Well this is a first, a blog! I’m not ever so sure what one is but here goes, North Brook End Stud writes a blog!
So we shall start at the beginning, that’s always a good place to start.
North Brook End as it is today is a product of evolution. We started almost 20 years ago by renting our property. We moved in with 5 horses, one of which was a 4 year old Irish sports horse, gelding, who later became our grand prix horse, he helped build what we have here today. In addition we had number of clients horses, some of whom we still have horses for here for today. We developed our business by buying and selling horses and ponies that we brought over from Ireland, these were good fun times for us and I’m sure many of our clients from the time will still agree!
Douglas had a dream of building something great. Like all dreams it needed following through and with the healthy application of hard work, determination and a stubborn streak, so robust that meant neither of us would quit!. I love to see the young horses go from being green and unsure to confident and secure and independent in what they do, thats the hard bit, once they get to that point they can flourish. Douglas, I can say is the most inspiring horseman, with the most enviable ability to see the best and in turn bring out the best in many horses. North Brook End Stud, we are proud to say is our home and our business.
We have two stallions here at the moment, Akropolis and Claudius. Claude will be standing at Stallion AI sevices for part of the 2019 breeding season, to do frozen, chilled and fresh collections. Claude is a 17hh Oldenburg stallion by Careful (Contender) out of an Oldenburg mare by Lauriston. He is a delight in everyway. He demonstrates fabulous movement, jump and conformation combined with his lovely temperament makes him an ideal choice for mare owners. Claude’s young stock are impressive, demonstrating his fantastic temperament and movement as well as showing real blood qualities. The stallion is competing internationally at Grand Prix Level with Simon Crippen. Akropolis is son of double Olympic gold medal winning mare Saphire. He is an approved stallion with world class blood lines (VOLTAIR / SAPHIRE). He is a compact powerful stallion with good conformation and an exemplary temperament and jump. As a result he received one of the highest recorded scores at the Belgium Warmblood Society grading as a four year old in 2004. As a six year old, he won the British Showjumping final. He then went on to compete successfully to 1m40 until it was decided to retire him to stud in 2009. He is the only biological son of Sapphire (Darco), who won Olympic gold in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) and accumulated in excess of USD 5 million in prize money. We are looking to have a third stallion to join the boys here. Hopefully our new addition will bring something new to the mix and help bridge a gap in the market.
Last but not least a quick mention to our herd of beautifully bred sports horse mares some of whom we have had since we very first moved in. Our mares all boast fabulous temperaments and correct conformation and movement and are the reason we have such a lovely bunch of horses.
Our young horses hang out here living a stress free life, until such a time that they move out to a new home or are broken in here buy our super in house team, fronted up buy talented horseman Jon Bard. Working closely with Douglas a plan is formulated for each and every horse for the critical early stages of training.
In addition to NBE’s breeding program we have a number of visitors both horses and human. Clinics and camps for all disciplines are held here throughout the year. Guest clinics by Simon Crippen, Claude’s jockey, are held here monthly in addition to many other opportunities to train.
Now for the most amazing part, the development of the new mare and foal unit. Hand in hand with our stud vets we aspire to offer from our new yard, premium mare and foal care with opportunity to offer both AI services and natural covering. Moving forward we will also offer a range of reproductive services for both mares and stallions.
In a nut shell that’s us and what we do. So if you’d like to hear a little more about us I believe I’ll be writing a wee update now and then to keep you all in the loop, as we move through the ups and downs of the year at NBE. Thanks for reading and I hope we did ok with our maiden blog. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or take a look at our web site,
