‘Her legacy will live on in her horses’: farewell to passionate breeder
Obituary
Penny Podmore, the owner of Brownscombe Stud in Devon, has died aged 75.
Penny was born in London but brought up on Dartmoor where her father had a farm. She returned briefly to London to work, before training at the Fairfield Stud in Sussex. Having completed her training she bought some fillies and an Anglo Arab colt. Renting a yard in Goudhurst, Kent, started her lifelong love of breeding horses.
In 1979 she married Jim and a yard was built near their home which enabled the stud to grow. She could often be seen at this time driving Jim’s Porsche with haynets hanging out of the windows! The stud rapidly outgrew its premises in Kent and they moved to Brownscombe Farm.
She was passionate about developing her knowledge of breeding and worked closely with list one and FEI dressage judge Barry Marshall, attending major competitions. After Jim’s early death, Penny continued to stay at the forefront of all the changing techniques within the industry and was involved in the early stages of using AI in horse breeding. She was thrilled to stand Fontainebleau at stud; he caused quite a stir when he arrived. One of her proudest moments came when one of his foals gained the top score at the Futurity evaluations. Penny went on to stand the grand prix stallion Royal Rubin at stud, he had competed internationally prior to his arrival including at Aachen in 2009. His progeny speak for themselves.
Penny was a kind and generous person, totally professional and dedicated to her horses and breeding. Her support to those people lucky enough to own one of her horses was unwavering, she would travel miles to watch them compete. Her legacy will live on through the horses she bred.
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.