Prelude Sporthorses

23/08/2024

Congratulations to our sweet Danny Boy’s new lease family! They say he’s been “nothing short of perfect” for his 7 year old girl and that’s what we love to hear. Thank you Christine Yoo Davis for another perfect match!

10/08/2024

Thank you Triple Creek Eventing for hosting the Karen O’Connor clinic this week. Isabelle and 4yo Proost aka Tig (Arezzo VDL x Eurocommerce Washington) had a bit of a wild ride, but learned so much. This is an exciting pair for sure!

03/08/2024

Inspired by the Olympics and upcoming Pony Finals, Isabelle decided to challenge baby pony Toddi and baby rider Alice this morning. Pony and rider had a lot of fun - we think this pair will be ready for the large greens come December! Of course, Alice has still has another year of eligibility on small ponies...😂

31/07/2024

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Interestingly, Boyd’s Bruno aka Fedarman B is sired by Eurocommerce Washington (Carpaccio x Cassini I), as is our 4yo Tig’s dam Tula (Eucommerce Washington x Lupicor). Eurocommerce Washington was registered Clooney, officially competed to 1.30m and has 133 offspring on Horsetelex. Around 50 of these competed at FEI/National level. The vast majority of these FEI competitors had success from 1.40-1.60m, outperforming their sire. Additionally, there are 46 offspring listed out of Eurocommerce Washington/Clooney daughters; though many are young, 6 of these already have FEI/National competition results. With any luck, our Tig (Arezzo VDL) and Jett (Casquino) will add to these numbers!

06/07/2024

Some goodbyes are tougher than others, and this is definitely one of the hardest ones yet. Congratulations to the new owners of Preludes Ever After (Orchard Hills Fine China x Bedtime Story)! Ev is headed west - we cannot wait to see what the future holds for this sweet girl. We have all the faith in the world that she will be every bit the rock star her dam is! Another huge thank you to Christine Yoo Davis for your incredible pony match-making. Do big things, Ev!!

03/07/2024

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Young equestrian Kendall Deeney from Fairport, NY, took a stance to change the sport for junior members across the nation when she got wind of a horse show rule that she didn’t think was fair. Deeney found out that her pony, Gayfields Encanto, was not eligible to have an adult school him and blue/...

28/06/2024

Preludes Ever After (Orchard Hills Fine China x Bedtime Story) looking all grown up in Florida!

20/06/2024

Congratulations to the new owners of Tewkesbury!! All of us at Prelude adore this lovely pony - it breaks our hearts a bit to see him go. However, we cannot wait to follow “Tony’s” exciting career with his new connections and look forward to cheering him on for years to come! A huge thank you to Christine Yoo Davis for finding the perfect match for yet another ! ⭐️

15/06/2024

Congratulations to the new owners of GDP Golden Dollar! We sent this sweet medium pony north a couple of weeks ago and can’t wait to follow his new career. A huge thank you to Christine Yoo Davis for facilitating yet another match for us!

14/06/2024

Happy 2nd Birthday “Watson” (Crown Ridge Indiana Joves x CherryBrook Blue Reign)!! Your dam is beginning a promising hunter pony show career and your sire is impressing breeders with his young offspring…we can’t wait to get you started next year!!

I mean, how handsome is he? Crown Ridge Indiana Joves x CherryBrook Blue Reign (Cherrybrook Blue and Gold x Gayfields Vida Blue x Downland Drummer Boy). We can't wait to see this one move! At two hours old he's cantering laps around his stall!

05/06/2024

We love getting updates from our ponies while they are at “school.” Sweet Tony is loving life near Ocala!

14/05/2024

How adorable is this? Jet (the pony formerly known as “Juno”) and his little girl Bailey ❤️.

13/05/2024

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YOUR MONDAY TED TALK FROM EQUISALE

"You are so lucky" 4 little words, that I keep hearing over and over and that make me come unglued. No people I am NOT lucky, at least no more than you. As far as I know I have never won the powerball, or at the slot machines or any kind of random games (actually I did win a Shein version of a Stanley cup last year ... my bad).
Am I blessed? You bet. Do I have an amazing life? Sure. BUT NOTHING and I mean NOTHING about it has to do with luck.

