"I have been involved with horses from a very early age and have ridden and competed throughout my teenage years. My real interest and passion for breeding developed after qualifying as vet from the Royal Veterinary College in 2006. After developing skills in the field of equine reproduction and artificial insemination, I found myself increasingly drawn into the subject of horse breeding. Working with a variety of client, I had a fantastic opportunity to see and compare the offspring produced by a wide variety of stallions on an even wider variety of mares. It fascinated me to learn more about bloodlines and studbooks, which sparked a particular interest in the KWPN and Hanoverian breeding. My veterinary background allowed me to bring to the table a keen eye for conformation and an ever expanding knowledge of equine athletes in all three disciplines, all of which led me to focus on my own breeding enterprise. My aim is to breed high quality modern sport horses that have the temperament, rideability and soundness to perform in there discipline. My veterinary knowledge and passion drive my ambition and attention to detail. All the reproductive work and care of the mares and foals is done by myself. It is for this reason that I only breed a small number of foals every year. I believe this individual care coupled with a natural environment to grow up in allows my foals the best possible start in life. Right from conception the mares are managed to ensure the nutrition is correct throughout pregnancy and lactation. I believe this is key to ensure the correct development of the foal and its future soundness. I like our mares and foals to graze and live out as much as possible. I am fortunate that my home is also a working dairy farm, giving me wonderful grassland management and the ability to produce our own high quality haylage. All my foals are well handled right from birth and I aim to get them halter broken and leading within the first week. I am particularly critical about foot balance and limb development in our foals. All foals have their feet regularly trimmed from 2 weeks old and any issue addressed early. Proper management is imperative to ensure sound development of the foals limbs and therefore future soundness in adulthood. When choosing a mating for one of my graded mares I concentrate closely on bloodlines. I perform a detailed matching of conformation/strengths and gaits to best compliment my mares. I follow closely the stallions shows and performance test results from the continent to ensure I am abreast of all the latest breeding news and the upcoming stars! This means that I don’t just follow fashion and I do use some young upcoming stallions. My foals are unique and in some cases may only be one of a few available in the UK with that bloodline!
