Breeding Champions of the Future

BILLY STUD VIEWING DAY A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

The Billy Stud held a viewing day for mare owners on Tuesday 6th of April at Jordans Farm in Forest Green. The day was well attended with over 165 owners, breeders and interested parties attending from all over the country to see the stud stallions, Billy Congo, Billy Mexico, Billy JJ and Cevin Z. The day went like clockwork due to the huge amount of preparation and work on the day undertaken by the staff, to get each horse into the arena on time and groomed to perfection.

 The day consisted of a display of all the four stallions and their off spring shown loose in the indoor school with the audience contained in the centre safely behind barriers. The age range was extensive, yearlings by Billy Mexico and Billy Congo, two very athletic three year old colts one by Cevin Z and one by Billy Congo and a range of young horses in training and competing by Cevin Z and Billy Congo.

This was followed by a performance in the impressive outside arena. All four stallions were ridden and jumped by Pippa Funnell, except for Cevin Z who was ridden by a young man, 13 year old Jake Saywell. Cevin Z carried him safely over the all the up to height fences with consummate style and they received great applause from the audience. A range of Billy bred young horses were worked and jumped by the team of very professional young riders from the Funnell yards, while William Funnell and Donal Barnwell talked the audience through the breeding and achievements of the young horses and stallions on display.

The visitors were able to see and inspect all the horses in their stables whilst they enjoyed their refreshments and much comment was made on the temperament of all the horses especially the stallions, which were all happy to be surrounded by visitors looking over their stable doors. Pippa, William and Donal were on hand to answer any questions the visitors had.

The day generated a lot of interest for the stud from mare owners deciding to use the stallions, the ethos of Billy Stud underlined by the type, temperament and ability of the horses on display. This very successful Viewing Day format is one that the Billy Stud hopes to repeat annually as it is the perfect showcase for this phenomenally successful breeding programme which is producing British Bred Champions of the Future.

 The Billy Stud is a unique joint venture between William Funnell (www.williamfunnell.co.uk) , Pippa Funnell and Donal Barnwell (www.donalbarnwell.co.uk) that brings together all their experience in showjumping, eventing and breeding. Their knowledge has created a winning formula for consistently breeding and producing champion sports horses for the future.

They established their breeding programme over ten years ago and have over 80 brood mares from which they breed. Their first brood mare (Tatum) was out of Clover Hill and Sky Boy and set the trend for the breeding they were trying to establish. They made a conscious decision to initially specialise in Irish bred horses which they feel are eminently suitable for both eventing and show jumping. Their aim is to be the source of the best British bred competition horses in volumes large enough to satisfy the market.