For Z-breeders Z-Festival is the most important studbook event of the year and many see it also as their day out. The event combines the foal championships, the free jumping competition for 3-yr-olds, the qualifier for the Belgian Championships for 4-year old horses and the WC qualifiers for 5- and 6-yr-old horses. At the same time at Z-Festival, the foals for the Online Auction and Quality Auction are selected. Because of the success in former years, this year we are expecting to receive more foals than ever before. The average prices paid in our auctions surpassed all the international records which earned Zangersheide and its breeders world-wide media attention. Never before a foal auction has been so successful, peaking products fetching more than € 25,000 were the rule rather than the exception. We are determined to at least equal this success this year, but we can only do so, of course, with the support of our breeders! After all, it is their foals that make the auction and therefore our breeders form the basic ingredient for our success. In order to have the selection process run even more smoothly this year and still give every foal sufficient time and attention to form a correct assessment, we decided to slightly adapt the format of the event. Traditionally the colts were judged on the Friday and the fillies on the Saturday, we have now spread the championships out over 3 days. On Thursday we start with the youngest categories of foals, on Friday it is the turn of the middle group and on Saturday we expect the oldest foals. We always start with the colts in the morning and the fillies follow in the afternoon. This is also a more fair form of assessment: the foals are presented in the reverse order of their date of birth, which gives every foal the same chances in its selection for the auction.