Article by owner/rider Sheila Hatch, 1st place: at First Level USDF all breed awards riding Ginny's Geronimo

Centyfield Stud in England, one of the largest colored and spotted Warmblood and Sporthorse Stations in the world.

Centyfield is owned and run by husband and wife team Barry and Sarah Mawdley from their farm in the South West of England.

Q : Barry and Sarah – introduce us to the people who make up Centyfield Stud :

A : (S) Well – the are Barry and myself, plus our 3 year old son Reid, long term groom Gemma who does a lot of the backing and schooling work and show jumps, and Petra, who deals with the website and publicity matters.

Q : What is your equestrian background ?

A : (B) I was involved with horses in the army – working on the display teams and teaching. I also show jumped to national level and spent some time working for international SJ Axel Wöckner in Germany. Sarah was a Junior national Event Rider, qualified as a BHS instructor and graduated from Bicton College of Agriculture. She has completed Badminton horse-trials before turning her interest to Dressage.

Q : So how did you get into breeding ?

A : This was a long term goal of ours since we first set up a Riding School and Boarding / Dealing yard – we did have to wait for the right foundation stallion to come along – which took a few years.

Q : How did you get into colored horses ?

A : (B) – We met our foundation stallion Centyfor – and just knew he was very, very special – color was the last thing of any relevance in the decision – he was and is an outstanding athlete with beautiful looks and a fabulous nature, so whatever color he might have been, we would have founded our operation with him. The others were added one by one over the years – to the present total of 6 Pinto and 2 spotted stallions.

Q :  Introduce us to the stallions at Centyfield

A : ( S )  Well, we try and offer something for every taste, any mare, and every discipline. Just as the people here at the Stud are interested in various disciplines we know that our customers and their mares vary from Riding Club Contenders to international competitors – so we have, over the years , built up a selection of stallions, one of which should be suitable for just about any mare and any owner’s personal ambition.  Let’s start with Centyfor, whom we briefly mentioned earlier. He is a Polish Warmblood, a Malapolska to be precise, and is related via his French Anglo Arab sire Kwartet to horses such as the great Zeus, the international Jumping Star Midnight madness and many other top class horses. He was my first serious Dressage prospect and together we worked our way through the levels, we are currently competing at Prix St George level.  Then we have “Out of the Blue” – an Irish Sporthorse approved with the HIS and the British Colored Horse and Pony Society. He is by the TB Fine Blue who is now in the US, out of an Irish Sporthorse mare. “Blue” is extremely popular with people wanting to breed Jumping and Show horses, and his offspring excel in both discipline, as he does himself.

The next in the Pinto Line-Up is Figiel, whom we sold to Petra last year. Barry fell in love with this Polish Warmblood stallion ( Wielkapolska ) when he met him on a trip to Poland. Figiel is by the prolific andf German graded and approved stallion Granatnik – we had several Granatnik horses over the years and all have incredible movement and amazing temperaments – with Figiel being  the best we have seen. He has just started his Dressage career successfully and has been incredibly successful in the Show ring last year – rarely beaten at the highest level and becoming the first colored horse to stand Reserve of Show at a Royal County Show. His first foal crop were incredible and we can’t wait to see this year’s babies.

We move on to the “big boy” – the partbred Selle Francais Lonestar, who is out of an Irish Sporthorse mare by Dallas Brightspark, who himself is by the Selle Francais stallion Dallas out of a TB mare. “Wulfie” as he is known at home is currently Barry’s favorite jumping horse, and has a lot of fans amongst mare owners who want to breed Hunters out of TB mares or gentleman’s jumping horses out of more substantial mares.

The baby of the bunch is Czar – another Wielkapolska with a lot of Trakehner blood, extremely beautiful and elegant, we have high hopes for him. He will be going to his approval this year – unfortunately all those events are currently on hold because of the Foot and Mouth Disease Crisis. Czar will be starting his breeding career this year, to selected and hand picked mares only.

The last of the Pinto bunch is this year’s guest stallion, the 16.1 hh “Hello Handsome” – or “Samson” as he is known at home. Samson is out of a TB mare by a stallion called Glengrutton Jethro – who is by the Bavarian WB Dompfaff and out of a top level eventing pinto Dutch mare. Samson is probably going to excel over fences, but has the paces and attitude for Dressage as well and we are enjoying having him at the stud. 

We now move on the spotted section – we added the TB x Sporthorse stallion Moonraker to our collection quite early on, he was Barry’s jumping horse and also evented over some good sized tracks. He has also got the most amazing light uphill canter which he passes on to his offspring, along with his incredible jump. His babies have done extremely well – all inheriting his canter and his jump.

