For most studs, the beginning of summer marks the end of breeding season; foals are now in paddocks, and the next season’s crop have been conceived. It’s time to take a breath and enjoy some down time. That is, unless you also have a team of competition horses in work aimed at the major autumn dressage events!

“If this breeding season wasn’t
busy enough, Glenhill has 25 foals
set to arrive in 2024.”

Christan Trainor, like many, has had a busy breeding season. With 15 foals born this spring at Glenhill Sporthorses in the NSW Southern Highlands, it’s not only been her busiest yet – but also one of the most successful. All progeny she had planned to sell from the outset have sold, most while still in utero.

If this breeding season wasn’t busy enough, Glenhill has 25 foals planned to arrive in 2024. “We have so many young mares, and they’re now old enough to join the program,” explains Christan. At Glenhill, most foals are produced via embryo transfer, with the majority of the stud’s mares in work as competition horses. “Even when you’re only pulling one or two embryos from each mare, it very quickly adds up!”

Christan is no stranger to Glamourdale’s sire, Lord Leatherdale, and this season also welcomed a fourth foal by the stallion. “We had a Lord Leatherdale black colt born out of our mare, New Beginnings (Negro x Worldly), who was also outstanding,” notes Christan, adding that all 15 foals born this season were of international quality and she finds it hard parting with each!

In 2024, Christan is excited to add a few new stallions to the mix, including Skyline to B, Dynamik Dream, and Opoque – who was the 2023 4-Year-Old World Champion.

“Mr Hollywood had
his first foals born
this spring…”

THIRD GENERATION

This season saw a number of third generation foals born, with progeny coming from three daughters of Christan’s foundation mares: Glenhill Silhouette (Sezuan x Glenhill Firefly, by Ferrero Rocher); Glenhill Totil Star (Totilas x PrM New Star LP, by Negro); and Glenhill Forever (For Romance x Tulara Schufretta II, by Don Schufro).

Glenhill Firefly has retired from breeding this year, with a colt foal by Valverde born this season to be her last. While this season’s foals put up for sale have all sold, Christan hasn’t quite been able to part with this colt up until this point.

“Two seasons ago, Firefly had another colt named Glenhill Victor and he was sold to Alex Vodermair. He’s just amazing… we’re really excited about him, and he should be out competing with Alex in another year or two.

“I did want this season’s to be a filly, so we could keep her last foal; we’ll just have to breed Valverde to her daughter now,” says Christan, conceding she’ll probably have to sell this colt, as apart from Glenhill Mr Hollywood she doesn’t have further plans to keep stallions.

One more foal has also come on the market late in the season from this crop, a beautiful bay filly by For Romance and out of Glenhill Silhouette. For buyers currently searching, these two are the last to be offered for sale at Glenhill for the 2023 season.

Alongside Firefly’s retirement, Christan says 2024 could also signal the end of an era with her beloved Don Schufro mare, Tulara Schufretta II (Don Schufro x Vancouver), as she is now 18 years old.

“She’s proving very tricky to get embryos from, so this could be her last year. They will be special… I always harp on about this Don Schufro line being so valuable due to scarcity in Australia, and yes, we have daughters of hers… but our direct Don Schufro line, 2024 may be the end of it.”

PONY POWER CONTINUES TO BUILD

In the July issue of Equestrian Life, we spoke with Christan about how the German Riding Ponies (GRPs) had found a permanent place among the Warmbloods at Glenhill Sporthorses – including stallion Glenhill Mr Hollywood (Movie Star x Nobis Juliette, by Aester El Nino), despite the fact that Christan never planned to house a stallion!

“Mr Hollywood had his first foals born this spring and all of them have four white socks, a big white face and most of them also have a belly splash. They’re just beautiful,” says Christan, adding that it was over a variety of mares as well.

“We bred him to our own GRP mare, Glenhill Divine Classic (Numerus Clausus x FL Divine Essence, by Classic Dancer I), and that’s a beautiful filly. She’s the only mare that we have at the moment that we can use him over, because the other ones have similar blood.

