A Feathery Tale Abbeywood Stud and Commanche Ace

by Ginny Smith

“A 3ft mane, and the best black and white in Kent” was how the young stallion Commanche Ace was advertised, 16 years ago .... And that’s where the story began for Steve and Kirsten Wilson of Abbeywood Stud in Headcorn, Kent.

Both were brought up in horsey households, Kirsten as a keen Pony Club member, and Steve with driving Hackneys – so that when they met up, there was no chance that horses would not form part of the equation! Steve bought Kirsten a Connemara jumping pony for her 21st birthday, and then in 1994, when looking for a driving cob, they came across the advertisement for the 3 year old traditional black and white stallion. They went to view him, and really liked him, but there was a sufficient element of doubt for Steve to say, “Let’s think about it”, and they did so for a week – and then decided that they had to have him!

He was originally bought to be Steve’s driving cob, and he continued with this plan, driving him out every weekend, but as they got to know him better and realised what an incredibly versatile little horse he was, with an outstanding temperament, they were increasingly persuaded that they should consider showing him in-hand and under saddle. Neither had had any experience of showing before, but their first taste of the show ring provided them with all the evidence they needed that they had something very special on their hands!

Commanche Ace won the CHAPS National Champion Pony in-hand and Overall Reserve Supreme of show in 1996, and in 1998 the ridden pony championship and Overall Reserve Supreme of Show. In the years since they bought him he has had endless successes in the show ring, in total winning 60 championships, and winning at the Royal Windsor at the ripe old age of 15. He is elite graded with both CHAPS (UK) and BSPA.

Photo Courtesy of Equinational

Abbeywood have never run a high-profile marketing campaign promoting their stallion; the number of photographs of “Ace” wearing a champion’s sash appearing in Horse & Hound over the years has probably been sufficient publicity!

In many ways, this was a ‘different’ stud visit, inspired by our realisation that there is a thriving market for Traditionals in both the UK and the US.

In fact, if you are a breeder of quality Gipsy cobs, you are probably able to attract much more buyer interest at the moment from the US – and much higher prices! - than if you are a sport horse breeder, and we realised that we really had not covered this very popular area in the magazine as yet. Whereas our previous stud visits have been to breeders who are breeding for a discipline, and/a type or breed – be it Anglo Arab, or warmblood - Kirsten described their enthusiasm for colour. So whilst many of Ace’s offspring will be aimed at the show ring, Abbeywood’s principal reason for breeding is to breed well-marked, quality coloured horses with excellent temperaments; they may be Gipsy cobs, New Forest types, or part-Hanoverian ..... And they not only use their own stallion, but have recently put a mare in foal to the top showjumping stallion Utah van Erpekom, for instance.

We saw impressive evidence of the quality that Ace throws from both ‘real-life’ examples - youngsters in the immaculate post-and-rail paddocks - and photos of foals that Ace has sired over the years. He has recently been tested for being homozygous, and as Kirsten said, there wasn’t much doubt of the result! Many of his youngstock are now driving, and he does well over part-bred Arabs, producing many foals that have scored some excellent results in showing. Heiland Butterfly, out of a PBA mare, taking the 2008 Youngstock Evaluations championship and reserve champion Breeders Challenge at the CHAPS (UK) Championships, and in 2009 was the reserve champion in the Pferde Sporthorse/Pony Youngstock Championship. Another of the foals, Gemini, is a 2004 granddaughter of Ace out of a homebred mare, Heiland Gabrielle, by the Dales stallion Hett Brown Boy. Gemini won the native yearling Youngstock final at the CHAPS (UK) Championships in 2005, was 2nd in 2006 and 3rd in 2007. In 2008 she passed her grading with CHAPS (UK) with star status. Gemini produced a black tobiano colt foal by Travellers Fortune this year and is proving to be a lovely mum.

Above: Heiland Butterfly

photograph courtesy of Equinational

With foal at foot she attended the CHAPS (UK) Championships and gained the following results: 2nd in the native/cob traditional broodmare class, 1st in the Breeders Challenge 4 years and over class and took 2nd reserve champion in that championship.

Ace has at least two generations of offspring in the US, from a covering of a traditional mare which produced a fine colt foal, “Ace’s Sir Lancelot”, later sold to the US, which has gone on to produce coloured offspring.

Recently, as they had started to receive enquiries about the availability of chilled semen, and have only a limited acreage for the turnout of visiting mares, Steve and Kirsten talked to Jamie Anderson of Pelion Stud about the possibility of training Ace on a dummy mare – this is a stallion who is in his late teens, and has always done things the natural way! Most of us would have ruled it out from the start. But Jamie was enthusiastic and optimistic about his chances of success, apparently saying that he would have him trained in two days – and he did! Kirsten was very pleased about the fact that this has opened up a much wider market for her stallion, and enabled her to save some frozen semen for use on her own mares in the future.

As we drove away from the stud we caught our last glimpse of Ace – leading the sort of life that should be available to every 19 year old stallion!, not perfectly brushed and crimped for the show ring, but out in his field with the sunshine on his back, happily browsing, with his chosen companion – a part Hanoverian mare – close by in the next paddock. Apparently he falls in love with one mare, and only one, every year, and his happiness is complete if she is able to stay close to him over the summer months!