Predicates and Grading, Decoded

Predicates are the titles studbooks award at inspections and tests — ster, keur and elite in the Dutch system, premiums and Staatsprämie in the German, licensing for stallions everywhere — and they appear on papers and in adverts as quality shorthand. Each certifies that the horse, or its dam, passed a defined selection bar; none guarantees a ridden career. Buyers who can read the ladder know what a “keur mare by an elite dam” actually claims; buyers who cannot are paying for syllables.

This page is the decoder. It sits under the breeds pillar because predicates are the visible output of the studbook selection machinery; it feeds the price guide (predicates move prices, especially young and female), the mare question (breeding value is predicate value), and pedigree reading (a damline studded with titles is the claim to verify). Exact requirements are set by each studbook’s current regulations and evolve; this page gives the stable architecture and defers to the books’ published rules for point thresholds and procedural detail.

Why predicates exist

The studbooks breed populations, and populations improve by selecting the mares and stallions that reproduce. Predicates are the selection made visible: an inspection or test result converted into a permanent mark on the papers, so that a breeder — or a buyer — can read three generations of quality decisions at a glance. That original purpose explains their buying relevance precisely: predicates were designed to predict breeding value, and their sport-predictive power is real but secondary — a distinction this page returns to.

The KWPN ladder

The Dutch system is the most elaborated and the one international buyers meet most, roughly in ascending order for mares:

Ster (“star”). Awarded at keurings to mares (and geldings) meeting the book’s bar for conformation and movement — the first selection tier above plain registration. Common enough to be a baseline signal, meaningful enough that its absence on a mature Dutch mare is a datum.

Keur. The serious tier: ster quality plus a performance requirement — demonstrated under saddle via testing such as the IBOP or sport results. A keur mare has passed both a conformation/movement bar and a ridden one.

Elite. Keur plus health screening — the radiographic PROK requirement — marking the mares the book most wants bred from: quality, performance and screened soundness together.

Kroon and higher sport-linked predicates extend the ladder with performance emphasis; sport (dressuur) converts defined competition results into a paper credential at any point; PROK stands alone as the radiographic predicate; and preferent/prestatie honour mares through their offsprings’ achievements — the damline-quality markers pedigree readers hunt for.

The buyer’s translation: on a Dutch pedigree, a damline reading keur–elite–preferent is three generations of passed selections, and it is priced accordingly.

The German system

Different vocabulary, same machinery, run by each Verband under national umbrella rules:

Foal and youngster premiums. Awarded at inspections — a “premium foal” caught an inspector’s eye at months old. Pleasant, early, and the weakest signal on this page: buyers should price it as a photograph of a baby.

Mare performance tests and Staatsprämie. German mares are graded at studbook inspections (main studbook entry with scores) and proven in mare performance tests (ridden evaluation of gaits, rideability and — historically — jumping components). The Staatsprämie (state premium, “St.Pr.” before the name) crowns mares excelling in both: the German ladder’s keur/elite analogue, a genuine quality mark with price effect, awarded under state-linked traditions that give it its name.

Licensing (Körung) and stallion performance testing. The stallion gate: colts are licensed at the Verbände’s Körungen on conformation, movement and (for dressage directions) loose evaluation, then must complete performance testing — the sport-test pathway with defined score requirements — for full breeding approval. “Licensed and performance-tested” is the complete claim; “licensed” alone is the entry ticket. The licensing market’s economics — and the gelding advice for colts that miss it — are in mare, gelding or stallion.

Danish, Belgian and the rest

The Danish Warmblood runs an elite-graduated mare system (with medal gradings and an elite tier) and its Herning licensing as the national showcase — small population, sharply selected, per the book’s profile. The Belgian books (BWP/sBs) grade and license within jumping-first cultures — dressage-relevant predicates exist and matter locally, with thinner international recognition. The Iberian books run their own systems (the PRE’s grading and calificado tradition among them) inside a different selection philosophy, covered with the breeds. The portable skill is structural: every book has an inspection tier, a performance tier and a health screen — learn to ask which of the three a given title certifies.

What predicates mean for a buyer

Price. Predicates move money most where the horse has proven least: on foals, young stock and broodmares, the titles are the argument, and a keur or Staatsprämie dam adds real percentage to her offspring’s price. On the made horse, the pillar’s rule applies — the record has replaced the statistics, and papers season the price rather than setting it.

Breeding and resale value. For mares, predicates are the second asset made legible: the elite mare’s retirement career and her fillies’ values are underwritten by the titles. Buyers with breeding intent shop the ladder deliberately; buyers without it should notice when they are paying for one they will never climb.

What they do not guarantee. A predicate certifies a passed test on a day — conformation and movement at an inspection, a ridden profile in a short test, screened radiographs. It does not certify temperament in your hands, soundness next year, or a sport career: the arena is full of unpredicated champions and titled disappointments. The evaluation triangle and the PPE judge the individual; predicates rank its relatives.

Verification. Titles are claims until checked: the studbooks’ databases record predicates against the horse’s UELN, and confirming an advertised “elite” takes minutes — the same verification habit the red-flags page applies to sport records. Papers travel with the horse at handover; advertised predicates absent from produced papers are a conversation.

The ladder at a glance