NZWA Foal Inspections

The New Zealand Warmblood Horse Association has an inspection process in place for foals registered with the NZWA and holding a NZWA Passport.

Inspection by an overseas expert is a valuable tool in assessing effectiveness of your breeding program, particularly in comparison to foreign breeders.  Inspection marks are also a helpful guide to buyers considering the purchase of your horse, especially if the evaluating panel awards a horse with the honor of Excellence or Merit rating.

2025 Classification Tour 

with German Assessors Lukas Weber and Vanessa Feuerstein 

 February 2025

The Classification Tour includes foals across all four of the NZWB Registries and also Mares for the Mare Stud Book, Foundation Stud Book and Pre Stud Book. Stallions will also be Licensed at this time 

2024 NZWA Assessment Tour and Foal Competition

The NZWA Classification Tour has for many years provided New Zealand breeders with valuable feedback from internationally based experts in sport horse breeding. The Tour provides breeders with an unbiased assessment of their foal’s movement and conformation. Knowledge gained from the international assessors can help guide future breeding directions and decisions to improve the overall quality of your breeding programme. It is also useful to see how your foal ranks against New Zealand’s best foals with the competition aspect of the tour always being hotly contested.

Marks awarded to the foals during the tour will be scored using the NZWA score sheets with Merit and Excellence awards given to the foals that score highly. All foals will receive their score sheets with the assessor’s marks and comments.

​All scores will be recorded in the foal’s passports and foals will be eligible for the following awards:

  • Champion  &  Reserve Warmblood Foal - NZWB Register 1
  • Champion & Reserve Champion Foal - NZWB Register 2
  • Champion &  Reserve Champion Foal - Derivative Register 1
  • Champion &  Reserve Champion Foal - Derivative Register 2
  • Champion Dressage-bred Filly and Colt
  • Champion Jumping-bred Filly and Colt
  • Champion Eventing-bred Filly and Colt
  • Rosettes given to foals gaining Merit or Excellence (Merit scores are 78-79.9% - Excellence is 80% and above)

Plus, trophies given for:

  • Champion Filly Foal of the Tour
  • Champion Colt Foal of the Tour

All foals achieving Excellence or Merit will be featured on the NZWA Facebook page and all award winners will appear in the NZWA newsletter. The breeders will be expected to provide high resolution images of all Merit and Excellence foals for promotional purposes.

There is also an opportunity to market any foals that have participated in the Classification Tour on the NZWA Facebook page.  Breeders are to provide high quality photos and video for this purpose and an additional cost of $20 per foal will be applied.

Conditions of entry

1.   Entry Fees are $80 per foal plus GST for foals out of Studbook Mares and $100 plus GST for foals out of Non-Studbook Mares.

2.  Entries close 25th January 2024 (please note if you have a foal due to be born after this date you can still enter ahead of the closing date with a note to say foal yet to be born)

3.  All foals must have applied and paid for a NZWA passport as a condition of entry.

Guide to Foal Assessments:

Part 1: Evaluation of conformation

The Assessor will look at the foal from all angles with the foal presented on a firm, level surface.  The foal may be
presented in a head collar and on a lead but it is also possible to present simply standing quietly beside the dam.

Part 2 :  Evaluation of frame and gaits

1.  For the walk assessment, a handler will lead the mare on a triangle of approximately 30 meters with the foal on the inside of the triangle either walking free or being lead on a loose rein by a second handler. 

2.  For the trot assessment, the foal will be presented loose with either the dam running free or being led

3.  For the canter assessment, the foal will be presented loose with either the dam running free or being led

NB:  The aim is to show the foals natural gaits, with the foal as relaxed as possible. Exaggerated paces with the foals tail up will not be marked.