So back to bringing this concept to the horses. I currently own a several Grand Prix horses, a few nice hunters and a bunch of fancy "we are not sure what their job is gonna be" green beans.
So to most equestrians, this would be a dream scenario and they would kill to be in my shoes, they would even settle for just one of those! I get it.

Then DO IT people... I mean it. I can assure you that when I was 18YO penny less, homeless and clueless, nobody showed up and and said " Hey Marjo, I have this amazing $50,000 (prices were way lower back then when the dinosaurs still populated the planet earth and I was 18) Grand Prix jumper horse, he is easy, has a perfect vetting and I would like you to buy him for $2,000 because you deserve it.
Nope, it didn't happen.
What I got was a 3YO bay gelding, ugly as sin, with an out of this World jump and the absolute worst x-rays you have ever seen on a 3YO warmblood. My vet/friend at the time said that this horse's purpose in life was to be used for science on what bad navicular looked like.
Well, the horse ended up on the long list for the Olympics in eventing as a 9YO. Some would call it luck, I call it I bought the best horse I could afford at the time and it paid off. If you have no money, you will have to take risks if you want a big reward.
This has pretty much been my motto for the past 30 years in the horse business. Meaning that to reap a big rewards you will have to take a lot of risks, if you want to play it safe all the time then it's ok, nothing wrong with that, but then the pay off will be marginal.
I guess it's kind of the same with the stock market (don't quote me on that ... I'm just a horse girl).

So, to sum it up, the chances that somebody will tell you " hey I have this amazing horse 6YO to 10YO, easy to ride, brave, beautiful, perfect changes, zero spook, potential to jump (3'6 or 1m35+), perfect x-rays and vetting, sweet on the ground, and I would like to sell it for a 1/4 of his market value, because this is what you can afford is NOT happening. Nope, nope, nope, forget it.

So, then most people default setting when they realize they will not be able to afford the horse of their dreams is to switch to ; fine, I will make my own and buy a green one that my trainer/I will bring up the levels.
Friends this is girl math at its finest. This is the logic I use to convince my hubby to go for one of my horrible ideas.
Girl math horse shopping breakdown :
I want a GP horse or at least a horse with 1m35 ability (current market value $100,000+). I will buy a 4YO for $40,000, then I will pay board for at least 3 years before we can even think of clocking around 1m35.
I will pay board ($1,000 - round numbers are my friends for girl math)=$36,000 - Farrier; $6,000 - Vet : $2,400 (coggins, shots, teeth ... yes in girl math your horse never has any vet bills, duh!).
horse shows (entries to 10 horse shows/year $8,000) in girl math horses teleport to the horse shows, so zero fees besides entries. Insurance about $5,000. That would assume that you don't pay for any training rides, and do it all on your own and you have spent $97,400, jumping 1m and 1m10 classes on a green horse. Your young horse has been getting all the attention so your own riding has been taking a back seat in the meantime.
So you have just spent 3 years at a stand still in your riding career to save a few thousand dollars. If you are a pro, while you have been getting time fault in the 1m/1m10 your potential clients have been watching other professionals competing in the welcome and GP and given them their business. Between you and I, we all know that if you put real numbers in this simulation and not girl math numbers you are actually upside down.

So, then if girl math and luck don't work, how do you reach your goals? YOU TAKE RISKS, calculated ones, not dumb ones.
Meaning that you can buy an older horse, because people are agist and you can score incredible horses and get years out of them if you take good care of them. Horses don't need to semi retire after 12YO, this is a myth. My most competitive GP horse is currently 16 and I have plans for him to show at the highest level in his 20s. Many top olympic horses are 17,18 or 19YO. So yes a good horse, can pack you around the 1m35 for a while in their late teens. You will learn more from a 15YO GP horse than a 5YO, trust me on that one.

