This summer, the team in charge of the British Breeding Baileys Horse Feeds Futurity series have entered a partnership with ClipMyHorse.TV to deliver new concept; the first ever Futurity Elite Online Auction.

To be held in September 2020, the auction will feature the best Futurity entries of the year in the disciplines of dressage, eventing and showjumping and will promote them to ClipMyHorse’s global audience.

The auction idea came out of a longstanding successful relationship between the two orgasnisations which has seen British Breeding events livestreamed via the popular clipmyhorse.tv website.

Götz Rüter, head of production at ClipMyHorse.TV said: “We have been working with British Breeding for several years, live streaming the Futurity, Equine Bridge, and the British Breeding Stallion Event.

“We are delighted that this year, we are taking this partnership into an exciting new direction by using our highly successful online auctions concept to promote the very best of British bred foals and youngstock to audiences all over the world.”

The Futurity Elite Online Auction will feature on the ‘auctions.clipmyhorse.tv’ alongside established names such as PS Auctions and Hof Kasselmann who have responded to the COVID 19 crisis by moving their auctions into a purely online environment – with great success.

Jane Marson, director of British Breeding commented: “Online auctions deliver exactly what vendors and buyers are looking for now: an accessible and convenient way of promoting quality youngsters and connecting breeders, owners, riders and producers from across the world. We are excited to be at the forefront of these developments and to offer our Futurity breeders this truly outstanding new opportunity.”

To qualify for auction selection, foals and youngsters must be British bred and must have completed a Futurity evaluation in 2020.

Those achieving the highest possible award, the cherished accolade of ‘Futurity Elite’ status, will automatically qualify for auction selection.

Those achieving a highly respectable Gold score, with an overall mark of over 8.0, will be pre-selected for final selection at the end of the Futurity season.

Dr Eva-Maria Broomer, director of British Breeding added: “The Futurity qualification is what makes the Futurity Elite Online Auction unique: Buyers can bid with confidence, in the knowledge that every young horse or foal for sale has been assessed by a highly experienced, independent international team of evaluators, as well as by our head veterinarian and nutritionist, ensuring that our collection is of the highest quality, with strong emphasis on ability, performance, conformation and soundness.”

To promote the successful auction entries and reach out to potential buyers, British Breeding and ClipMyHorse.TV will cooperate on a weekly broadcast series of highlights from the BB/Baileys Horse Feeds Futurity Evaluations.

Rachael Holdsworth, director of British Breeding, said: “In response to the coronavirus challenge, we have developed our online activities to reach out to breeders, riders, owners and producers not only in this country, but all over the world.

“This is a fantastic way of promoting the very best of British breeding and to create stronger links between breeders and the sport. Our weekly Futurity Highlights broadcasts will offer an exciting glimpse of our many wonderful auction lots and British bred foals and youngsters.”

This exciting move is facilitated by a change in the BB/Baileys Horse Feeds Futurity programmes this year that – in response to the challenge of COVID 19 – have been taken into a purely virtual environment, using video footage to achieve the thorough and detailed evaluation participants have come to expect from the series.

The new Virtual Futurity has enabled the British Breeding team to create a range of new benefits for participants, including:

  • “Futurity for Sale” online listing for all Futurity entries from 2018, 2019 and 2020.
  • A “Futurity Breeders Prize Fund” comprising of a £5 levy from every entry, awarded to the highest scoring entries of each category at the end of the season.
  • A highly popular free “British Breeding Webinar Series” of interviews, stud and yard visits, stallion showcases and discussions of scientific and veterinarian topics

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