Profi le

HELEN SCOTT VISITS LEADING PONY BREEDERS BEVERLEY AND SAMANTHA BROWN AT GODRICS STUD, WHO ARE ALSO NOW TURNING THEIR ATTENTION TO HORSES.

RIGHT: SAMANTHA BROWN, WHO ESTABLISHED GODRICS STUD WITH MUM BEVERLEY, STARTING OUT WITH HER COMPETITION PONY STALLION, AND IS NOW LOOKING TO BREED HER OWN INTERNATIONAL DRESSAGE HORSE.

RIGHT: SAM WORKS

HOMEBRED THREE-YEAR-

OLD GODRICS DONATELLA.

INSET: THE PONY THAT

STARTED IT ALL, CAESAR 171, COMPETED BY SAM AND NOW A PROLIFIC

SIRE OF INTERNATIONAL

DRESSAGE PONIES.

At fi rst glance, the stallion that breeder Bev Brown was viewing as a competition pony for her daughter Sam did not look promising. “He looked tiny and he was peering at us from under what we now call his Johnny Depp fringe,” recalls Bev. “But as soon as he was brought out of his stable and shown to us we could see his quality, and he looked phenomenal when he was ridden.”

“I got on and absolutely loved him,” said Sam. “I was already riding a 1 .2, and although he was smaller, he rode like a horse. His canter was out of this world.”

The stallion was Caesar 171, and not only did he take Sam to premier league shows, he also became the foundation stallion at the Browns’ Godrics Stud and one of the most infl uential sires of pony dressage stars.

In 2017, four of his progeny were on the longlist for the Pony Europeans – LE Chiff re, Cru III, Ella BS and George Clooney BS. All went on to have successful international and team careers and are still on the circuit now. Cru is notably competing at Inter I for Jayne Turney and George Clooney campaigning FEI pony competitions for Mette Dahl. Ella completed a hat trick of international wins for Gracie Morgan last year (2021) and is now with 12-year-old Darcey Blaze Marcus, and LE Chiff re, recently ridden by Sophie Taylor and uby Hughes will be a schoolmaster for Sam’s apprentice Lily Crisp in 2022.

Caesar was originally brought to the UK for Victoria Molloy who campaigned him at the Pony Europeans in 2000. He was ridden at premier league shows by Natalie Allen and his then owner Portia Manning and suggested by dressage trainer Ian Woodhead as a potential ride for Sam, who took over the ride in 2006. She retired him from competition two years later but, by then, his stallion career had already taken off .

Fast forward to now and Caesar is 33, still fi ghting fi t, and adored as the fi gurehead of Godrics Stud’s operation. He is also still available by fro en semen.

When he is taken out for exercise, he marches down the barn announcing his presence, and when he is let loose in the school, he canters off before balancing himself and coming across the diagonal fl icking his toes in a perfect medium trot.

“He still remembers all the competition moves and loves showing off ,” says Sam “His legs are completely clean, he’s bright as a button and you can see how he moves. He also has a temperament to die for and despite the fact he’s still entire and lives in the barn alongside mares, he is lovely to handle.

“He hasn’t got huge numbers of progeny on the ground, but he’s one of the most successful stallions because his off spring have stunning competition records, and many of them compete internationally.”

Establishing a stud was the dream of Bev Brown, who did not come from a horsey

background. She persuaded her father to let her have riding lessons, and eventually a pony, but exams and a high-fl ying career in IT which took her round the world took over.

But the dream never left her and when the opportunity to buy a farm came along, she persuaded her husband that she could have horses in her life again.

“I started by breeding my ex-racehorse to Va Tout, and then I acquired a couple of quality old Trakehner stallions with a view to producing event horses,” says Bev.

“At this stage, Sam was a girly girl and not interested in the horses at all. But she surprised me on her ninth birthday by asking for a pair of jodhpurs as a present. She had lessons at a local riding school, then did some eventing but decided she wanted to do dressage.”

“That led up to Ian Woodhead’s and buying Caesar.”

Shortly afterwards, the Browns bought another pony called Tiger Lily to compete.

“Tiger Lily is by Donnerwetter out of Eboli x Nordstar and goes back three generations to Trakehners. The combination of warmblood in both Caesar and Tiger Lily was perfect, so we brought forward her breeding career and she became our foundation mare – and Godrics Stud was born,” says Bev. “We turned our focus from event horse breeding to dressage ponies where we saw there was a gap in the market for ponies with movement and temperament, and we established a policy of putting them with the very best riders to further their competition careers.”

