Jane Hayes in 2019 where she received the Danish Warmblood gold medal of honour and had lunch with among others HRH Princess Benedikte during the DWB Stallion Show in Herning, DK.

NADWA Treasurer Jane Hayes recalls:

”North American Danish Warmblood Association Inc (NADWA) got business license on February 7th, 2001 in the state of Louisiana. In 2001 there were 25 members. In 2002 this number had grown to 39. Sharon Londoño who worked for Richard Freeman Jr. back then, started in May 2000 to initiate the organization of NADWA but it took until February 7th, 2001 before the organization was officially registered.

On August 8th, 2003 NADWA got 501(C) (7) status from Internal Revenue Services which means that we are a none for profit organization, exempted from income tax.

In the beginning of 2001, Bonney Fernandez started working at Oak Hill Ranch, and one of her tasks was to take care of NAWDA business. She is now president of NADWA.

I have been a member of NADWA since December 17th, 2001. By that time the membership fee was $35 per year to be an active member. Today, in 2019, this fee is $65 per year, so we have definitely kept the prices at a very fair level. In 2001 there were no prize gifts for the awards, that was not introduced before I joined the Board in the beginning of 2005.

For what I can see in the old files, NADWA had its first inspection in 2002 and then again in 2004. In 2005 it was supposed to also have a US Inspection Tour, but when hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast of the US, this inspection was of course cancelled.

I have been responsible for arranging the Inspection tour ever since 2006. That year the inspection tour started on October 17th & 18th at Oak Hill Ranch and ended on October 27th in New York. In total there were 6 inspection venues and 97 horses for inspection. We have never since had such a big inspection tour. 2006 was the first time that stallions could enter for licensing in the USA. That was by the way also the year where the hot iron equipment was lost on the airplane trip from Oak Hill to Burnet, Texas (stop 1 to 2) and it was never found.”

DWB superior judge, Poul Graugaard has hitherto joined all Danish Warmblood inspections in the US and was in the breeding committee until 2016.

Superior judge and previous member of the breeding commission, Poul Graugaard, has hitherto joined all the US Inspections, in total 13 times by 2019, and has told us this:

”In May 1993 the first DWB mare grading and foal evaluation took place the US. The judges Jørgen Finderup (who was also identification manager and swung the hot iron) and Poul Graugaard went to the USA. They went to Verginia and California that first year.
In 1995 Poul and Jørgen were accompanied by Lorenz Linnet, breeder and judge, along with Ulf Helgstrand from the DWB Board as a representative from the Board. Ulf was a DWB breeder himself for many years and had among others the breeding stallion Vemmetofte Rainman by Rambo DVE 373. At that time he was at the Board of DWB, but at present time he is president of the Danish National Equestrian Federation and vice-president within the European Equestrian Federation.
The third US inspection was in 1997. Poul Graugaard and Lorenz Linnet were the judges, Svend Sørensen the identification manager and executive manager Lars Anthony the DWB representative from the office. Svend is still a part of the US Inspections. Lars Anthony joined the inspections until he retired.

Every second year the breeding commission along with a representative from the Board and an identification manager have been there, but the tour in 2001 was postponed until 2002 because of the terrible 9/11 incident.

Some of the other judges that have been to the states at the DWB US Inspection were Bjarne Nielsen and Ole From. Until Ole From retired as judge he was always a part of the breeding committee going to the US, the last time being 2016.

In 2018 new breeding committee member Signe Wiese went to the States with Poul Graugaard and Svend Sørensen, who has been the identification manager of the DWB inspection tours for many years. When Lars Anthony became executive manager of the Danish DWB office he started to come along in stead of a Board member.”

Please find below some of the old pictures from the 3 decades.

Do you have some old photos of Danish Warmblood horses, foals, or mares that were graded in the early years of NADWA that you would like to share with us?? Then we would be happy to receive them on with as much information as possible on the horse, date, year, venue etc - it would be very much apprciated!

If you want to know more on registering of DWB foals in North America, view here.