The Registry of the United Horned Hair Sheep Association, Inc. consists of Official Records of Pedigrees based on information that members submit to the registry. Submissions are accepted through electronic means in addition to physical forms mailed through the U.S. Post Office.
Membership in UHHSA, Inc and the division in which you are registering sheep is required in order to register sheep. You will need to be an active Member with dues paid up to date. The Registry is currently open, meaning that sheep with unknown backgrounds which pass photo inspection will be allowed in. The Board of Directors may wave membership provision in additional divisions, if you are not actively breeding another breed represented by UHHSA, Inc., but just own a couple of any of the other represented breeds and use them to create new bloodlines and wish to register them to have complete pedigree lines.
The Registry is an honor-based system. Especially as an open registry and with the foundation stock, it is dependent upon the integrity of the breeders. Registration in any of the divisions is not meant to automatically guarantee to buyers of registered sheep that all progeny will produce the exact same color or pattern. The breed standards are the goals that participating breeders should be working toward and that is why keeping flock records of breeding information and results is highly important. Please keep in mind:
- The Breed Standards are different from the REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS. Official registration helps build an officially recognized pedigree and vital to conservation, breed promotion, and breed improvement. It is important to register all of your sheep which meet the REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS. The Requirements for Registration must be the emphasis for choosing which sheep to register and NOT the Breed Standards. This allows for building a large genetic pool.
- Shepherds may choose to focus on specific improvements in one or more of the STANDARDS for their flock and that is okay. Which ones will you choose?
With open registrations, registries need to go on the physical looks of sheep with unknown pedigrees. As the genetic pool grows, the requirements may become more limiting where at least one parent must be registered. In a completely closed registry, the sheep being registered must come out of two registered parents. At this time, it is unforeseeable when the numbers and genetic diversity needed for the continuation and perpetuation of the represented breeds may be attained which would then permit UHHSA, Inc. to start limiting Registrations to those sheep having one or both parents registered.
ALL members are expected to abide by the Members