Buy horses with "so so" vetting by actually really looking at what you have in front of you, not what could/might/perhaps if venus is in retrograde happen in 3 years. The horses I have had with the sketchiest x-rays, are still bumming around shows with no care in the World, and a handful of my cleanest x-ray ones have been lame af year after year.

And last but not least, when I offer a 12YO GP mare in Europe for mid five figure because I bought too many and I'm thinning down my herd (girl math only works for so long, so at one point your Ivy league educated engineer hubby sits you down at the kitchen table and makes you look at real math/spread sheets ... party pooper). So steal, borrow, take 3 jobs, do whatever it takes and buy the horse. Take a risk to buy off a video and take a leap of faith.

So here is the last chapter of the story. I have been trying to offer this 1m45 mare for mid five, which we all know is a 1/3 of what she would cost here in the US.
Then I will eventually bring the mare here, show her and market her for 6 figure, and my mid five shoppers are all gonna be so sad, saying life is not fair, that they wished they could afford a 6 figure horse.
People, you are in charge or your own "luck" ... and also avoid girl math!

PS: horse in the picture is not for sale, it was a sale horse from a while ago.

02/05/2024

The foundation really does make a difference! Samantha Kramer (and Alexa Aukes when Ev was a yearling) is patient, kind and thorough when starting our youngsters. Four year old small pony Preludes Ever After (Orchard Hills Fine China x Bedtime Story) stepped her sensible little self right on the trailer for her first trip. She’s had allllllll the groundwork and has been backed a couple of times by Alice. She’s now heading south for pony school - we can’t wait to see a (slimmer) grown-up Ev this summer!

21/04/2024

We love getting updates on our ponies and their new riders! Lady Like aka Ingrid and her rider Heidi had their first show this weekend and were short stirrup champions, winning both over fences trips and getting second in the flat. Heidi's little sister also showed Ingrid in the leadline! Ingrid will always have a special place in our hearts and we are thrilled that her new owners love her just as much ❤️.

18/04/2024

No filter on this shiny girl. Polly - our 2021 welsh/wb large pony filly by Telynau Royal Charter out of Oldenburg mare Izabel (Ideal x Memphis) - is growing up! She's sweet, brave and super inquisitive. We look forward to starting her under saddle later this year.

15/04/2024

On Wednesday, April 17, the first round of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final starts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and among the U.S. entries is Chromatic BF, who was bred and owned by KC Branscomb of Branscomb Farm in Half Moon Bay, California.

26/03/2024

Skittles is a 2011 large German riding pony with passport that spent most of her life as a pasture ornament/broodmare. She was started in October 2023 and is currently cantering small courses with a lead change (not auto but there). Has schooled/shown off property 3 times and handled it like a pro. Enjoys trail riding in addition to arena work. Will be a great project for a kid in a program (green so not yet for a total beginner, but potentially a packer type). Video taken yesterday of a 12yo riding her for the first time. Upper 🥕,🥕🥕🥕 and located in Monroe, GA.

26/03/2024

Isabelle and Alice aren't always riding. These two clean up nicely!

21/03/2024

Check out former Juno (now showing as Rumor Has It) and his little girl, Bailey! 🥈🥈

"Juno and Bailey went to their first show together this past weekend at Poplar at the Cheryl and Co kickoff. They came away with reserve champion and won the flat out of 11 in the crossrail hunter and reserve champion in mini stirrup! It was a rainy weekend and he was freshly clipped. He was an absolute angel. Cantered through puddles without being fazed and went around like he had done it his whole life! You did a fantastic job. It's obvious he was raised with kindness and patience and allowed to take time to grow. I'm thankful to people like you. It takes a lot of time and patience but these are the results!!"

Thank you Nikki and Windy Oaks Farm for the update, the kind words and the awesome job with this sweet boy!!

20/03/2024

How cute are these two??!! We would like to congratulate Heidi, her little sister Nadia and the entire Mitts family of Ocala on their purchase of small pony Ingrid, aka Lady Like (Gayfields Way Too Cool x Wellen Red Rock)! To say we are excited to follow Ingrid's adventures with her new little girls is an understatement. Many thanks to Christine Davis for making this match!