American Heritage Horse Association

In order for horses to be documented with the American Heritage Horse Association, the owner of the horse must be a member of AHHA and in good standing. Good standing is defined as membership being current, no outstanding debts to association. It also defined as never having been convicted of animal abuse or neglect. The association reserves the right refuse membership.

Members of the breed association are considered active members.

Once payment is received in full. It is then determined if the member is in good standing. If all is in order the paperwork is then sent onto the registrar for pedigree confirmation.

Send in form completely filled out. Incomplete forms will be returned to sender. Registrations numbers of antecedents and their colors.

There are 2 types of registration: A) Which is Registered breeding stock and B) Recorded ,which is nonbreeding stock.

• Concerning age or type of application. If recorded registration only is desired then evaluation will be waived or tabled until the third year of life at which time the horse may receive evaluation as adult animal.

• If there is no intention of the horse to be considered breeding stock, then their papers remain recorded and are never moved to Registered Breeding Stock status.

• Recorded horses may apply for evaluation to be moved to Registered Breeding Stock any time after the third year of age.

• Recorded horses enjoy all AHHA advantages with the exceptions of breeding papers and progeny registration.

Pedigree evaluation: ( There are no found horses our population is finite.) Horses must have a 3 generation pedigree and or be prior to 1975 in any other SM/CS registries studbooks edition to any studbook to be accepted. Those horses of herds after 1975 will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Once evaluated and tabulated, horses if they are ranked to breed standard will receive breeding papers, those that are not at breeding standard may ask for review or simply stay at recorded status.

All breeding stock must have DNA parentage filed with the Association to have progeny registered.

Horses that are aged or marginal in scoring may receive breeding stock papers with progeny testing for type and uniformity. This enables the aged horse, etc. to be evaluated for their ability to benefit the American Heritage Horse breed population. These horses must have a minimum of 5 progeny of good type to be considered.

If DNA parentage or genetic color issues raise which bring parentage to question come to for, and the sire and dam are not registered with AHHA, the applicant must be willing to provide affidavits and to make every effort for hair samples to be submitted. If the sire or dam are no longer living then sibling verification may be used or required. Because of previous time management practices of large herd groupings it is essential that every effort for parentage verification be made.

Photographs of the horse only should be taken on level hard ground.

Every effort should be made to have applicant horse standing, preferably haltered .

Do not submit photos of horse tacked up or with any head gear other than bridle or halter.

Make every effort to have no other horses in the back ground of the photo or humans as part of the photo.

The photos should be of good resolution and be of left, right, rear, and front of horse. There should be a good head shot and profile taken of the horse.

Movement shots may be sent in addition to the basic requirements and are always welcome.

The horses should be presented in summer coat at best and naturally. Natural hair is requested. No leg hair trimming or clipping.

Video is welcome and will be in the Association’s future database, please mute the sound as we don’t need voice commentary.

• Video should be short and to the point.

• Should show horse in same positions as stills.

• If movement is desired to be shown horse should be moved at a walk and trot to and away from camera in a straight line. (Handler should focus on straight line back and forth the horse not handler should not be the focus)

• Liberty may be done at the end of the video. If you desire your horse to be evaluated strictly on video please send to the association on separate discs of each horse labeled with name and of sire and dam for record purposes.

There are 7 evaluators. They are not listed by name anywhere and are only known to the association. To the public they are known by their letter, which is given by the registration committee chair. This enables evaluators to do their job without harassment or duress for their opinions and decisions.

Each evaluator is obligated to return the evaluation sheet to the AHHA registration committee chair within 72 hours of receipt.

The totals need not be tabulated by the evaluator but may be done in the office if the evaluator so chooses.

Results are then forwarded for studbook inclusion to registrar.

The Registrars are not evaluators, they have no vote. This ensures fairness and impartiality and all proprieties will be observed.

Evaluators are encouraged to write their overall opinion of each horse. That may be done at the end of the form but every effort should be made to do so.

Evaluators are advised to set aside personal taste and bias, and to judge the horse’s reflection of breed type/ standard and then quality of conformation only.

The evaluators will receive only the horse’s age, sex and color with photo or video information. Breeder, owner or horse name will not be given. If that information is known to the evaluator they are once again advised to perform their evaluation based on tenets set forth and with professionalism reflective of AHHA.