Ranging Far and Wide Roy and Pat Cole of Pennway Stud

by Ginny Smith photography by Fiona McOuat

Above: Hever Golf Ranger
photograph courtesy of Pennway Stud

The website of Pennway Welsh Ponies provides a hint of the amazing variety of interests and experience that Roy and Pat Cole share – covering not only their extremely successful breeding and showing record with Welsh ponies, but also the TB stallion Hever Golf Ranger standing at Pennway (his story is told below), Pat’s artistic talent, and the black and tan Irish terriers that the couple breed!

One of the first things to strike you when you meet Roy and Pat is their passionate attachment to their animals, and their pride in the achievements of their breeding stock. Sitting on a hay bale in a barn at the stud on the Sussex/Kent border, on a gaspingly hot day, we listened as Roy told us the fascinating story of his life with horses, and his partnership with Pat.

Roy was born into a farming family in New Zealand; his father ran a dairy farm and trained racehorses. His grandfather (apart from being a horse whisperer), was a well-known engineer in New Zealand, the great-great grandson of George Stephenson, the builder of one of the very earliest steam engines, ‘Stephenson’s Rocket’! He was born in Scotland, and emigrated to New Zealand in his youth.

Roy was riding ponies and racehorses “soon after I could walk”. He described the wonderful little TB pony, Clancy, that he owned and competed as a teenager - for a number of years Clancy was the top pony in New Zealand, winning in both the show ring and excelling over jumps. He had come to Roy with a very dubious history, having been put up for sale after he had killed the son of the seller.

Above: Hever Golf Ranger

Roy went into racing in both New Zealand and Australia, and then discovered a passion for rodeo riding, and followed the circuit in both countries. His face still lights up as he remembers the excitement of the competition. He started his vet training, but had to return home when his father was diagnosed with MS, and Roy helped on the farm and took over responsibility for the training of the 60 racehorses then on site. In 1965, needing additional staff to help run the training stables, he placed an advertisement in a New Zealand paper, and one of the people to answer was the girl who was to become his wife!

Pat had come to New Zealand from the UK to stay with a relative, and she had planned to work for a few months to get enough money for the trip home – but romance intervened, and the return to the UK was not to happen for many years! Like Roy, she had grown up with a love of horses and ponies, and had ridden as a lady jockey in New Zealand before applying for the job at the training stables. She went on to win the race known as the “Powder Puff Derby” (first run in 1970) after her marriage, on a very fast horse that she had bought and trained herself - Hine Matua.

In 1988 a very bad recession in New Zealand decided the couple to come to the UK with their family for an extended holiday ..... and 22 years later, they are still here! Roy got a job with the Popeleys at Hever Castle Stud as their stud master. When a golf course was developed on site, a racing syndicate was started (largely to promote the golf course, hence the Hever Golf prefix), and had tremendous success with their first purchase - (by Efisio) a multiple Group 1 winner. The syndicate also imported a Group 2 winner, a French mare called Bold Green, who was already in foal; when she produced a nice offspring they decided to keep her and put her back in foal to Efisio The resultant offspring was Hever Golf Ranger. “The sweetest little mare, the nicest horse ever”, Roy said of Bold Green; Ranger has obviously inherited his dam’s temperament.

Sadly, due to the dissolution of the syndicate and several years disentangling business issues, Ranger did not get the opportunities that his half-sister had had to show his talent on the track, but Roy had always admired him and had built a special relationship with the horse since he was a foal, and was keen to acquire him. He eventually had the opportunity to do so, and tells the story of how he then sent Ranger to the show rider Helen Baker with the aim of producing Ranger for the new classes for retrained racehorses. Ranger had not been ridden for 4 years, but after lunging him Helen got on board – and he rode wonderfully! 6 weeks later he won Champion Ridden Stallion at Hickstead. Sadly, the rules were subsequently changed to exclude stallions from the retrained racehorse classes, but the story gives some idea of the courage and temperament of this little horse; he is incredibly calm and level-headed, and the strong affection and rapport between Roy and his horse is very evident when you see them together.

Whilst he was still living in New Zealand, Roy managed to not only run the training stables for his father, but also to study acupuncture and equine physiotherapy. He’s very modest about his skills in this area, but Mark and Tanya Kyle describe him on their Queenholme website as “having a gift for interpreting the needs of a horse – he really is invaluable – he has kept our horses in good shape for about 12 years, and we wouldn’t know what to do without him”. His ability as a physiotherapist has led to his working with both the Irish and Australian national teams.

Pat, meanwhile, had always wanted to return to her first love - the Welsh pony - and started breeding in 1975, firstly part-breds, subsequently moving into pure breds. (It might have helped that Roy was at that point the Chair of the North Island Welsh Society!) In 1989, her first purchase in the UK was a Section B filly, Laithehill Columbine, from the Laithehill Stud in Yorkshire - who went on to win 9 Supreme championships, and whose legacy as a broodmare has been 5 in-hand Champions. Pennway are currently standing their own 9 year-old Champion Section B stallion, Pennway Peregrine, a beautifully put together elegant grey by Coed Coch Pele out of Laithehill Amethyst.

Pat is emphatic that an absolutely key criteria for them in breeding is temperament – and “Woody”, as he is known, is a very impressive example.

Above: Pat, looking rather surprised at finding herself on Woody’s back!

He is stabled happily in-between a 2 year-old colt and his own yearling daughter, looking totally relaxed about the arrangement. And whilst we were visiting him in his stable, Roy suddenly decided that he would persuade Pat to pop up on his back - he didn’t move a hoof!