offspring owners who want the stallion to be nominated so they can show.” Both Glenn and Tiffany have their stallions in the Futurity.

The website will soon be renovated, but for more information you can visit their website here. The stallion list is updated daily. Currently, these are the stallions nominated for 2014:

  • A Classical Mocca
  • A Legend At Last
  • A Radiant Image
  • Attencion
  • A White Knight
  • Buck Naked Kid
  • Cajun Acquisition
  • Chromed Up
  • CK Style
  • Classic Style Gold
  • Desperaddi
  • Cool Incountered
  • Ecredible
  • Elvis White Diamond
  • Fearless
  • FG Totally A Charmer
  • FG Kids And Fellas
  • Forty Five Caliber
  • Go Play Fella
  • Hear The Cheers                       
  • I Gotta Cool Secret
  • Image Matters
  • Im Kidden
  • Impressive La Faver
  • In Awe
  • Inentions
  • Ive Been Encountered
  • KH Kid A Lot
  • Kid Coolsified
  • Mighty Ambitious
  • MJK Vanzi King Glo
  • Mr Grand Rockies
  • Mr Ice Te
  • Mr Touchdown Kid
  • My Intention
  • PF Premo
  • Phenomenal Fear
  • Phenomenel Play
  • PTMA Star Kid
  • RH Stars And Stripes
  • RS Refrection
  • RTH Mr Wilson
  • Saint Telusive
  • Such An Ego
  • Supremely Cool
  • Tattle On Touchdown
  • TelaSecret
  • Tin Star Native Stone
  • The Exceptional One
  • The Greatest Secret
  • The Secret Pardon
  • The Top Secret
  • Very Cool

“As the founder of this new exciting show, I wanted to take a minute and thank my wonderful hard working co-founders and board members for all the long days they have given to this great idea of mine and to make it into a reality,” Glenn shares. “We are striving to make this the biggest Futurity in the country, where everyone can come show their prodigy, have a great time, and win some money and prizes. And most of all, come together and become one group of Halter horse enthusiasts. I also want to thank the stallion owners who believed in this program and stepped up to the plate. If it wasn’t for you guys, this would only have been a dream. I am asking everyone out there to help to make this grow, so in order for that to happen we need sponsorships. Please go on to our website, download a form and give what you can. I can’t wait to see you all in September!”

The show will be held September 6th at the Dream Horse Park in New Jersey. Judges will be Greg Holden, Linda Pigg and Ronald Straton. A show bill is available online, as are entry forms and sponsor forms. We can’t wait to see the turnout!