ANCCE Holds Its 44th Ordinary General Assembly

ANCCE held its 44th General Assembly Saturday morning at Hacienda San Juan del Hornillo in Sevilla Members ratified several matters on the agenda, including the 2015 annual accounts, the 2016 budget—exceeding 3 million euros—and agreements adopted by the Board of Directors  

In his report, ANCCE President Juan Tirado began by referring to two matters of major importance and relevance for the Association “In my opinion, the most important in recent months has been to attain bonuses for members of ANCCE when requesting the services provided by the PRE Stud Book office and solving the problems that have arisen in recent years at Conformation Competitions, to seek and achieve a solid, stable and fair framework"

The association is striving to maintain the services provided, creating new ones without generating losses and what is more important is that all these effort benefit full-fledged members of ANCCE This is the main objective of the current Board of Directors, in office since the 2014 elections

ANCCE, throughout the past year, has worked tirelessly to implement a sports model that guarantees the participation of Purebred Spanish Horses in competitions On the one hand, efforts focus on participating at Conformation competitions with grants, the drafting of new Rules & Regulations and a Handbook based on the PRE breed characteristics, among other projects On the other hand, Dressage has been a focal point to guarantee a new generation of PRE horses in this sport, with a project that defends, promotes, advises and collaborates in the preparation and reinforcement of quality horses participating at all levels of Dressage The long-term objective is to see PRE horses at the World Championship for Young Dressage Horses

ANCCE continues with major efforts to promote Purebred Spanish Horses in Spain and abroad to position ANCCE, the PRE and SICAB as brands In this regard, the Association recently reached an agreement with Marca España to improve the image of Purebred Spanish Horses abroad as well as international promotion with a variety of actions focusing on emerging markets such as Russia, China or countries on the Arabian Peninsula As a result of the excellent ties between these two entities, ANCCE has earned the backing of Marca España for the PRE to be declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by Spain’s Ministry of Culture and the UNESCO The activity that ANCCE generates and what Spain receives from the sector has undoubtedly provided added value for a breed This is something that makes MARCA ESPAÑA an asset both nationally and internationally

The annual Stud Book Report, presented by Director Arancha Rodríguez, pointed out that “the world’s Purebred Spanish Horse herd as of December 31, 2015 surpassed 220,000 horses In recent years, we have registered 11,000 new horses and 2500 new breeders from countries such as Bahrein, Estonia, Lithuania, Jordan, Brazil, etc"

Members appreciate the dates for SICAB 2016, to be held from the 15th to the 20th of November These dates facilitate and favor greater breeder presence and the participation of international enthusiasts to the most important Purebred Spanish Horse trade fair in the world This year is the 26th edition and it will coincide with the 2nd World PRE Championship

Lastly, the Assembly named Tomas Terry Merello from Cadiz as the 2016 Honorary Member This breeder, from the stud farm Isabel Merello, Viuda de Terry, has earned an ample number of awards, including the “Golden Horse” and “Champion of Champions”  However, even greater than his skills in the business, agricultural and breeding worlds is his sense of friendship, which is behind his excellent relationship with ANCCE For many years, he has collaborated as PR at SICAB