Last – but by no means least we have Hamlet – who is jointly owned by us and Petra, who imported him last year from Germany . By the famous Knabstrupper Apollon and with some important Trakehner and Knabstrupper bloodlines on both sides of his pedigree he has created an enormous stir in the UK and beyond. We have enormous hopes for Hamlet and he has not shown any indication of his ability not being able to live up to our hopes and dreams for him. 

Q : Can you sum up your breeding policy for us ? 

A (S) : We firmly believe in matching the best possible mares to the most suitable stallion. Too many people breed a mare just because she is there and there’s nothing else they can do with her. Even the very best stallion can not produce an outstanding foal from a less than mediocre mare. That is why we are extremely choosy on the mares we breed from for ourselves. We are constantly offered mares – often free – but turn down almost all of them as they don’t fit into our breeding goals. We only use papered and proven mares, as the offspring are our “shop-window” – we want the people who buy our youngsters to do us and our stallion proud – there is no better advertisement than horses with the Centyfield Prefix being out there doing well !

Q : You are getting quite international now , aren’t you ?

A (B) : Yes – indeed. We get a lot of enquires from other countries, both for horses for Sale and for breeding. Last year we shipped frozen semen from Centyfor to the US – and his first foals are due this spring, which is extremely exciting. We are going to have Hamlet and Figiel available by frozen semen for the 2002 season in the USA, and possibly some of the others too – depending on the demand.

The website has made the stud much more accessible to people from all over the world – we never thought it would have the impact it has had – it was originally made as a Christmas present for Sarah and myself by Petra December 1999 and has grown beyond our wildest dreams since. It’s a brilliant way to allow people a glimpse at our lives and our horses, and the effect on our business has been profound.

Q : You have an agent in the USA – don’t you ? 

A : (S) :  Yes – Gammon Casttellvi   at Sunrise Stables gcastellvi@rockbridge.net

Q : What is your greatest ambition ?

A (S) : Ahhhh – that one is easy. We want one of our horses to wear the Union Jack when representing Great Britain in an international competition. We’ve come close in the past – and are absolutely convinced that barring injury or accident this lifetime ambition will be fulfilled within the next couple of years …..

Q:  The market for colored sporthorses differs in various parts of the world – what do you perceive to be the main differences between the UK and, say – Germany and the USA

A : (P) : In the UK the traditional colored Sporthorse was a crossbred between an Irish colored cob and varying degrees of TB – half TB for the Hunters etc and more TB blood for the Eventers and so on. Now there is such demand and such a strong lobby in the form of the Colored Horse and Pony Society (CHAPS) that the market has exploded and there is demand for every type of colored horse – in every discipline. Whatever horse for whatever discipline you care to think of – a colored example will always be more sought after and sellable than a solid one.

Unfortunately this has led to some serious over breeding – with many people trying to mass produce colored horses with little regard to either quality nor athletic ability – so the lower end of the market has very much been saturated. Personally we find we cannot breed enough quality youngsters to fulfill the existing demand – with most foals born being sold more or less as soon as they hit the ground.

As we will only use quality mares, and are moving towards using quality COLORED mares only, we are limited by the availability of such mares, and would rather breed 8 or 9 quality foals a year than using 30 %

In Germany the colored Sporthorse base is mainly Warmblood based, with some separate fractions for Paints and “Tinkers” – which is what is known as a Gypsy Vanner or Gypsy Cob in the USA and as a colored Cob or vanner in the UK.

We get a lot of interest in our horses from the United States and Canada – so we do believe there is a market out there for us too.

Q : Your website is getting fairly well known – has it increased your business as well as your exposure ?

A (S) The website actually just started as a Christmas present from Petra in 1999 – and has grown hugely since (www.centyfield.com) to it’s present size and state. We get e-mails from all over the world almost daily  !

Q : We have all heard about the current Foot and Mouth Disease Crisis in the UK – how is this affecting your business ?

A (B) :Well – it is but as all our stallions are available by AI it is not affecting us as much as some stallion-owners. In the UK the most common way to breed your mare is taking her to the stallion, AI isn’t actually that common yet so we are a step ahead in this respect. We will almost certainly have less visiting mares – but this may be balanced out by the fact that we are getting a lot of enquiries by people who would not actually have bred their mares this year and are now doing so because there will be no competitions for months to come – so people come to the conclusion that they might as well put their mares in foal . As far as Centyfor’s semen in the US is concerned it went out there last year well before the current crisis so this will not be affected at all.

Q : You have just registered all your stallions with IRC. What are your hopes for this register ?

A (S) : We have long thought that there is a real need for an international register that looks after the interests of colored horses, worldwide. The market is getting so much more global with each year and at the moment it is very expensive and confusing for customers when they are confronted with a barrage of different papers and registration possibilities, some of which appear quite obscure outside their home country. Belonging to a strong organization which allows a more global approach to the matter will be of enormous benefit to us and ultimately our customers. We really look forward to working with you and firmly believe that this is the way forward.