On October 11, the Maryland Horse Council launched its first-in-class Maryland-Bred Sport Horse Database, a tool to help breeders, trainers, and owners find pedigree and competition records for those equine athletes born in Maryland. You can explore it here, and you can also find it on the menu bar at the top of our home page.
WHY DID WE BUILD THIS DATABASE?
There is no existing database in the country that contains comprehensive information about individual horses competing in any discipline, at any time, at any level, in any state or country. The data are spread out across numerous different governing bodies, breed associations, census takers, and state regulators. No existing database serves as a “one-stop shop” for breeders, trainers, and owners.
Our database is the first.
WHY ARE WE THE FIRST TO DO THIS?
Maryland has more horses per square mile than any other state in the country. We have 40 breeds of horses competing in 35 different equestrian disciplines, including: barrel racing, competitive trail riding, cutting, dressage, draft horse pulling, driving, endurance, eventing, fox chasing, harness racing, hunter/jumpers, jousting, mule jumping, polo, polocrosse, ranch riding, reining, rodeo, show jumping, side saddle, steeplechasing, therapeutic riding, Thoroughbred racing, vaulting, western dressage, western equitation, and working western, as well as several others. We have five international competition venues in the state, and we are an easy drive to two others. Maryland-bred sport horses are living and working across the country — in Washington State, in Texas, in Colorado, in Tennessee. Our horses are on the job in Kentucky and all up and down the East Coast — from Florida to Vermont. Our product is everywhere.
WHAT IS A MARYLAND-BRED SPORT HORSE?
A “Maryland-bred sport horse” is “any horse, of any breed, including a mixed breed, foaled in Maryland, that has competed in at least 3 competitions with at least 3 participants, judged by a disinterested judge, under a publicly available set of rules.”
HOW DOES THE DATABASE WORK?
MHC has been working on this database for over a year. We have brainstormed designs. We have gathered information. We have kicked tires.
The database is searchable and sortable. We are adding more horses to it every day. We have created a form for you to submit a new horse for inclusion, or to add additional information on an existing horse.
WE WANT YOUR SUBMISSIONS! We are particularly interested in archival data that is not easily found in digital format on other sources. We are also interested in high resolution pictures that are free of copyright concerns.
Most of all, we want you to spread the news and encourage others to explore the database, to use the database, and to share the database, and contribute to the database.