Louella Stud cont.....

When I read the history surrounding Louella Stud you can feel the passion, drive and enthusiasm that encompasses the breeding philosophy of the stud. There is no doubting that this Studfarm has to be regarded as one of the best that are engraved on British soil, that have utilised all available bloodlines and types to push their breeding programme forward over the years.

Lucy summarises the history and achievements of this successful operation...

"Primitive Rising" is 8th in this years WBFSH (world breeding federation of sport horses) Eventing Sire Rankings, and was the BE leading sire of 7yo eventers in 2009.

We were really pleased to see that our sport horse stallion "Primitive Star" seems to be following in his fathers footsteps. He was 12th in the top 50 sires of 6yo eventers in 2009 from his first crop of foals. "Primitive Rising" was 6th in the Top 50 of all time sires other Louella Stallions in the list were "Rapid Pass" at 30th, "Louella Inschallah II" at 35th and "Criminal Law" at 40th."

After finding out all the details of how this great stud came to be, I went on to ask Lucy what Louella Stud thought were the most important aspects to becoming a top breeder.

"You have got to be very critical of your own stock and only breed from the best"

With the amount of high class stallions that have stood over the years at Louella, I was keen to know what Lucy thought was important to standing a potential high class stallion?

"Very good conformation and movement, a good pedigree, nice temperament and the "x factor" that all the top stallions seem to have. Most importantly the abilty to add improvement to the mare."

Criminal Law
Dual Stakes Winner, Top Eventing Sire

The next question I asked Lucy was "What do you think are the most important factors when looking for a potential stallion, and how to you go about finding one and has your selections changed over the years?"

"As above really although now I think temperament is very important because you want the stallion to compete as well. When we first stood stallions it was very unusual for them to compete, but now it is becoming the norm."

It will naturally come as no surprise that Louella are as passionate about their mares and youngstock, as their stallions. So I asked Lucy what qualities they look for in a breeding mare, and what she classed as being the most important aspects when looking for a mare?

"We look for the same sort of qualities as our stallions. Sound conformation with good limbs and movement, a nice pedigree. We tend to have mares with a bit of substance because we cross them with a TB stallions.

Although we do have a few TB mares that we use the racing stallions on and also Primitive Star. If the mare had a performance record, then all the better, however we would not rule out a nice mare with good breeding but who hadn't competed."

Next I asked Lucy how they matched up the mares with the stallions, especially given the selection of stallions they have on offer.

"We have a good look at the mares conformation and her breeding lines, and then dependent on these we would then match her with a stallion that we feel would compliment her the best."

As we have found out so far, Louella likes their stallions to be good competition horses AND good breeding stallions. So I decided to ask Lucy what she felt was more important, a stallion who does well in the sport, or a stallion who does well as a breeder?

"Both would be nice! However, I think the proof is in the pudding, and a breeding stallion is only as good as the progeny he produces."

As Louella have used a diverse amount of blood from different breeds, I asked Lucy what bloodlines she felt have had the most influence in the world of breeding?

"The Thorougbred because if you look at the modern sports horse you see that most other breed socities use this them as an improver to their gene pool. We have seen the Irish draught society do this, along with the Hanoverians, KWPN and Holsteins. You need some "blood" within the modern sports horse and the thoroughbred does this without losing the quality of horse."

Moving on to what Louella produces, I asked Lucy what they looked for in their foals.

"We look for good quality in all the foals, with good clean and correct limbs, with correct, free movement. "

Louella themselves have a fantastic selection of stallions available for mare owners covering all disciplines. However, I was keen to know from Lucy if there were any stallions they currently rate highly that are not their own.

"I really like "Wish upon a Star" (Gribaldi x Houston). He is lovely looking, and is doing really well eventing. We don't often use other stallions other than our own but I would like to use him on a couple of our mares.
 
In dressage, like a lot of people, I think "Totilas" is amazing. I also like the stock of "Sir Donerhall", they are very quality, and we have used "De Niro" on one of our T.B mares and have a lovely yearling colt by him. "Dimaggio" is proving to be a very good sire and he is based in Britain too!"

Primitive Star
Champion Non TB at the SHB(GB)
Stallion Grading

"In Show jumping I like "Argento" and "Peppermill". Our new young stallion "Captivate" by the KWPN jumping stallion "Up To Date", and is out of a sister to "Mr Blue", who was a brilliant jumper and had some really talented offspring. "

Captivate
(Up To Date x Mr Blue)
New Louella Stallion for 2010

Wish Upon A Star
(Gribaldi x Houston)
(www.grafhamstud.co.uk)

Still on the topic of stallions, I then went on to ask Lucy - If you could choose one stallion who is doing well at the moment to own, which one would it be and why?

"Only one? If it was a Thoroughbred I would choose Galileo. He has every thing, a great pedigree, a fantastic performance record and is very good looking but most importantly he is coming up with the goods and has become a great sire."

Louella Stud has had a great many achievements over the years and it would be hard to pick from them all, however, I did ask Lucy what she thought was their greatest achievement.

"Winning the Merial Meritoire Life time achievement award in 2008 for our contribution to British Breeding. It was especially moving because my grandpa died in 2006 but I know he would have been chuffed to bits."

You cannot help but be moved by the above, and just how important Louis Massarella was to the foundation of this Studfarm, and how he mapped out a great dynasty for future generations.

Galileo
(Sadler's Wells - Urban Sea)
(Copyright - Coolmore Stud)
Champion sire with 11 Group 1

I went on to ask Lucy what other memories she had so far in her breeding career?

"Louella stallions have been exported all over Europe, Australia, New Zealand, America and Asia as well as many to Ireland where they have gone on to be Dublin Show Champions. This led to my Grandpa Louis being named 'Stallion man of the century' by the Irish Field. In 1990 Louis was the first person to export a horse to Russia since the 1917 revolution."

This Studfarm has achieved so much over the years and generations that you may wonder what future goals they could possibility aspire to, but I naturally had to ask this question of Lucy.

"To carry on breeding quality horses that do well. I love the fact that we have horses doing so well in such different disciplines. "Big Fella Thanks" is by "Primitive Rising", he came 6th in last years grand national and is running in it again this year. "Kings Mistress" also by "Primitive rising" was highest placed mare at burghley last year and I really looking forward to seeing how she does eventing this year.

Big Fella Thanks
(Primative Rising)
(Copyright - Racing Post)
Grand National Runner