The Swedish Horse industry has its own way of doing things. We face this with the dog showing as well. It is totally contrary to many of the things that we are used to.
Apparently there is a scoring system in Sweden that is not the same as we use here (or in England, either it would seem.) It appears that Catherine was trying to explain that when a judge gives a super high score to a horse, there is no room for any improvement. It is like once the judges have given 10's at the Olympics, there is not much room for somebody else to do any better. This may be deserved, that the winning horse in Sweden was simply the best Caspian that has ever been produced or ever WILL be produced. If so, then giving the top score was deserved.
Here is a better translation of the letter that so many took offense at. I don't think that Catherine was trying to alienate the world, just trying to help others understand why the scores were hard to justify.
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I artikeln sägs att Brenda Dalton är en av världens mest framstående
experter på rasen....... ....
Ingen ifrågasätter naturligtvis att Brenda Dalton har väldigt mkt
kunskap om Caspisk häst, men har Brenda Dalton sett verkligen de
bästa av dagens Caspiska hästar ? ? ?.......
På dem år vi varit med har hon aldrig satt sin fot på CBS stora
Caspiska show, där årligen ett 60 tal av Englands förhoppningsvis
bättre hästar visas.
This article says that Brenda Dalton is one of the world's most prominent experts on the breed. Nobody is disputing that Brenda Dalton is very knowledgeable about Caspian horses, but has Brenda Dalton really seen the best of the Caspian horses of today?
In the years we have been there (in the breed? on location?), she never once set her foot on the CBS big Caspian shows, where annually about 60 of the hopefully best Caspians in England have been shown.
Det poängsystem som används i Sverige, bör man kanske också ha lite
begrepp om. Det visade sig ju att de poäng som sattes på hästarna
blev osannolikt höga. Många svenska raser delar nästan aldrig ut så
höga poäng, trotts att det kan vara frågan om raser med oerhört
mycket fler individer, och som har avlats målmedevetet i flera
decenier.
40 p är ett mkt högt resultat för en svensk häst. 42-43 p är nästan
riktiga outstanding. Här delade man dessutom ut 45 p till vinnaren,
vilket är ett nästan osannolikt betyg. Jag vet inte hur många 45 p
som delats ut i Sverige, men jag tror inte att det i hela hästsverige
sker varje år.
It may also be a good idea to have some knowledge about the point system used in Sweden. It turned out that all the points that were set on the horses were unlikely high. In many Swedish breeds such high points are never given, in spite of the fact that it may be breeds with considerable higher amount of individuals, that have been selectively/ carefully/ been bred for decades.
40 p is a very good result for a Swedish horse. 42-43 p is an outstanding horse. Furthermore, 45 p was given to the winner, that is an almost unlikely grading. I do not know how many times 45 p has been given in Sweden but I do not think it happens in this country every year.
Stoet på bilden i artikeln har även hon fått poäng som ett riktigt
diplomsto, tycker ni att hon ser ut att vara det...
The mare in the article also received points as "true stunner"/"outstandi ng mare" (diplomsto can loosely be translated to a mare with a good diploma of some kind), do you really think that mare appears to be that?
Det stora problemet med detta är ju att kunniga hästmänniskor i
Sverige som jobbar med andra raser drar ju slutsattsen att Caspisk
häst inte kan bli bättre än så här.
The big problem here is that Swedish horse experts will deduce from this that this is as good as the Caspian horse ever gets.
jag har själv redan fått frågor från personer runt om i landet som
undrar om detta verkligen är vad rasen kan prestera, isåfall svallnar
deras intresse för Caspisk häst. De tycker inte att bilderna och
poängen stämmer överrens med vad som står att läsa om Caspisk häst.
Några har dessutom sett flertalet av bilder som jag har publiserat
och de får inte riktigt ihop det hela.
När bilderna kom ut på årets CBS Supreme Champion, stoet, Henden
Shabette, så fick hon en oerhörd uppmärksamhet.
Frågorna började ställas, hon är ju av en helt annan klass än
hästarna på de bilder som publicerats ifrån den så kallade
Riksutställningen. Hur skall då en sådan häst poängsättas. . .
I myself have already received questions from people around the country who wonder if this is indeed what the breed can achieve, and if so, their interest in the Caspian horse is fading/disappearing/ going away. They don't think the point scores correspond to the pictures that can be seen and the texts that can be found about the Caspian horse. Some have also seen most of the pictures that I have published and they are really confused.
When the pictures came out in this year's CBS Supreme Champion, stoet, Henden Shabette, she got tremendous attention. The questions began to arise, she is of course an entirely different class than the horses in the photos published from the so-called "Riksutställningar (national show). How, then is such a horse scored?
Vinnarhästen på den svenska utställningen, Maks Zpirit, ser väl inte
så tokig ut, men han fick ju så höga poäng som i praktiken går att
dela ut, hur skulle man då poängsatt tex. Hopstone Shabdiz el. Henden
Wenceslas, om de varit med på utställningen. . .. . .
The winning horse at the Swedish show, Maks Zpirit, does look rather nice, but then he got about as high points as is possible to give. So what would the points have been for Hopstone Shabdiz or Henden Wenceslas, had they been at the show?
Ett annat problem med en sådan här plump, är ju, hur skall man göra
om ett långsiktigt avelsarbete lyckas förbättrar materialet, poängen
är ju redan förbrukade.
Another problem with such a faux-pas is what happens when long term breeding programs will improve the horses. How will these be scored when lesser horses have already been given the highest points (possible)? (okey, so I elaborated on that translation but that is the message really)
Dessutom skriver SCHA i artikeln att en Caspisk häst skall vara från
100 - 120 cm i mankhöjd. Vad har man fått detta ifrån ....
Furthermore, SCHA writes in the article that the Caspian horse is from 100 cm to 120 cm height in withers.
Where does this come from?
Man anger dessutom att den vanligaste färgen på Caspisk häst är
Skimmel och fux.
Hur många Caspiska hästar har man då sett ? ? ? och vad värre är, hur
kan man påstå något sådant ......
Ooops, I'm in trouble... How to translate the colors skimmel and fux?
A fux is a red or maybe dark golden red horse.
A skimmel is a greyish/whitish, like this
http://www.stinaq. se/farger/ skimmel.jpg
Fux
http://www.stinaq. se/farger/ fux.jpg
The article says the most common colors are skimmel (?) and fux (?).
How many Caspian horses have you seen in order to make that statement?
And what's worse, how can you say something like this?
I Skandinavien skapas ju stora problem med att en rasförening går ut
med en sådan här smörja.
It will of course create major problems in Scandinavia when a breed club puts out rubbish like this.
/Sussi
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As you can see, Catherine was arguing on the same side as most other posters, questioning what was published by the paper. The question of such a high score was not questioning whether Brenda was judging the horses correctly -- there was no disagreement with which horses were honored -- just an explanation of the scoring system and what future problems can be caused by misunderstanding their traditional use.
Foreign language barriers can make things seem so different. None of us wants to hurt others intentionally. So assuming that Catherine is simply out to hurt Brenda's feelings misses the points that she was trying to impart.
I hope this helps.