“Then he was bred to another Westphalia-approved pony, and that foal is outstanding too, and he was bred to a small purpose-bred Thoroughbred hack; that foal is also just beautiful with lots of bling. He seems to really be stamping them over a variety of mares. And they all seem to have his really outgoing, sweet temperament as well.”

The Glenhill Mr Hollywood x Glenhill Divine Classic cross will be repeated next season, as will an FS Next Diamond x Glenhill Matinee (Movie Star x Sansannah Solar Flare) cross, which this year also produced an outstanding flashy colt. Christan adds that those two are not the only pony foals in store for 2024: “I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden we’ve got five GRPs of our own coming next season. That should be really fun!”

COMPETITIONS AROUND THE CORNER

While the breeding season is winding down, the competition season is just around the corner. At Glenhill, there are 12 horses in work  – all of which are ridden by Riley Alexander, with pony extraordinaire Alison Gill stepping in to ride the GRPs at competitions.

“This year’s four-year-olds have just come out for the first time. Glenhill Divine Classic, she’s come out and won both of her qualifiers with scores in the high 70s and she’s all qualified now for Dressage & Jumping with the Stars (DJWTS) and Sydney CDI, so she’s just proving to be great.

“We’ve also got a four-year-old that we bred and sold, Glenhill Starlette (Secret x PrM Total Fame, by Fürst Heinrich) and she’s come back to us for the season to be campaigned for good friends of ours, Emily and Katie Gubbins. She is such a talented horse; we actually have repeated the cross again for next season, because we were so impressed with this mare when we got her back to ride, we think it might be one of the best ones that we’ve bred! So, we’ve got two embryos of that cross coming for 2024.” Glenhill Starlette has already been out to two qualifiers and is now qualified for DJWTS and Sydney CDI.

In addition, Glenhill Mr Hollywood is qualified for the five-year-old pony classes after winning his recent pony class and finishing second overall across the ponies and horses, and Glenhill Vivid competed in a six-year-old class and won as well, meaning she is once again qualified for the big autumn events. Christan explains there are a couple more four-year-olds that will come out and compete when time permits – likely early next year.

Glenhill also has a Grand Prix horse in the making with mare PrM New Star LP, who is currently competing with success at Small Tour level. “New Star has been smashing it with PSG scores above 70% and she’s aiming to come out and do an Inter I test in the near future. She’s qualified for the PSG Cup at DJWTS, so she might come down to that with us. She and Riley are on the Dressage NSW 2023 High Performance Squad; they’re doing well and are a great team. They’ll hopefully be Grand Prix level by later next year.”

New Star had two foals this spring, a filly by Total McLaren and a colt by Jovian (both also sold in utero). Next season, a New Star foal by Opoque will be eagerly awaited, as will an About You 11 x New Star foal, plus hopefully one more very special foal.

With New Star’s daughter, Glenhill Totil Star, now in the breeding barn, Christan was excited to see a Bon Coeur filly from her this season that was sold in utero – a cross that is now being repeated for 2024. Next year will also see a Springbank x Glenhill Totil Star foal. “A few seasons ago, we had a Springbank x New Star foal that was beautiful, so we’re excited to see the cross between this stallion and her daughter.”

And finally, Christan’s GRP, Glenhill Matinee, is also qualified for Sydney CDI in the six-year-old classes. “It’s just whether I’ll have time to ride or not!” laughs Christan, who says they could have a very big team heading down to Victoria in March. “We could have a massive team, or we might split them and do half at DJWTS and half at Sydney CDI. We’ll see when we get there. It’s been a very rewarding journey so far.”

“New Star has been
smashing it with
PSG scores above 70%.”

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2024?

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:

Glenhill Discovers Pony Power – Equestrian Life, July 2023

Glenhill Sporthorses: Meet The Team – Equestrian Life, March 2023

How Glenhill Stays a Step Ahead – Equestrian Life, October 2022