HOW IT ALL BEGAN
COLIN was born into a farming background in Hereford. His father Gerald bred Ryeland sheep and worked for auctioneers Russell Baldwin & Bright at their Hay-on-Wye sales. Colin’s mother, Ethel, rode ponies as a child and her father William Holmes was a wagoner who ploughed and worked heavy horses.
Colin regularly accompanied his father to Hay sales and, aged 10, he bought three Welsh section A foals, Autumn, Dinky and Star.
“I backed them all myself in a stable using just a halter,” recalls Colin, who eventually sold Dinky and Star at Fayre Oaks.
Autumn remained and became Colin’s conveyance to school at Bromyard.
A firm interest in showing kicked in when Colin met Gordon Jones, stud groom at Lord Kenyon’s Gredington Stud.
“Gordon took me under his wing and when I wanted to move on to breeding and showing, he arranged for me to choose a foal at Gredington, where Gordon guided me to the one he thought I should have,” explains Colin, who became the proud owner of Saltersford Justin, who went on to take the championship at Hay-on-Wye as a yearling.
Justin also won at Royal Welsh Show for the next two years, standing junior champion as a two-year-old in 1977.
Colin’s achievements in the show ring did not go unnoticed and the first pony he produced professionally was Kathy Sheil's Dukes Hill Action Man, who was twice a winner at the Royal Welsh.
More outside interest followed and Colin began producing ponies for the Bengad
Stud. As successful production and breeding continued, Colin moved three times, from Dinedor in Hereford, to Cwmdu and Llannerch yr Eryr, before settling at Blaencwm with his second wife Sarah 12 years ago.
Sarah’s first recollection of horses was watching racehorses from her grandparents’ home in Lambourn. Sarah became pony-mad when she moved to Sussex and had riding lessons at the age of three.
Her first ride in the ring a year later was with Stoatley Bramshot Tarragon at Sussex County Show before going on to compete her first Welsh pony Silver Moon in everything from best turned-out, to lead-rein, mini jumping and gymkhana classes.
Bitten by the showing bug, Sarah continued competing and when her daughter Jess wanted to ride, she went back to lead-rein classes, but this time, running along at the end of the lead.
“This is how I met Colin and thought if I can’t beat him, I’ll join him,” says Sarah, who married Colin in 2009.