The stud is part of a bigger picture. As well as breeding competition horses for all disciplines [although we specialise in Showjumping], we Import horses to produce and sell on. We also run a comprehensive Show Centre with affiliated Jumping shows, along with unaffiliated jumping, dressage and showing shows. We have a saddlery shop on site, along side the saddlery we sell a quality range of Feed and bedding.

The BSJA Stallions can be seen competing at shows all over the south of England (and occasionally further away!) Cyril has long been established as a well-known producer and seller of competition horses, though specialising in show jumpers for over 30 years. Both Cyril and Valerie rode from an early age.

Brendon was first established in 1965. The name "BRENDON" came about from Valerie's first pony; an Exmoor from the Brendon Hills. In the early days the business was mainly a Riding School with a few dealing horses bought in sales or directly from Ireland, later Cyril moved onto more serious competition horses, with the first big wins coming in the late seventies with then stable rider, Paul Miles. Among these wins were the Elizabeth Ann Kitchens Grade C at Wembley and The Hickstead Salver.

In 1983 Cyril stood his first stallion, Sussex Diamond. A popular choice with the sire being by the infamous - King of Diamonds. The second foundation stallion to stand was Magic Motion [Ballyard Light], he went on to win a Gold Medal at the Pan Am Games in the 90's with his new owners. The home teams’ broodmares of today still carry these bloodlines. At the time we thought we had the best stallions around, having said that we can't begin to compare them with the stallions we stand today!

The first "warm blood" was Tropic Star, a Trakehner with bloodlines from Furioso; he competed at the top national level before Injury forced him to retire early. His next successor was the Belgian bred Maestro Nativio, with a lot of thoroughbred and blood lines to Alme Z; he shares the same dam as Ludo Phillephaerts current World Cup horse: Parco. He again was a step forward. An International Grade A, he jumped International Trials and the Hickstead Derby before being sold abroad. His progeny have been successful in all three of the major disciplines, his best known son being the aptly named “Buddy Bunn”, winner of the 2004 Hickstead Derby for Mr Douglas Bunn when ridden by John Whitaker. Brendon Stud offspring have won and qualified for the Blue Chip Winter Finals, RIHS and WBFSH Young Horse show in Lanaken.

In many ways Cyril has now retired from the physical side of the studwork, [being 74 years young!], although he can often be heard in the background. Shirley and her team carry out the studwork duties, starting the day with semen collections and scanning, working some horses or going to a show, not forgetting to look after those new born foals! The day can just as easily end with a scan or collection too!

Valerie & Caraleen are there to man the phones & deal with the dreaded paperwork! Living on site not only means that there is always somebody around; it’s also handy with the unsociable hours that are part of breeding horses. With our combined experiences we are a pretty formidable team working closely with Ed Lyall from The Equine Veterinary Hospital in nearby Arundel. Ed is totally dedicated to the welfare of all horses in our care, he specialises in reproduction and competition horses. AI and breeding keep him busy all season, working with fresh and frozen semen; he also has experience with endoscopic Inseminations. A vet that you can have a 'proper' conversation with!

A well-equipped lab room was purpose built in which to collect and assess fresh and chilled semen for AI, for Insemination by Shirley, Ed or one of the team. For the stallions that are available with frozen semen, this is available directly from us.

In an ideal world we would keep all of our stallions, as breeding requires an enormous amount of patience and time; but we are also producers and sellers so the horses are always for sale.[nearly always]! When they are sold we are provided with the perfect opportunity to bring in new bloodlines.

Our main breeding aims are to keep striving for improvement in the quality of sires available in the UK. Our stallions must be of good parentage with superb conformation before their ability is even considered, they must be easy to handle [Shirley does the stud work] and then be proven or potential superstars!! It is essential that they have athletic movement in their paces and are of good trainability; this we believe is important in whichever sport horse you are trying to breed. They need to be brave and careful in their jump and at the same time maintaining a natural presence. Our stallions that are 4 years and over all compete, mostly with the BSJA and they must be capable of combining their stud and competition work. They also all have excellent fertility records.

We believe our success rates speak for themselves; and we are not afraid to take on 'problem mares'. It is very nice when your mare goes in foal first time, but as breeders we know this is not always the case. If your mare has a known problem, then please talk to us about it; we will always give it our best shot. We have achieved pregnancy in mares with various problems, including one with multiple cysts, the biggest being 8.2cm! Another had a serious yeast infection that we managed to treat and get in foal. Average success percentages of approx. 96%.