Understanding what ster, keur, elite, sport, preferent and prestatie really tell us about a horse — and how predicates help us read the generations behind a pedigree.
When reading a KWPN pedigree, it rarely takes long before a series of familiar words begins to appear behind the names of horses. Ster, keur, elite, sport, preferent, prestatie, PROK, D-OC, IBOP and EPTM are all part of the language of Dutch sport horse breeding. Behind the names of influential KWPN-approved stallions, we may also encounter keur or preferent, although those predicates have an entirely different meaning from the same words used for mares.
For someone unfamiliar with the system, it can be tempting to see these additions as titles and to assume that the horse with the longest collection of predicates must automatically be the most valuable breeding horse. In reality, the system is much more informative — and considerably more interesting — than that.
Different predicates tell us different things. Some concern the individual horse’s conformation and aptitude. Others record performance in sport or provide information about health. Preferent and prestatie shift our attention from the mare herself to what she has produced, while keur and preferent in approved stallions can only be awarded after years of information about their offspring have become available.
At Maverick Stables, this is why we do not simply count predicates when studying a pedigree. We want to understand why they are there, how they were earned and what information they add to the story of the family.
Because a predicate is not the conclusion of a pedigree.
It is a piece of evidence within it.
The KWPN predicate system allows different types of information to remain visible throughout a horse’s life and, eventually, across generations. A young horse can be assessed for conformation and natural ability long before it has had the opportunity to establish a sport record. A mare’s own performance can later add another layer of information, while the achievements of her offspring may take many more years to become visible.
The same principle applies even more strongly to stallions. A young stallion can pass an extensive selection procedure and become KWPN-approved, but at that point we still know relatively little about his actual influence as a sire. His offspring first have to be born, grow up, enter selection, become riding horses and eventually perform in sport before a reliable picture of his inheritance can begin to emerge.
Predicates therefore should not be viewed as steps on one simple ladder. They answer different questions about different stages of a horse’s life and breeding career.
Did the individual horse meet the requirements of selection? Did she demonstrate sufficient aptitude? What do we know about her health? Did she perform in sport? Did she repeatedly produce offspring that distinguished themselves in selection? Did those offspring go on to demonstrate performance themselves?
Once we begin reading predicates in this way, the letters behind a horse’s name become far more useful than a simple collection of titles.
For many KWPN horses, ster is the first predicate encountered in the selection system. The horse is assessed against the relevant breeding standard, with attention given to conformation and the qualities associated with the intended breeding direction. When the required standard is met, the ster predicate can be awarded. Ster is not limited to mares; mares, geldings and stallions can obtain it.
When we encounter ster in a pedigree, it therefore tells us something concrete about the individual horse. She was not simply registered with a particular pedigree; she was presented and assessed within the KWPN selection system and met the requirements applicable to that predicate.
That is valuable information, but it is important not to ask ster to tell us more than it can. A young ster mare may still have her entire sport and breeding career ahead of her. The predicate does not tell us how far she will progress in sport, nor does it demonstrate that she will become an influential broodmare.
It tells us something about the horse that was presented at that stage of her life.
That distinction will remain important throughout the predicate system.
The next part of the selection pathway requires a small but important distinction. The term voorlopig keur, or preliminary keur, is commonly encountered in pedigrees and conversations about young mares, but the KWPN explicitly explains that it is technically not a predicate.
A ster mare that is presented at the Central Inspection before she has fulfilled the required performance component can be declared voorlopig keur. She has then satisfied the relevant part of the selection process, but she remains officially ster until she has also met the requirements under saddle or, where applicable, in harness. Only then can she become keur.
This may appear to be a technical distinction, but it is useful when reading pedigrees because it tells us where a mare is within her selection pathway. A young mare can have demonstrated sufficient quality at inspection while the performance component is still outstanding.
Rather than seeing voorlopig keur as a lesser version of keur, we can therefore read it as a stage in an unfinished process.
