BREEDER’S DESPERATE BID TO WATCH 'FOAL' GO FOR OLYMPIC GOLD
Updated: Jul 26
A MUMSHAYNET EXCLUSIVE
The breeder of one of the hot favourite horses for British gold at the Olympics has told how she was left scrambling on social media for tickets to watch him compete.
Pennie Wallace produced top event horse Lordships Graffalo twelve years ago, and she has watched with pride as he has gone on to win some of eventing’s most prestigious titles including Badminton.
Now the striking 17hh bay is tipped for a gold medal in Paris this weekend with Ros Canter, currently the world’s number one event rider.
Yet despite playing an integral part in the horse’s huge success, Pennie had to launch a desperate last-minute hunt for tickets to cheer the bay gelding on – with her efforts rewarded just in the nick of time.
Pennie, 62, from Rochford, Essex, said: “I am thrilled to have got tickets to watch him compete, but it was touch and go for a while.
“I put out an appeal on Facebook and managed to get tickets to the show jumping initially. I was even more lucky when a few days later I managed to get some for the cross country too. I have to salute the power of social media.
“It’s beyond exciting to watch a horse that you’ve bred and reared compete at the Olympics. It’s every breeder’s dream come true.”
Pennie, who is an award-winning breeder of sports horses, says it was luck that helped her get hold of Olympic tickets, and she is now calling for the contribution of all sports horse producers to be better recognised.
As she rightly points out in the case of Lordships Graffalo – stable name Walter – she was not only responsible for bringing him into the world, along with joint breeder Lordships Stud Writtle University College, but she placed him firmly on the path to glory.
The 12-year-old, three-day eventing star, first galloped into the five- star spotlight when he came second at Badminton in 2022.
Last year, Walter – whose dam was Pennie’s mare, Cornish Queen – went one better by winning the prestigious event before going on to be crowned European Champion.
But despite the obvious connection, mum-of-one Pennie, who works in a local saddlery, has fought an uphill battle to get her name officially registered as Walter’s breeder on his equine passport.
At the time of conception, she was working as an equine studies lecturer at Writtle University College in Chelmsford, which once housed the famous Lordships Stud.
Pennie was key to securing sponsorship with The Stallion Company for breeding with its Trakehner stallion Grafenstolz. Pennie then sent her mare to be covered by the horse and Walter was born in 2012.
Pennie, who bred her first horse at the age of 18, said: “Under the mare’s loan agreement, at the time, Walter belonged to Lordships Stud and the business name was on his passport.
“But there was always something special about Walter, so I decided to buy him from the stud and brought him home to Essex.
“When he turned three, he needed breaking in and Ros seemed a perfect fit as she already had another youngster that I’d bred, Pencos Crown Jewel.
“Pencos Crown Jewel was bought off me and her new owners had taken their time visiting riders and yards to find the right rider for her. They really liked Ros Canter and her approach, so she was sent to her yard in Lincolnshire.
“Their decision was pivotal in my decision to send Walter there to be broken in.
“He then came back to me, to have time out and mature. Ros took him back as a four-year-old and the rest is history!”
From the start, Walter showed exceptional talent and after coming third in his first Burghley Young Event Horse Qualifier at Houghton Hall aged four, he caught the eye of Michele Saul, who went on to buy him.
Walter’s half-sister, Pencos Crown Jewel, was bought from Pennie by Annie Makin and Kate James and also went in to become a hugely successful five-star eventer, all of which propelled Pennie into the breeding rankings.
In 2022 she also won Sport Horse Breeding’s inaugural Breeders Cup in recognition of her “significant contribution to British Breeding through the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses rankings.”
Even so, Pennie struggled to receive the recognition she deserved for her crucial role in Walter’s breeding, not to mention his early career, simply because her name was missing from his passport.
“Who knows if Walter would have gone on to become the superstar that he is without the decisions I took,” said Pennie.
“It was my mare, I secured and chose the stallion for her, and it was my decision to send Walter to Ros. But because of the legal agreement at the time, I got very little recognition for all that.
“I then realised us smaller breeders needed to safeguard our interests to get the recognition we deserve. Only the breeder’s name on the horse’s passport gets mentioned officially, yet I had played such a big part in Walter’s career.
“I’m friends with Ros and Michelle, and it’s not in any way their fault that this has happened. The rules are the rules, but I knew I had to challenge them.”
Pennie launched a bid last May to get herself officially recognised as Walter’s joint breeder, but it wasn’t until December that the International Federation for Equestrian Sports and the Sports Horse Breeding of Great Britain all agreed with her.
Pennie, who worked as a senior equine lecturer for 30 years, also contacted the Vice Chancellor of Writtle University who backed her passport bid, meaning both Pennie and Lordships Stud Writtle University College will be named as joint breeders once the passport is updated.
However, like most things in eventing, timing is everything.
She said: “Walter was on the shortlist for the Olympics and to get my name officially added on his passport would mean it getting sent off to Sports Horse Breeding of Great Britain. Obviously, Walter would need a valid passport to travel to the games so there was, understandably, concern about it getting sent away.
“This means I will have to wait until after Paris for the process to happen. But even though my name isn’t in print yet, I know in my heart the integral part I have played.”
Pennie has enjoyed incredible success as a breeder. Twenty-eight horses with the PENCOS prefix are registered with SHB(GB) and 12 with British Eventing.
Of those registered with BE, 10 are by SHB(GB) Graded Stallions and the other two are by a homebred stallion of Pennie’s who is himself by an SHB(GB) Graded stallion. In 2021, Sports Horse Breeding (GB) came fifth in the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses rankings for Stud Books in the Eventing section. Among the horses that contributed to the score of SHB(GB) that year was Pencos Crown Jewel and Lordships Graffalo.
Yet, despite the silverware, Pennie says breeding is a labour of love rather than opportunity.
“Breeding is time consuming and expensive. I can’t afford to do it full time so I work in a saddlery to help pay the bills.
“There are a lot of good horses out there, but it’s tough to keep your head above water financially and find the right rider to take them on. Most want horses when they are more established at four or five years old.”
Despite the hardships and the lack of recognition, this Saturday Pennie and son James, 31, will carry their pride in their chests as they travel to the French capital to watch Walter and Ros shoot for the stars and Olympic Gold.
Pennie said: “This will be the absolute highlight of my breeding career. I know anything can happen in eventing, but Walter is one of the favourites.
“Who on earth would have guessed that the gangly and cheeky young foal I watched galloping around my fields with his mum would go on to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games.
“It is a wonderful legacy for Cornish Queen, who sadly died earlier this year at the age of 24.”