Our stallions are all chosen for their talent, temperament and type, along with their bloodlines. Their conformation allows them to complement a variety of mares in all disciplines.

Please telephone to come and view any or all of them at a time convenient to yourself. Alternatively watch them competing at shows all over the south of England (and occasionally further afield!) Young stock can also be seen. The BSJA Stallions have won their prize money in their own right and have not been upgraded in any way.
We are a family concern and are therefore flexible to your needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.


Brendon Stud - the background...

Brendon Stud is located within Brendon Equestrian Centre at the foot of the South Downs in the village of Pyecombe. We are a family run business headed by Valerie Light and daughters, Shirley, Caraleen & Jacqui. The stud is part of a bigger picture. As well as breeding competition horses for all disciplines [although we specialise in Showjumping], we also import horses to produce and sell on. We run a comprehensive Show Centre with affiliated Jumping shows, along with affiliated and unaffiliated dressage, arena eventing, unaffiliated jumping and showing shows. We have a saddlery shop on site, [and online] alongside the saddlery we sell a quality range of Feed and bedding.
The BS Stallions can be seen competing at shows all over the south of England (and occasionally further away!)

We have long been established as well-known breeders, producers and sellers of competition horses, though specialising in show jumpers for over 45 years. 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, we later moved onto more serious competition horses, with the first big wins coming in the late seventies.

In 1983 we stood our 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 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 ridden by John Whitaker. We then of course had the pleasure of owning the fantastic Unbelievable Darco, a phenomenal stallion that won the Foxhunter final at 5 years old amongst many many wins. We also had the good fortune to own and produce to 1.60m Warrior and Don VHP Z, two truly World class stallions, they both showed their fantastic talents with Louise Pavitt before being sold. Both compete at Global Tour shows and Warrior also competed at the London Olympics. In 2017 Don VHP Z was named “Belgium Horse of the Year” after winning GCT GP’s and the Individual Silver at the European Championships.

Brendon Stud stallions & offspring have won and qualified for the Blue Chip Winter Finals, Hickstead Derby, HOYS, RIHS and World Breeding championships in Lanaken, GCT GP’s, London Olympics and European Championships.

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 Sussex Equine Hospital in nearby Ashington. Ed is totally dedicated to the welfare of all horses in our care, he specialises in reproduction and competition horses. A vet that you can have a 'proper' conversation with! AI and breeding keep him busy all season, working with fresh and frozen semen; we also have successful experience with embryo transfer, our first ET horses are now out competing.

We changed to AI collections in 2001. 2002 saw the addition of Shirley becoming a fully qualified AI Technician, and in 2009 Valerie and Ashley Boyce also became qualified AI Technicians, approved by DEFRA and RCVS.

Our facilities include a well-equipped lab room to assess fresh and chilled semen, the covering area is in an enclosed barn with a purpose built dummy and heavy duty rubber mats all around. We offer safe and secure stocks for examining the mares with specialised space for foals at foot too. Our mares foal down in double extra large airy pens in their own barn. We use the technology of stitch in alarms, that work by calling a phone when a magnetic link is broken as the mare starts foaling.

When stallions 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 good to handle, 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 combine 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 multiple cysts, the biggest being 8.2cm!

We work intensively in our treatment for mares with fluid. Pregnancy percentages achieved approx. 96%

Full terms and Conditions & Nomination form can be found on the website,
or we can email/post them to you.