The keur predicate brings together more than the assessment of the horse in hand. Only ster mares can progress to keur, and they must also fulfil the relevant performance requirement, either by successfully completing an accepted IBOP or EPTM performance test or by achieving the prescribed level in sport.
For dressage, jumping and Gelder horses, the mare is also presented at the Central Inspection, where her conformation and movement are considered again as part of the selection process.
This makes keur particularly interesting when studying a pedigree because we now have information from more than one perspective. The mare has been assessed as an individual within the selection system, but she has also demonstrated that she can meet the relevant performance requirement.
That does not yet tell us what she will reproduce. A young keur mare may not even have offspring.
What it does tell us is that selection and demonstrated aptitude or performance have come together in the same individual.
The elite predicate takes the information about the individual mare further by adding the relevant health requirements to the qualities already demonstrated through the route towards keur. The KWPN describes elite as the highest exterior predicate for mares.
That wording is important.
It is tempting to translate elite into something broader and assume that an elite mare must therefore also be the superior broodmare. But those are two different questions. Elite tells us a great deal about the requirements fulfilled by the individual mare. It does not yet tell us whether she will consistently transmit her qualities.
An elite four-year-old mare and a twenty-year-old prestatie mare therefore cannot sensibly be compared simply by asking which has the “higher” predicate. They represent different forms of evidence gathered at different stages of life.
This is exactly why predicates become more meaningful when they are read rather than ranked.
Before a young mare has had the opportunity to build a meaningful sport record, the IBOP and EPTM can provide information about her natural aptitude.
The assessment criteria are comparable, but the format differs. The IBOP is a one-day test, while the EPTM follows the mare over a longer testing period. For us, that longer period can provide valuable additional context because the assessment is based on several moments rather than one particular day.
Both routes remain snapshots of the individual horse’s demonstrated aptitude. Neither can yet tell us what the mare will reproduce.
We explore the two tests in more detail in EPTM & IBOP Explained.
Performance and conformation are only part of the information relevant to breeding. Health also plays an important role, and this is where abbreviations such as PROK and D-OC enter the pedigree.
These should not be interpreted simply as additional titles. They provide health-related information from different perspectives, with PROK relating to radiographic assessment and D-OC relating to the genetic component of osteochondrosis.
The distinction between information about the individual horse and information about genetic predisposition is particularly relevant in breeding. What we can observe or diagnose in one individual and what that individual is genetically likely to transmit are related, but they are not identical questions.
For us, health information therefore becomes most useful when it is placed within the wider pedigree. Rather than looking at one result in isolation, we want to understand what is known about the mare, the stallion, their relatives and the wider families behind them.
As with every other part of a pedigree, context matters.
The sport predicate is fundamentally different from the predicates we will later encounter when looking at offspring. Sport records what the individual horse itself has achieved in competition.
For KWPN dressage and jumping horses, the current published requirements include Z2 dressage with one winning point for the sport-dressage predicate and Z jumping at 1.30m with six winning points for sport-jumping. Requirements also exist for eventing and endurance, while different thresholds apply to Gelder horses and Harness horses.
The distinction becomes particularly important when sport and prestatie appear together in a pedigree.
A sport mare has demonstrated performance herself.
A prestatie mare has produced offspring that demonstrated performance.
A mare can therefore be an accomplished sport horse without yet having proven herself as a broodmare, while another mare may establish an exceptional record through her offspring without having had an extensive sport career herself.
Neither piece of information replaces the other.
They tell us different parts of the story.
With preferent, the perspective changes. We are no longer looking primarily at what the mare herself demonstrated; we are looking at what she produced.
For a riding-horse mare to earn preferent, at least three of her offspring must meet the relevant selection criteria. These can include offspring that obtain ster, keur or elite, sons that progress sufficiently far within the KWPN stallion selection, and qualifying offspring approved by a KWPN-recognised studbook.
This makes preferent particularly interesting when studying a dam line because repetition begins to enter the picture.
