Biddesden Stud » Press

Forbes: The Guinness Familys Legacy Of Breeding Champions

Rebecca Guinness — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 20:28:42 +0000

The historic Guinness family homestead, Biddesden House, sits on 65 picturesque acres in the English countryside of Wiltshire county. Built between 1711 and 1724, the manor and property was purchased in 1931 by Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the Guinness beer empire and the 3rd Lord Moyne. In 1939, Lord Moyne purchased two Arabian mares and brought them to the estate. This marked the founding of the Guinness familys legacy breeding operation, Biddesden Stud.

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The Arab Horse Society News

Rebecca Guinness — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 00:32:47 +0000

From the strong three-year-olds, the winner (stepping up a place from last year) was Tamarillo by Tarnik, who also won the Gelding Championship from Tanard Tomboy, a 12-year-old from the Senior Gelding class.

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CNN: Battle of the Clones

Rebecca Guinness — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 17:09:31 +0000

To the untrained eye, Tomatillo looks like any horse.

To those in the know, the 18-month-old looks like one horse.

Tomatillo is the clone of Tamarillo — a famous eventing horse who reached the Olympics in 2004.

Twelve years have passed since humans first successfully cloned a horse. The science is developing fast, but remains imperfect.

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Horse & Hound

Rebecca Guinness — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 11:33:09 +0000

Marcus Reid nearly didn’t run his home-bred High Light III across country after a poor day with his other rides. The decision to go for it meant he ended the event on a true high when he took the sole intermediate with the nine-year-old.
“He’s a beautiful horse and a typical Anglo Arab, quite flamboyant,” said Marcus, who previously rode for the Guinnesses–breeders of Tamarillo–and used their stallion Sisyrinchium to produce the grey. He is out of the Irish Thoroughbred mare High Profile, by Euphemism.

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The Arab Horse Society News

Rebecca Guinness — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:48:04 +0000

We have recently arranged to clone our Part Bred Arab gelding eventer Tamarillo and this article is an attempt to explain why we did this and to describe some issues to do with the biology of cloning and with the reactions of some people to the idea of doing it. The reason why we sought to clone our event horse was that we wish to preserve his genetic make-up, just as one would want to breed from any champion.

Unfortunately Tamarillo was gelded long before his abilities were proven so the magic of his genetic make-up would be consigned to oblivion when he dies, just like that of all champion geldings in the past. Cloning provides us with the opportunity to overcome this situation and to salvage his genes for future generations. There will be the usual uncertainties with breeding from any animal – the great performers are not always great sires, but at least cloning give us a chance.

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The Arabian Magazine

Rebecca Guinness — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 21:27:03 +0000

For me, endurance began at the age of 11. Before then, I was your typical Pony Club kid enjoying showjumping, cross-country, occasionally dressage and, most of all, the Pony Club Camp. At the time, I had a 13.2hh chestnut New Forest mare called Amber that I had since I was just seven; she was not the archetypal Pony Club pony. I was more often tending the bruises I had sustained from being chucked off than counting the rosettes we had won! However, after a few years of hard work, we formed an unbreakable bond and by the time we were getting ready to sell her, she rarely came home without a red ribbon and another shiny cup to add to the mantle piece. I owe a lot to her as she is the pony that not only taught me how to ride, but also taught me determination, commitment, and competitiveness.

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Horse & Hound

Rebecca Guinness — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 10:58:22 +0000

Brilliant, elegant and quirky, Tamarillo won Badminton and Burghley and represented Britain three times with William Fox-Pitt. Now, his genetic double has been created to extend his breeding line. Martha Terry reports

A three-month-old colt skitters round a field. A flashy bright bay, he scoots off then spins back to suckle his mother–a big-boned palomino, who is clearly no blood relation. Workers at the farm stop what they are doing to watch as the flamboyant colt floats past. He is so clearly sensational; the whispers grow that he must be the clone of a great horse. But who?

The Hon Finn and MW Guinness have managed to keep Tamarillo’s clone under wraps until today. Even those at his current New Jersey farm–where he is staying until “he comes home” to Biddesden Stud where Tamarillo himself was raised–are in the dark.

“We’ve been talking about cloning Tamarillo for years,” says MW Guinness, whose husband Finn has a PhD in epigenetics and tried to clone mammals himself in the 1960s, 30 years before Dolly the sheep finally appeared. “We kept it secrect because we wanted to wait until the foal was on the ground.”

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The Arab Horse Society News

Rebecca Guinness — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 09:56:49 +0000

This stud owes its origin to a visit my parents paid to Wherwell Priory in 1938. After lunch, Colonel Jenkins rode out his little grey stallion, Raftan, for them…..they have been Arab enthusiasts ever since.

My parents soon visited Crabbet and bought their first mare, STARILLA, in February, 1939. STARILLA was a beautiful bay mare with an outstanding head and marvellous disposition. She would accompany my parents on picnics and lie down beside them on the grass. Her loss was keenly felt when she died from heart failure in 1943 when in foal to Mr. Ruxton’s ALGOL. STARILLA was by World Champion RASEEM (RASIM RIM) out of STAR OF THE HILLS (RASWAN-SELIMA); she arrived from Crabbet with a RISSALIX colt at food (which was sold) and was also in foal to Lady Wentworth’s NAZIRI (SKOWRONEK-NASRA). The resulting foal was a colt, SALADIN II, who, at 23, is still with us and active as a sire. SALADIN is NAZIRI’S only son, since although he was retained at Crabbet in preference to his full brother NASEEM (who went to Russia) NAZIRI was killed by a bomb when he had sired only five foals, Hanstead’s SHAMNAR, Crabbet’s NAZZIRIA, Mrs. Murray’s RISIRA, our DAFINETTA and our SALADIN II.

