Pony showjumping foal scores big at Futurity *VIDEO*
Myerscough College in Lancashire was the venue for the Baileys/BEF Futurity on 13 August where a colt sports pony showjumping foal, Thursden Vallye Leonardo (Rotherwood Signature x Aimbry Chester) took an elite premium of 9.00 for his delighted owner and breeder, Catherine Billington from Burnley.
Thursden Vallye Leonardo’s dam, Thursden Vallye Monet is full sister to the hugely successful sports pony stallion, Thursden Vallye Raphael who Catherine also bred.
Catherine said: “Leonardo is an absolute carbon copy of Raphael. I am looking to sell Leonardo to a showing producing home where he can preferably also stand as a stallion.”
Thursden Vallye Leonardo is the first foal of Thursden Vallye Monet. Catherine added: “Monet is hopefully back in foal to Rotherwood Signature for 2016.”
Scoring a second elite premium in as many Futurity visits was Fortunatus (see video top) (Floriscount x Der Lord) for Sandra Tinker of Fosshey Stables in Antrobus.
Two-year-old gelding dressage prospect, Fortunatus scored an elite premium of 9.00 at Myerscough. As a yearling in 2014 he scored 9.02 in the dressage section at the Southview Futurity.
Sandra said: “Fortunatus is such an exciting prospect, I don’t normally keep the boys but I am really looking forward to producing him and seeing how far we can get. I am so pleased he has got the second elite premium, you never know until the day, he really is consistent and so uphill. We will aim for equine bridge selection next year.”
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LG Sport Horses’ stud manager, Zoe Allen bred and owns dressage colt foal, Axel Rose (Denver LG x Leendert) who scored a higher first premium of 8.85.
Zoe said: “I am really pleased. While I work with the youngsters and am involved with the breeding full time, Axel Rose is the first one I have bred myself.”
Axel Rose is out of Zoe’s mare, Lonnie. Zoe continued: “Lonnie was bought by my boss Mike Battersby as a two-year-old. She was competed by Neil Fox in BE classes and did the five-year-old PAVO Eventing final at Tweseldown in 2006. She was then sold to a dressage home and ended up competing in the National Dressage championships twice. Lonnie was then given back to LG Sporthorses and I bought her to compete on. She unfortunately did a leg in the field so I decided to breed from her.”
Lonnie is back in foal to Denver LG for 2016. Zoe added: “Axel Rose is for sale, but I may keep him with the aim of competing in dressage. I expect he will also have a good jump as his sire has plenty of jumping ability in his bloodlines.”
Following on from a successful time at the Richmond Futurity, Steve Pullan from Knaresborough had just the one youngster entered at Myerscough. His three-year-old gelding, Je T’aime Aredis (Je T’aime Flamenco x Dollar de la Pierre) scored a higher first premium of 8.71 in the jumping section to be the highest scoring three-year-old at Myerscough. Je T’aime Aredis was bred by Steve although he has always lived at the Millfield Stud.
Steve said: “I bought Je T’aim Aredis’ dam, Touchstone Z from Millfield as a foal. She is a lovely young mare and also has a two-year-old Cooper van de Heffinck youngster. We are very pleased with Je T’aime Aredis and I will find out more about the possibility of taking him to the equine bridge selection next year.”
Several other horses bred by LG Sport Horses excelled at Myerscough. Yearling filly, Jersey LG (Denver LG x Albaster) scored a higher first premium of 8.70 in the dressage section for her owner Jennifer Whittaker.
Mike Battersby of LG Sport Horses said: “Jersey is a really nice filly, we took her to the Futurity as a foal and she scored a higher first premium and then went on to come third in the KWPN later on in the year. Jennifer will probably take her home after Christmas and she will hopefully combine competing in dressage with breeding.”
Montana LG (Denver LG x Coronado) a colt foal, scored a higher first premium of 8.54 at Myerscough for his joint owners LG Sport Horses and Liz Johnson. He was the top eventer at Myerscough.
Mike Battersby said: “We will keep Montana he is a really exciting young colt. Ideally we will licence him as a two-year-old as we are keen to get some real quality in our stallion stock.”
Montana’s dam, Wright Again jumped to 1.20m classes. Mike continued: “Our stallion Denver is doing so well. He is a true stamp of a modern dressage horse and he also has the added bonus of having some jumping blood further back in his breeding. We have had lots of support from both Twemlows and Stallion AI Services with him. He is now six rising seven and we are planning to really start getting him out competing this winter. He is working at advanced medium level at home. We were so pleased with all our youngsters at Myerscough and I feel that the linear scoring is really useful, it does seem to have resulted in fewer elite and higher first premiums.”
Visit www.britishbreeding.org for full details and results.
Futurity dates and venues 2015
1st August – Catherston Stud, Hampshire
2nd August – Chelwood Equestrian, East Sussex
3rd August – Writtle College, Essex
4th August – The College, Keysoe, Bedfordshire
7th August – Tall Trees Arena, Cornwall
9th August – Hartpury College, Gloucestershire
11th August – Arena UK, Lincolnshire
12th August – Richmond Equestrian Centre, North Yorkshire
13th August – Myerscough College, Lancashire
14th August – Southview Equestrian Centre, Cheshire
17th August – Solihull Riding Club, West Midlands
18th August – Solihull Riding Club, West Midlands
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