One exceptional offspring can result from an exceptional combination. When several offspring from the same mare independently distinguish themselves within selection, we have a different type of information. We can begin to ask whether the mare herself is consistently contributing qualities that allow her offspring to meet those standards.
Preferent does not tell us that those offspring necessarily became high-level sport horses. It tells us that several offspring distinguished themselves within selection.
For evidence based specifically on the performance of the offspring, we need to look at prestatie.
The prestatie predicate is one of the most informative predicates when analysing a breeding mare because the evidence no longer comes from the mare herself. It comes from the achievements of her offspring.
Under the 2026 KWPN rules for dressage mares, at least two and no more than three offspring must together accumulate a minimum of five points. The system therefore does not allow one exceptional offspring to earn the entire predicate for its dam. At least two offspring must contribute to the required total.
This is a meaningful distinction. A mare that produces one exceptional Grand Prix horse has clearly produced something remarkable, but that is different from a mare whose ability to produce performance is demonstrated through several offspring. By requiring the points to come from at least two offspring, the system incorporates a degree of repetition into the evidence.
The level of achievement determines how many points an offspring contributes. Qualifying results are not restricted to dressage: performances in other recognised disciplines may also contribute to the mare’s total. Under the current 2026 table, the relevant performances include:
| Performance achieved by the offspring | Points |
|---|---|
| Completed KWPN stallion performance test and KWPN-approved | 2 |
| Passed the applicable KWPN mare performance test | 1 |
| WCYH Dressage, 5-year-olds, minimum 75% | 1 |
| Dressage Z1 +1 or higher, minimum 60% | 1 |
| Dressage ZZ-Licht +1 or higher, minimum 60% | 2 |
| Grand Prix / Grand Prix U25 dressage, minimum 60% | 3 |
| Jumping 1.30m +1 or higher, maximum 4 penalties | 1 |
| Jumping 1.40m +1, maximum 4 penalties | 2 |
| Jumping 1.45m, maximum 12 penalties | 2 |
| Jumping 1.50m or higher, maximum 12 penalties | 3 |
| Eventing M +5 | 1 |
| Eventing Z +1 | 2 |
| International eventing 4*/5*, one MER | 3 |
| Driving M +5 | 1 |
| International combined driving, all phases completed | 2 |
| Endurance class III +3 | 1 |
| Endurance class IV completed | 2 |
The regulations contain another important detail. If one offspring obtains qualifying results in two different disciplines, both results may contribute to the mare’s total. If that offspring achieves several qualifying results within the same discipline, only the highest result is counted.
Consider a mare with one offspring competing successfully at Grand Prix dressage, contributing three points, and another that has reached ZZ-Licht +1 at the required percentage, contributing two. Together they provide the five points required through two offspring.
Another mare could arrive at exactly the same predicate differently. Three offspring could contribute two, two and one point respectively. Both mares ultimately carry prestatie, but the breeding information behind the predicate is not identical.
That is why, when we encounter a prestatie mare in a pedigree, we prefer not to stop at the word itself. Whenever the information is available, we want to know which offspring earned the points, how many contributed and what they actually achieved.
Because preferent and prestatie are both based on offspring, the two are sometimes treated as though they describe essentially the same achievement. They do not.
Preferent tells us that several offspring have distinguished themselves within the selection system, while prestatie tells us that offspring have demonstrated sufficient performance to fulfil the applicable point requirements.
A mare can therefore be preferent without being prestatie, or prestatie without being preferent. When she carries both, the pedigree gives us information from two complementary directions: her offspring have repeatedly been recognised through selection, and they have also demonstrated performance.
The combination becomes even more interesting when it appears repeatedly through the maternal family. A preferent, prestatie mare is valuable information. When her daughter later becomes preferent or prestatie, and the same pattern continues into another generation, we begin to see something more than an isolated success.
We begin to see a dam line establishing a record of its own.
