The Crown Empire Stud

Originally not prefixed until Spring 2006, The Crown Empire Stud and its breeds of horses have changed over the last 40 years to what can comfortably be described today as "romantic" in its appeal to introduce a new breed group of horses and ponies from the most celebrated and rarest of breeds known to man.

The Crown Empire Stud started in 1967 in the Berkshire countryside with the purchase of a non-papered rather underweight mare named April Snow for the sum of £150 from a local scrapman. April Snow went on to win numerous events in showjumping and was put in foal in May 1980 to a young stallion named Sandpot intended for racing and bred from the famous stallion Never say die.

This stallion Sandpot won only a few races but excelled in the showjumping arena as an eight year old. The first foal to be born was named ST-GEORGES SAPPHIRE VII, a chestnut filly identical in looks to her sire Sandpot.

In 1978 Carolyn Flint gave birth to a daughter who now co-owns the stud as we know it today.

ST-GEORGES SAPPHIRE bred two foals a bay filly by Cigar out of Shergar. This Filly was named FIRESTONE DANCER, and the chestnut colt named RED SKY WARNING out of SNOW WARNING the undisputed H.I.S. Supreme and super premium stallion. Unfortunately Firestone dancer was unable to race due to a fall, although she was kept by the stud as a companion and future broodmare. The colt Red sky warning sired champion stock for eventing and hunter showman classes. He is still in active work and more recently trained for appearances in movies and TV commercials. The stud itself, originally from Bracknell in Berkshire, moved to Maidenhead following the marriage of the stud owner Carolyn Flint to Paul Cross.

In this time a rescued spotted pony mare and her filly foal were given to them. Both went on to breed some of the best spotted ponies in the UK, namely CHOCOLAITE CHIP COOKIE who became the British spotted pony societies club mascot sired from Karen Bassett's British driving champion pony SPURSIDE BUTTONS. Following a divorce ten years later the stud was moved to Carmarthenshire in Wales, where Kelly purchased two Welsh colts, a Welsh section D named YARTY DYLAN and a Welsh section C named YARTY TOUCH & GO.

The stud ceased breeding their own stock in the next ten years while in Wales. In 2005 the mother-daughter team were the first civilians to be issued a broadcasting licence for the world's first ever satellite channel named EQUINE TV, a totally new concept devoted to the equestrian market, following a discussion with their relative Ray Butt, the director of the original cult comedy classic Only Fools and Horses.

After two years of raising awareness for the channel but no actual help from media such as equestrian magazines, societies or equestrian celebrities, the final but painful decision was made to abort the licence and the mother and daughter team sold the contents and ideas to an independent company of which names are left confidential.

In 2005 around Christmas the stud was re-located back to its roots in Surrey and Berkshire. Here the stud resumed breeding and purchased the following stock;-

  • THREE PURE BRED SPANISH MARES (ALL IN FOAL),
  • THREE SPANISH COLTS,
  • TWO SPANISH FILLIES,
  • ONE DUTCH WARMBLOOD COLT,
  • ONE KINSKY PALOMINO WARMBLOOD MARE,
  • ONE SHETLAND PINTO STALLION,
  • THREE WELSH SECTION B COLTS,
  • ONE WELSH SEC B FILLY,
  • ONE WELSH SEC A MARE (IN FOAL),
  • ONE SEC A CREMELLO COLT,
  • ONE ARABIAN CREMELLO FILLY,
  • ONE AMERICAN PAINT STALLION.

The Crown Empire Stud present day;(2007)

The stud boasts 30 horses and ponies which are all of high conservation value in the breed gene pools from which they originate. Being one of a very few studs in the world that own a number of ELITE graded breeding stock, having six Elite graded Stallions to THE BAROQUE & IBERIAN HORSES OF COLOUR ASSOCIATION AKA 'BAIHOCA'one of which is also FOUNDATION ELITE GRADED, plus four elite graded mares also to 'BAIHOCA' and one also with THE SPANISH STUD BOOK.

The BAROQUE & IBERIAN HORSES OF COLOUR ASSOCIATION

This Association being a non-profit company was set up due to the ever-growing demand for exotic-looking and bred horses and ponies. With the studs purchase of PAWNNEE EXPRESS a 15'3hh double homozygous black tobiano American paint stallion in 2007 all of the Elite mares have been covered by him with the future in mind to re-introduce pinto pattern coats into the Baroque and Iberian breeds that have been lost but not forgotten. Many old oil paintings depicting scenes of noblemen astride Baroque horses with Pinto and spotted coats have been the hot topic of Spanish horse breeders which no doubt wonder why the current Spanish stud book fail to recognise these patterns which were once the high fashion. Many centuries of breeding the patterned coats out of the breed have resulted in what can be described as a complete turn tables on the spanish stud book itself,now breeders are looking for something flashy that can still do the job that so many baroque horses do so very well. Time and careful breeding are key if the Spanish stud book are to re-evaluate this, but in the mean time we have BAIHOCA to help guide breeding to this level. THE CROWN EMPIRE STUD are the first British stud to breed with this in mind.