Canada and China might be doing more horse trading in the future.
Equine Canada, an association of horse industry groups, signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Horse Industry Association March 31 that could see more Canadian horses exported to China.
Haidee Landry, an Equine Canada board member and vice-president of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association, was at the signing ceremony and emerged with hopes of future trade.
“Basically it was an agreement to work together to benefit both of our equine industries,” said Landry.
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Equine Canada officials did not respond to queries by press time, but president Al Patterson said in a news release that the future partnership “provides a valuable opportunity to both Canada and China through our breeders and educators.”
Landry said Canada cannot export live horses to China at present because of concerns over West Nile Virus.
“Our trade agreement, as I understand it, was written at a time when we were not vaccinating for West Nile Virus,” she said.
“It wasn’t something that we had here. Once we started vaccinating for West Nile Virus, it nullified our trade agreement. That’s one of the things that we need to work on, is to get a new trade agreement in place for the export of horses to China.”
Landry said exporting horse semen and embryos to China would be another way to advance the equestrian industry in an economical and efficient way.
However, she said those in China’s horse industry need more education and training before they are likely to pursue those options.
Canadian delegates visited the horse museum in Beijing while on their March 26-April 4 trade mission. Landry said the experience showed the long history of horses in China and the pride its citizens take in that relationship.
Although the MOU is an industry-wide initiative, Laundry found specific interest in Canadian Quarter Horses.
“I met with two different groups that were interested in Quarter horses, and one was particularly interested in the barrel racing horses,” she said.“The other one was interested in reining horses and actually would like to be able to stable a World Equestrian Games reining team for 2018.”
Those games are slated to be held in Bromont, Que.
There is also an opportunity for Canada’s expert Quarter horse trainers to conduct clinics or do horse training in China, Landry added.
Polo and polo ponies are another burgeoning interest in China.
“There’s a huge investment into polo right now,” she said.
“I talked to a man who was talking about putting US$3 billion into his polo facility over the next few years. They have a rapidly growing middle class, and it really is a prestigious thing to own a horse, to be involved in the equestrian centres.”
The trade mission’s equine association representatives also included Darryl Kaplan from Standardbred Canada, Grant Watson from the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society and industry liaison Hao Zhang.