The terminology becomes more complicated when we turn to KWPN-approved stallions because two familiar words return: keur and preferent.
They should not be interpreted in the same way as the corresponding mare predicates.
A young stallion can become KWPN-approved after passing through the relevant selection process, but approval takes place before his true value as a breeding stallion can be known. At that stage, his own pedigree, conformation, health and aptitude can be assessed in considerable detail, but the central question of breeding remains unanswered: what will he actually pass on?
That answer takes years.
His first offspring have to be born and develop. They have to enter inspections and performance testing. They eventually have to become sport horses themselves. As the number and age of those offspring increase, the amount of information available about the stallion’s inheritance also increases.
Keur and preferent in approved stallions therefore belong to a very different stage of the breeding story. They are not simply further rewards for the stallion’s own performance; they reflect what has become visible through his offspring.
The keur predicate for an approved stallion can only become relevant once enough time has passed for his progeny to provide meaningful evidence. The published 2026 KWPN requirements state that the stallion’s first crop must be at least seven years old. His offspring must distinguish themselves positively in both conformation inheritance and sport inheritance, and the stallion must meet the prescribed sport-index requirement.
The regulations specify a sport index of at least 140 with a reliability of at least 80%. Importantly, meeting that numerical threshold does not automatically result in the keur predicate: the quality of the stallion’s conformation inheritance remains an important part of the decision, and the stallion selection committee retains discretion within the regulatory framework.
That last point is particularly important when interpreting a stallion’s status. A breeding value is useful, but it does not replace the broader assessment of what a stallion is actually producing.
By the time a stallion becomes keur, the question has therefore changed considerably from the one asked when he was first approved. We are no longer looking primarily at the stallion standing in front of us.
We are looking at the population he has begun to create.
The preferent predicate for approved stallions represents a still later stage. Under the published requirements, the stallion must already be keur and his first crop must be at least eleven years old. Both his male and female offspring must distinguish themselves positively, his sport inheritance must do the same, and the sport index requirement remains at least 140 but now with a minimum reliability of 85%. The regulations also allow these predicates to be awarded posthumously.
The age requirement illustrates something fundamental about breeding that no amount of marketing around a fashionable young stallion can change:
reliable breeding information takes time.
A young stallion can produce an exciting first crop. His foals may be attractive, his young horses may impress at inspections and his first offspring may perform exceptionally in young-horse classes. Those are all relevant pieces of information, but they are not the same as observing a large group of mature offspring across selection, sport and breeding.
That is one reason we continue to find proven stallions particularly interesting in breeding. A young stallion offers possibility; an older sire with extensive progeny information gives us a different degree of evidence about what he tends to transmit.
Neither makes the breeding decision for us, but the amount of information available is fundamentally different.
The stallion predicates also introduce another concept that is essential when interpreting breeding information: reliability.
A breeding value is an estimate of genetic merit based on the information available. As more information becomes available from the horse itself, relatives and especially offspring, the estimate can become more reliable.
That means a breeding value should never be read without considering the reliability attached to it. Two stallions can show similar numerical values while the evidence supporting those values differs substantially. A young stallion may have relatively limited progeny information, whereas an older sire may have hundreds of offspring across several age groups.
The number may look similar.
The certainty behind it is not necessarily the same.
This is precisely why the reliability thresholds attached to the keur and preferent requirements matter. The system recognises that conclusions about inheritance become stronger as the body of supporting information grows.
Once mare and stallion predicates are considered together, one of the most important lessons becomes clear: the word alone is not enough.
Take keur. Behind a mare’s name, it forms part of her individual selection pathway and tells us that selection has been supported by the required performance or ability. Behind the name of a KWPN-approved stallion, the same word refers to something fundamentally different: years of evidence concerning the quality and performance of his offspring.
The same distinction applies elsewhere. Sport tells us what the individual horse achieved. Prestatie tells us what a mare’s offspring achieved. Preferent in a mare concerns repeated qualifying results among her offspring in selection, while preferent in an approved stallion represents a much broader and later judgement about his breeding influence.
