In a matter of only three years Mount St John Equestrian has rapidly grown to become one of the leading dressage horse breeding facilities in Europe. For its annual Open Day on 4 July 2015, Mount St John Equestrian welcomed a record number of domestic and international visitors from Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Holland and the USA.
“I am absolutely thrilled with the amount of people that turned out for the annual Mount St John Open Day, particularly the record number of international visitors who took the time to fly over to see the foals,” said owner and director Emma Blundell who has her third crop of dressage bred foals on the ground this year.
The setting of the breeding facility is an 11th Century estate near the small village of Felixkirk on the edge of the North Yorkshire National Park, and the foundation stock is thoroughly selected and highly decorated mares out of the best German, Dutch and Danish bloodlines.
These broodmares are all out of strong performance lines and closely related to world famous dressage horses and breeding sires. Many of the mares are young competition horses whilst others are older, elite broodmares.
Ultra modern reproduction techniques are applied, and 90% of the foals born at Mount St John are produced by embryo transfer allowing some of the best mares to produce multiple foals in one season.
The third Mount St John Open Day was a very special one as it was also the official opening of their new competition barn. World ranked number one dressage rider, Charlotte Dujardin OBE (Order of the British Empire), and close friend to Emma Blundell, had travelled to Felixkirk to inaugurate the state-of-the-art- facility.
“I feel very honored to be opening this. The competition barn is stunning and I am really looking forward to working with Emma in the future,” Charlotte said.
In both 2014 and 2015 Charlotte Dujardin has purchased a couple of the outstanding colt foals born at Mount St John, and she has now embarked on a partnership with Mount St John to produce and compete some of the young horses. She eagerly praises
the work of Emma and Mount St John, a business venture still very much in its infancy, with a growing reputation around the world.
“I always look forward to the Mount St John Open Day and am really happy to see all Emma's ambitions come to life. To see all this year’s foals presented on one day and to ride the youngsters in front of a packed house was a pleasure. It really was an incredible day. Emma runs such a professional set up and she is breeding foals that we hope will be part of British teams for years to come. I am very excited for the future,” Charlotte commented.
In front of an engaged audience Emma and her trainer, Emile Faurie, spoke passionately about each horse presented in their indoor arena; the breathtaking mares, their exquisite foals and not least the outstanding and very promising young riding horses. It is clear that breeding is not the exclusive core of Mount St. John as Emma now branches out into the sport and in with a quest to make Mount St John a globally recognized brand.
“It was such a pleasure to have Charlotte officially open our competition barn in front of all the guests, as well as ride our youngsters alongside Emile Faurie and our resident rider Lucinda Elliot. It was an emotional and truly memorable day. I could not be more proud of how far things have come and I cannot thank everyone enough for all their support. I really look forward to all that comes next in our journey,” Emma Blundell concluded.
For more information, visit www.mountstjohnequestrian.co.uk
Related Link
Mount St. John: a Foals' Paradise Aiming for High Performance Sport
Mount St. John, the State of the Art Dressage Breeding Centre in Great Britain
