British Breeder Dec 2023

Futurity Report - Breen Equestrian
All photos - Tanja Davis Photography. www.tanjadavis.com
Futurity - Breen Equestrian
31st July
For the first time, the British Breeding
Baileys Horse Feeds Futurity visited
Breen Equestrian at their lovely facility
at Hickstead. We would like to thank the
team there for making us feel very
welcome and for showcasing such
a high quality of foals all of whom
achieved very convincing results.
The highest score of 9.02 and only Elite
of the day went to a highly promising
unnamed colt bred by Breen Equestrian.
Says Greg Le Gear:
“He is by AES Elite Graded prolific
Grand Prix stallion Golden Hawk. His
Dam is called BE Completely. She is by
Cornet Obolensky out of Fragile D’Or
who jumped herself to 1.50m level. BE
completely is super careful and very
scopey over her fences.nWe have high
hopes for this colt and were delighted
with the feedback from the whole panel
on the day.
“As a stud we stand 14 stallions, 8 of
which are 1.60m jumpers. Our main
stud is at Hickstead. There we have
35 broodmares, the majority of which
have jumped 1.40m level and above
including international winners at 1.60m
level . We have approximately 140
youngsters, comprising of foals 1, 2 and
3-year-olds. We also have a small stud
in Ireland and in the Ukraine.
“Our Hickstead facility is located 1/2
mile from the Showground and has
housing for approximately 100 horses,
a sand arena, paddocks, AI room and
stallion station for sending out chilled
semen. The stud will continue to grow
and develop.”
The highest scoring eventing foal
presented at Breen Equestrian was
Sandhole Royal Flush who was bred and
presented by Kate Ludden. This lovely
colt achieved an overall mark of 8.8.
Insert image Sandhole Royal Flush
Kate tells the story behind this foal:
“This is my second year of breeding and
my first year of bringing my foals to the
Futurity grading. My mother had bred for
many years and I competed on many of
her homebred horses in British Eventing
events."
Sadly in 2020 my mother was
diagnosed with a brain tumour. We
knew we had limited time with mum.
During 2021 I bought a very well bred 4
year old mare, Rachan Westdeka. She
had super breeding and after playing
with her for a few months under saddle I
decided to turn her away as she needed
to mature. Mum then said to me, half
joking, that I should put her in foal,
giving her time to mature and develop
while having a foal.
We used a super young Selle Francais
jumping stallion and the result was an
absolutely stunning filly. This filly was
born 2 days before we lost mum, so
mum never got to see her but I know she
would have loved her and would have
been so pleased.
This gave me the bug of breeding, and
I decided to put my lovely mare back in
foal along with my other super mare that
I had. This time I put Rachan Westdeka
to a stallion that mum had desperately
wanted to use, Britannia Royal. I spoke
to Annabel Blake, the stallion’s owner,
who very kindly donated half the stud
fee to St Michaels hospice who had
looked after mum in her last few weeks.
The outcome was “Paco”, Sandhole
Royal Flush.
I am so delighted with this foal, and to
bring him to the evaluation where the
vets and judges also really liked him was
wonderful. It was also really special as
Annabel Blake and her husband came
along that day to meet us all and Paco.
My other foal also got a gold score, so
the whole day was really special. It has
however made me even more keen to
keep breeding!”
Sandhole Royal Flush Littledale What A Star
The top scoring 4yo entry at this venue
was the pony Littledale What A Star
presented by Philly Ledger-Beadell. This
young gelding is by Littledale Bright Star
out of of a mare by Broadstone Dickens.
He achieved a lovely high gold score of
8.62.
The highest scoring 3-year-old entry of
the day was the beautiful dressage pony
MM Sweet Sensation who achieved an
impressive score of 8.5.
Says her proud breeder and owner Kelly
Mewes
“Her dam is MM Sweet De Luxe who
is now in Canada and whose sire is
Champion De Luxe, a prolific stallion of
champion dressage ponies. Her sire is
Woodlander Sir Gorgeous and the stud
bred 3 ponies from him as he produces
not only a wonderful sports pony, but a
trainable temperament too and is also
now sold to the US.
“We call her Eva at home, or Little Eva
as she may be small but good things
come in small packages! We lightly
backed her this summer and she was
incredible, being able to walk, trot and
canter happily with a rider on in 6
sessions and that was taking it slowly as
she accepted everything so well! Then
we hope to contend BD young pony
classes next year.
“She is quite the boss lady at home
and loves attention as she knows she is
special, but soo loving, she loves nothing
more than a cuddle and some polos!”
The top Eventing 4yo entry was Sarah
Gadd’s Wolkens Law who scored a very
good 8.4.
28 | BRITISH BREEDER