Once those distinctions are understood, the predicates in a pedigree stop looking like decorative additions to a name.
They begin to describe where the evidence came from.
It remains tempting to compare two mares by counting the words behind their names. Yet such a comparison can easily become misleading.
Age alone creates an obvious difference. A young elite mare may have fulfilled everything that can reasonably be expected of her at that stage, but she cannot yet have decades of offspring results behind her. An older mare has had much more opportunity to become preferent or prestatie because her offspring have had time to mature, enter selection and compete.
Opportunity matters as well. Not every mare follows the same route. Some enter sport, others enter breeding early, and not every horse is presented for every available test or inspection. The absence of a particular predicate therefore does not automatically demonstrate the absence of the quality associated with it; sometimes that particular evidence was simply never collected.
This is why predicates are most useful when they encourage better questions.
If we see sport, we want to know what the mare achieved. If we see prestatie, we want to know which offspring supplied the points and at what level. If we see preferent, we want to know which offspring fulfilled the selection criteria. If we see keur or elite, we want to understand the route by which the mare reached that status.
And then we continue through the pedigree.
For us, predicates become most interesting when they begin to repeat across generations.
One prestatie mare provides useful information. A maternal family containing prestatie mares generation after generation raises a much larger question about the family’s ability to reproduce performance.
The same applies to preferent. If several generations of mares repeatedly produce offspring that distinguish themselves within selection — particularly when different stallions have been used — we can begin to investigate whether we are seeing qualities that belong more deeply to the maternal family.
This is where a pedigree becomes more than a collection of famous names.
We can look at the mare herself, then her dam, granddam and great-granddam. We can examine which stallions were used, what those combinations produced and whether the characteristics we value continued to appear. We can look at daughters as well as sons, because daughters allow us to see whether the strength of the family continues into another generation of breeding.
Predicates cannot provide that entire analysis, but they can help us find the places where we should look more closely.
For all the information the system provides, predicates cannot make a breeding decision.
They cannot tell us whether a particular stallion complements a particular mare. They cannot fully describe character, durability, rideability or the many subtle qualities that become apparent only through knowing horses and families over time. Nor can they tell us whether a successful result came from qualities we specifically want to preserve in the next generation.
A mare may have an impressive collection of predicates and still require careful consideration when choosing a stallion. A stallion may be keur or preferent and still be entirely unsuitable for a particular mare.
This is where data and horsemanship have to meet.
The information helps us understand what has happened before. The breeding decision asks us to consider what may happen next.
Then our perspective changes.
Preferent tells us that several offspring from a mare have distinguished themselves within selection. Prestatie tells us that her offspring have demonstrated sufficient performance to meet the applicable requirements. When these predicates begin to repeat through successive generations, they can help us recognise patterns within a maternal family. With approved stallions, keur and preferent tell yet another story. They require time because their evidence comes from offspring. They help distinguish the promise we see in a young stallion from the inheritance that can only be demonstrated after his progeny have had years to mature and perform.That is ultimately why we find the KWPN predicate system so useful.
Not because the predicates tell us which horse to breed.
But because they allow us to ask better questions about the horses behind the pedigree.
What did this mare demonstrate herself? What did she produce? Did those qualities repeat? Did her daughters reproduce them again? What did the stallions in the pedigree contribute, and how reliable is the information we have about their inheritance?Those questions take us beyond the letters behind a name and towards something much more important: understanding the family as a whole.
At Maverick Stables, that is how we want to use predicates — not as a substitute for looking at the horse, but as another layer of information about the horse in front of us, the generations behind it and the generations still to come.Read the predicate. Study the horse. Follow the family.
Editorial note: Predicate requirements and performance thresholds can change. This article is based on the KWPN rules and information published for 2026. Current KWPN regulations should always be consulted when determining formal eligibility for a predicate.
