British Breeder Magazine, February 2021

Studbook - News
Cruz & Jayne Turney – 2020 Magic Prix St Georges Winter National Champions. Photo - Kevin Sparrow
In recent years the SPSS’s mantra has
been “Performance is paramount:
recognising ability & potential;
facilitating improvement; striving for
success” and we also do what we can
to support all our breeders from the
regular to the occasional. Therefore,
we are delighted to be announcing
that the 2020 SPSS award recipients
are someone who has only ever bred
2 foals but seen one achieve top results
and a young stallion whose breeder has
probably bred in excess of 100 times as
many foals.
So, at the delayed 2020 British
Dressage (BD) NAF Five Star Winter
Dressage Championships, the SPSS
passported gelding Cruz made history
by becoming the first pony to take the
Magic Prix St Georges (PSG) Winter
National Title when he scored 70.79%
to top the leader board. His owner and
rider, Jayne Turney, said through her
tears when interviewed for the live
stream, “he just tries so hard for me
The Sports Pony Studbook Society
SPSS Rewarding Excellence
Championing all breeders
great & small
and always gives 110%”. This was
just the latest and greatest of a string
of successes for Cruz and Jayne, as
they were also the 2013 SPSS Young
Dressage Pony Champions; 2015 BD
Medium Restricted National Champions;
2018 BD Advanced Medium Silver
Reserve Champions and 2019 BD
Advanced Medium Gold Reserve
Champions. Cruz also won the 2014
BD Novice Open National Champions
ridden by multiple Pony Team &
Individual medallist, Phoebe Peters, and
then with both Charlotte McDowall and
Jessie Kirby represented Great Britain
at International FEI Pony Dressage in
2016/7.
Therefore, the 2020 SPSS Breeders
Award goes to Cruz’s breeder, Rachel
Silk, who started Cruz’s story by buying
his dam, Chaneira, as a first dressage
horse for her daughter after she moved
on from ponies. A small Oldenburg
by Don Larino out of the thoroughbred
Cannabis (by Casteddu), Rachel bought
Chaneira through her daughter’s trainer,
Lucy Farrer, who was producing her for
then owner Lois Allard of Coady Bay
Stud who had imported her from her
German breeder, Rainer Ahlers. Sadly
though, after just a year and a promising
start with good scores, Chaneira was
injured in the field and so, as Rachel
thought her a really lovely mare, she
decided to breed from her and Chaneira
had her first foal (by Sheepcote
Wurlitzer) in 2007.
Then, Lois saw Samantha Brown
competing SPSS Elite graded FEI pony
dressage stallion Caesar 171 and
suggested to Rachel that he would
be a great match for Chaneira and a
year later, Cruz was born. When he
was two Cruz was seen and bought
by one of Carl Hester’s pupils, Lucy
Cartwright, who sold him some months
later to another (and undoubtedly the
most famous!) of Carl’s pupils, Charlotte
Dujardin. When Cruz was rising 4,
Charlotte asked her longstanding friend,
Jayne Turney, to back him and this set the
success in motion, with Jayne becoming
his owner in 2019.
Although Rachel describes the breeding
of Cruz as being a series of “happy
coincidences” and says that it was very
much that the right people appeared
at the right time, it was Rachel who
took on the commitment and cost of
breeding and so we are delighted to
acknowledge her key contribution to the
success of Cruz with this SPSS award.
22 | BRITISH BREEDER