“The fi rst commercial foal was LE Chiff re and he never once disappointed. With his beautiful, dished face and huge presence we knew he was something special at birth.

“We called him Peanut and he was the fi rst foal Sam helped deliver at just 15 years old, although she had been around our youngstock and foals from a very young age.”

Sam took Peanut with her to the Moody sisters where she was an apprentice, and they helped her produce him. But she grew tall, so Chloe Vell took him on while Sam took the Moody’s Kwaadrat to the Europeans as a junior. Peanut went on to be ridden by the cream of British team riders before returning home a couple of months ago.

Sam then decided to pursue a career as a breeder alongside her dressage riding.

She competed at the World Championships for young breeders

TOP LEFT: SAM’S HOMEBRED LE CHIFFRE, NOW A SCHOOLMASTER FOR APPRENTICE LILY CRISP.

TOP RIGHT: ELLA BS, BY CAESAR 171, COMPLETED A HAT-TRICK OF INTERNATIONAL WINS FOR GRACIE MORGAN IN 2021.

in Lyon in 2011, fi nishing as best British junior combination. In 2013 she returned to the World Championships in Sweden and attended a number of the World Breeding Federation Conferences.

Alongside working for the Moodys, Sam gained a year’s experience at Mount St John Stud and says she also learned from Lynne Crowden at Woodlander Stud when she participated in the young breeder programme and bought Weltregentin, her fi rst broodmare, from her.

Bev decided to hand over the stud to Sam in late 2017 to pursue a career in law at Durham University.

Since then, Sam has been redefi ning the philosophy of Godrics Stud, named after St Godric who was said to have roamed the land where they were based, until his death at Finchale Abbey in 1170. He is best remembered for his kindness to animals, and Bev felt he was looking down and protecting them. She is still standing Caesar 171, LE Chiff re, Danger 36 who is

ABOVE: CAESAR 171, AGED 33. “HE LOVES SHOWING OFF.”

sadly deceased, and Godrics Campeggio, who has had a successful show jumping career with Anna Burns and is now being produced by Abigail Gray in Scotland who also has LE Chiff re’s full brother Godrics Cryptonite.

“I decided, eventually, to geld all of them bar Caesar and off er them by fro en semen because it was easier for them to go to competition homes with child riders,” she says.

“I also wanted to bring horses back into the picture and breed something for myself for a future international career.”

Sam moved the stud to new premises, a yard she rents from a friend in Hadrian’s Wall country overlooking the Tyne Valley. The team consists of Anna Burns, who rides alongside working full time for the Moodys, and apprentice Lily Crisp.

She has six broodmares, two of whom are due to foal this year – Royal Alliance to Lestingdale and her foundation mare, Weltregentin, is due to Glamourdale.

The team has a range of youngstock to

produce including two homebred fi ve-yearolds, fi ve four-year-olds, and a yearling. Sam is also a Level 3 British Dressage Coach and Youth Assessor, with her own Training Academy designed to mentor up and coming riders from diverse backgrounds. She is competing homebred Godrics Wanderlust, a six-year-old out of Weltregentin by Bretton Woods, and sees fi ve-year-old Godrics Aurora Borealis by Godrics Campeggio x Abanos and “MY DREAM WAS TO yearling Godrics D’Komorebi, PRODUCE SOMETHING Weltregentin WHICH WOULD CARRY D’avie, as her future stars. THE BRITISH FLAG” “We still want to breed and produce the very best ponies, and see our stallions do well. The philosophy of placing our best off spring with the very best riders to compete still holds true, but it will be exciting to see the foals this year. We can then take stock and decide which direction we go in,” says Sam. And whilst Bev is pursuing her legal studies, she is still very much involved, choosing bloodlines and helping when the foals arrive.

“My dream, when I started breeding, was to produce something which would carry the British fl ag. Initially I hoped it would be an event horse with Trakehner bloodlines, but our dressage ponies have done that. Now we are moving in a slightly diff erent direction but it’s still exciting and as a small stud I hope we remain on the map with the quality of the dressage stars we produce.”

All stallions are available by fro en semen at Stallion AI Services.

ABOVE: CRUZ III, COMPETING AT INTER I WITH JANE LOUISE TURNEY.

LEFT: SAM WITH GODRICS D’KOMOREBI AND

LILY WITH BROODMARE WELTGRENIN, SAM’S FIRST BROODMARE PURCHASE.