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Going From Strength to Strength Brendon Stud page 2

The trip sums up much about Shirley: she is passionate about her horses, and never for one moment forgets their welfare or that they need to have variety and enjoyment in their lives. It’s typical of her approach that she should drive the horse lorry across to the continent herself and then take on the care and preparation of the horses once there. She is an extraordinarily hard worker, and is always to be found with her broodmares when they are foaling, whatever the time of day or night!

I asked her about her approach to finding the right breeding stallions – home grown or brought in? In fact, she does both, and this year is so pleased with the quality of Warrior’s crop of foals that she is planning to keep many of the best colts to see how they develop. She uses a contact to talent spot promising youngsters in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, and will usually buy them at 2 to 3 years old unbroken. She avoids the big price/big name sales on the continent, and instead has built a network of small breeders and farmers who she knows are likely to have quality stock, but even so the search can sometimes involve driving many miles across the continent to see a colt described as “promising” only to find on arrival that they have capped hocks, “and look like sh*t!” Shirley tells a great story of how she found Nederland F – she had spotted him in a stable in a small farm in Holland, and after visiting some further studs, returned there to insist that the farmer get up from his bed, where he was nursing a bout of flu, to show her the horse. He had no schooling arena, so Nederland was shown off in the farmyard – and when Shirley wanted to see him loose jumped they barricaded an area, and improvised jumps with milk churns and branches that they had torn off trees! In spite of the circumstances, he must have impressed her, as she closed the deal there and then. Describing what she looks for in a potential breeding stallion, temperament has to come first, as all the stallions at Brendon are handled by women day-to-day, and are travelled with mares to competitions – so they have to be sane and trainable. Beyond that, it’s talent – that intangible quality: “The horse has got to have that something about it - I’ve got to think “God, I hope that this one jumps!”” Shirley won’t look at the pedigree until she has seen the youngster itself. Her approach is demonstrated in the breadth of the pedigrees that she can now draw upon amongst the Brendon stallions, with KWPN, Holstein, BWP and Selle Français studbooks all being represented, and the bloodlines of almost all the continental “greats” : Argentinus, Nimmerdor, Cor de la Bryère, Grannus, Voltaire, Narcos, Quidam de Revel, Holland, Landgraf I....

Once broken, the stallions have to prove themselves, and they are expected to clock up success out competing alongside their stud duties, although Shirley is wary of pushing her horses too young, too soon. She believes in being ruthless about gelding those young stallions that she judges are not going to be suitable for one reason or another – a recent example being the very good-looking 4 year old Buddaire, whose sire, Thallot K, died tragically young. Buddaire was not settling to his competition career once the breeding season had started. Now gelded, he is coming into himself as a talented showjumper.

... And showjumping, of course, is the raison d’etre of both the competition centre on site and of the breeding operation, so that much of the family’s time is spent planning campaigns for each horse, and organising trips to the major UK shows throughout the year. Building the competition success of the stallions is an essential part of proving their worth and of marketing them. A key element of that success is finding the right rider – and some big names have ridden for the Lights over the years – Joe Clee, Guy Williams, Damian Charles, and now Louise Pavitt. Shirley would admit that both she and Cyril have not been the easiest of people to ride for on occasions – they are neither of them into massaging rider egos, and will tell it very straight, with the occasional expletive thrown in! Shirley is also intensely protective of her horses, and will let fly if she believes that a rider has ridden them badly. Interestingly, all the stallions seem to go especially well for Louise (who had a nasty accident a few months ago, breaking her ankle, and was back up in the saddle with her ankle all strapped up long before she should have been!) Shirley thinks that it might be because she is perhaps more responsive and attuned to the individual horses than some male riders, and, of course, the stallions are also used to being handled by women ....

In spite of her enormous commitment to the breeding side of the business, Shirley is very emphatic that it is essential to have a life outside horses: “Down time is so important – horses can’t be your only life”. She has a tremendous sense of (sometimes outrageous!) fun, and never loses sight of the importance of continuing to enjoy breeding and competing horses, avoiding it becoming “just another job”. One result of her sense of humour is the choice of stable name for her young horses – each year there is a different theme, cities, for instance, or, in the case of 2008, drugs – hence “Opium” (Flamingo van’t Palmenhof), “Morph” (Nederland Esquire), “Hash” (Buddaire) – which has caused some red faces and hastily substituted fictional stable names once or twice!) She talks about how easy it can be, when breeding is your business and you have a very busy stud, to lose the connection with the horses themselves, “You must always remember that they are animals, not robots!”

I asked Shirley which of her young horses she is most excited about – Warrior is attracting a lot of attention at the moment, and built on his 2008 record of 10 wins in young horse finals in 2009. His first crop of foals are very eye-catching, free-moving and with what one admirer describes as lots of “bling-bling” about them! Shirley believes that Flamingo van’t Palmenhof might be outstandingly good, although he needs to be persuaded to be more forward thinking sometimes. She’s also excited about Nederland Esquire, the coloured offspring of Nederland F.
Her ultimate ambition? “To see a horse that we have bred get to the Olympics” With three of the young Brendon stallions selected for the Equine Pathway Development Programme, and the stud going from strength to strength, it may not be too long before she realises her ambition!

by Ginny Smith

For information on the stallions, stud facilities, and the competition centre:
http://www.brendonpyecombe.co.uk