New Lead for Australian Stock Horse

LORNA Fanning was elected to take the lead for the Australian Stock Horse Society at this week’s board meeting.

Lorna, who reigns from Warwick in Queensland, has been involved with the breed since the mid 70’s, a member of the Society for more than 20 years and was volunteer of the year in 2011.

“Hopefully I can led us to where we need to go and I’m really proud and privileged to be elected to do the job,” she said.

Lorna Fanning is proud to be the new Chairperson of the Australian Stock Horse Society.

“I’d like to see the membership increase, we’ve been in a bit of a decline and the drought has a lot to do with it, but we’ve also got to go the way the members want us to go, hold more events they want and give value to being part of the Society,” she said.

“We have a great deal of work to do in preparation for our 50th anniversary and I am very keen to ensure that we honour our past and set a great platform for our future,” she said.

“Over the last two days we made decisions around member benefits, a Loyalty Program, a Heritage Stud Book, implementing a Base Register for horses that are not currently eligible for Stud Book Registration, the 50th Anniversary celebrations and a whole lot more,” she said.

“We established the Heritage Stud Book, because we have to preserve our heritage and people who have cross bred will be coming back to our heritage horses so we must protect our heritage.

“We’ve also introduced a base register to ensure no purebred horses of any other breed can enter the stud book, they’ll have to have at least 25 percent heritage to get in there.

“We were also delighted with news that with over 1000  sires now tested for genetic disorders, that only around 1 percent had come back testing as a carrier,” she said.

“This has given us the opportunity to manage the problem within our Stud Book,” said Lorna Fanning.

The Society covers Australia, but has been branching out overseas as the breed grows in popularity, with the UK next to have a branch of the Society.

“It’s just versatile it can do anything from campdrafting to polocrosse we’ve even got some endurance and show jumping, they have a lovely temperament, they’re a beautiful horse and it’s great to be able to promote the breed as the new Chairperson,” said Ms Fanning. 

“We’ve got some horses doing quite well overseas and we’re hoping to grow that market,” she said.

“We’re looking to establish a branch in the UK, because we need to have a branches for people to import our horses,” Lorna Fanning said.