FEI's Sabrina Ibanez presenting at Asia Horse Week 2019 Photo courtesy Isaac Lawrence/Mazarine/EEM
Equestrianism in China is booming. That was the clear message delivered on day two of Asia Horse Week 2019 (read our report from Day One here)
Cai Jianxiang opened with a presentation on the Guangdong Equestrian Club, which was formed in 2016 and now boasts 1490 members, as a business case. The Guangdong Equestrian Team is currently made up of 12 riders that have all competed successfully in show jumping, dressage and eventing.
Eight riders from Guangdong will represent China at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and they are currently busy training in various parts of the world.
During the morning Li Yanyang from Horsemanship Magazine also provided some fascinating data on the growth and popularity of equestrian sport in China. More than 20 Provinces now hold national and international competitions with show jumping the most popular discipline. 65.54 % of participants in Equestrian are women and 34.46 % men. A breakdown of age groups showed that teenagers now make up the majority of riders in China (49 %).
Mr Yanyang outlined some of the challenges that the Chinese equine industry faces, citing the biggest problems as lack of media exposure, a limited number of professional coaches, grooms and vets and issues with land, quarantine and approval of competitions, all challenges also mentioned in our recent feature article on Equestrianism in Japan
To close out the first session of the day Henry Zhang spoke about horse culture and development in China. He shared the origins of the official Asia Horse Week logo which was inspired from Chinese calligraphy depictions of the horse from a long time ago. Mr Zhang also explained that in Chinese a horse is called ‘Ma’ and passionately implored that we should all cherish horses “the most stunning animals on the planet”
The Asia Horse Week concluded with the Auction by ARQANA and the collection of horse embryos combining some of the best show jumping bloodlines in the world attracting keen bidding from buyers.
The President of leading French auction house ARQANA, Eric Hoyeau, led the sale on the ground from Asia Horse Week at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong while bids were also taken online and at the sale’s company’s headquarters in Deauville, France.
In Hong Kong, a big and enthusiastic crowd was in attendance to witness the historic first embryo auction of its kind in the Asia region.
The opening lot of The Auction by Arqana (Eldorado Van De Zeshoek x Coriana Van Klapscheut (Darco) sold for 41,000 Euros to a Canadian buyer online. This was the highest priced embryo of the entire sale. The second highest price paid during the sale was 40,000 Euros for Lot 06 (Cassini I x Cocoshynski (Cornet Obolensky)
18 embryos were auctioned and grossed 416,000 Euros with an average price of 26,000 Euros.
