What do these words mean: “keuring”, “premie”, “ster (star)”?
Each of these terms is Dutch, and relates to the rigorous judging process performed by registry representatives. The judging event is called a “keuring”. Judges are typically flown in from the Netherlands and review the candidate horses according to a stringent grading criteria. Each horse is judged carefully, one at a time. The grading centers around the horse s conformation and movement through the walk and trot. A horse generally attends a keuring as a weanling, and again as a 3 year old. However, a horse may attend at any time. The best quality horses are “premium” quality, noted as “premie” for short. The very top class are 1st premie, followed by 2nd and then 3rd premie. A horse can be judged less than premie, but still be considered acceptable as breeding quality and thus, like the premies, is placed in the studbook (shown as “stb” and/or “stamboek” on the papers). When a horse is 3 or more years old, s/he may be judged additionally for a “ster” (pronounced “star”) classificatio