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The Arab Horse Society News

Rebecca Guinness — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 21:23:44 +0000

A new eventing star has come to the fore across the pond in the shape of the talented Erodium who is ridden by Canadian Olympic rider Jessica Phoenix.

Erodium, who is by the Dutch showjumping stallion VDL Emilion, was bred at the Biddesden Stud. His Purebred Arab dam, Calamintha, is a grand daughter of Benjamin, from the Courthouse Stud and she carries the other established Biddesden bloodlines of Starilla, Dafinetta and Crystal Grey. Erodium gathered red rosettes in the Show Ring, notwably at the Bath and est and at Keysoe, and was then imported to Canada by the event rider Vanessa Fenwick who rode him for several years before selling him to Kirk Hoppner who passed the ride onto Phoenix. With their eighth placing in the Jersey Fresh CCI3* Erodium has now qualified for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy.

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Country Life

Rebecca Guinness — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 11:38:47 +0000

William Fox-Pitt is photographed with Tamarillo, on which he won Badminton last year. Described by Mr Fox-Pitt as ‘the horse of a lifetime’, Tamarillo, who is a third Arab and two-thirds Thoroughbred, was bred in this country by Finn Guinness. He is owned by Mary Guinness, and Mr Fox-Pitt has been riding him for four years. ‘He’s a freak of nature. He’s highly athletic as well as being intelligent and trainable.’ But that does not mean that he is a pushover: Mr Fox-Pitt also describes him as ‘opinionated’, a characteristic that can sometimes cause problems in the dressage. ‘I live in hope that he will behave and reach his full potential and, as he is only 212 years old, this is a distinct possibility.’ It was a big disappointment for his rider and the rest of the British team when Tamarillo was withdrawn from this year’s Olympics, owning to injury. The pair are now working towards the Beijing Games in 2008.

When he is not wowing the equestrian world, Tamarillo lives at Mr Fox-Pitt’s estate in Dorset, where he presides over the yard with an attitude becoming a champion. ‘He is an extraordinary mixture of a lot of things: he’s very greedy and he lets his presence be known, but he’s also extremely kind and quite lazy. I think he sees us as his porters-cum-waiters.’

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Horse & Hound

Rebecca Guinness — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 11:22:22 +0000

“We always knew he’d win Badminton”

A home-bred Badminton winner is a rare thing. Finn and Mary Guinness had just that with Tamarillo and , in the process, advance the cause of Arab blood in eventers. Kate Green visits their stud.

Breeder Finn Guinness reckons that his 2004 Badminton winner Tamarillo’s unfaltering enthusiasm through the relentless mud owes much to his Arab lineage. While other horses became dejected and bedraggled in the swampy ground, Tamarillo maintained an irrepressible cheerfulness, skipping over the bog, his ears never less than 100% pinned forward.

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The Arabian Sport Horse Magazine

Rebecca Guinness — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 21:00:26 +0000

With the old year behind us we’ve all read those “Best Of” lists and no doubt made our own resolutions, along with hopes and dreams for the future. January is traditionally a time of new beginnings, foals on the ground, fresh starts and looking forward, making plans. Without a major Championship (the Europeans notwithstanding) 2013 will be a year of consolidation and preparation for the WEG in Normandy in 2014, and further ahead for the Olympics in Rio just three and a half years away now. However, it also means that the four star Championships will be more competitive than ever, and unbelievably as I cast my eye down William Fox-Pitt’s long, long list of victories, six at Burghley alone, it’s almost incredible that he has only won Badminton once. On a part bred Arab called Tamarillo. I was lucky enough to visit Biddesden Stud recently where Tamarillo was born and bred, and where the line continues.

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The Arabian Sport Horse Magazine

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Eventing Nation

Rebecca Guinness — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 10:22:45 +0000

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Badminton Horse Trials Blog

Rebecca Guinness — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:12:32 +0000

One of the outstanding event horses of recent years, Tamarillo, is to retire from international competition. He will parade and there will be a presentation in his honour on the final day of the 2011 Badminton Horse Trials, prior to the prizegiving, so that all his fans can pay tribute to a great horse. TO... Read more »

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Horse Breeders Magazine

Rebecca Guinness — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 22:58:50 +0000

Driving down the small winding country lanes west of Andover, the first sight that you catch of Biddesden Stud is quite breathtaking – the lovely mellow redbrick of the 17th Century Biddesden House, home to the Guinness family since the 1930s.

We were met by Finn Guinness and Katey, the young rider who joined the team at Biddesden in 2006, and is being trained by Lizzie Murray and Corinne Bracken. We were introduced to a number of the horses that she rides during the course of our visit; and she gallantly ran a fair distance up and down the lane with Persiflage, the 8 year old Anglo Arab stallion that we had come to see for our Cavalier Royale x Clover Hill mare, to show off his paces. He needed a little persuasion to settle to a trot when she first set off – it was only later that Finn revealed that he had just come in from covering a mare, so no wonder that he was slightly fired up!

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Horse & Hound

Rebecca Guinness — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 22:46:03 +0000

William Fox-Pitts top ride, Tamarillo, proved himself once and for all in the mud at Badminton this year. The 12-year-old gelding came back from a long six-months on the sidelines to prove that Arabs arent just suited to desert conditions.

He has shown sparks of exceptional quality in the past, coming second at Badminton in 2002 and second at Blenheim in 2000, when he was a mere eight years old. He is Williams major hope for Athens in August, and the apple of owner Mary Guinnesss eye.

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Crabbet Organization

Rebecca Guinness — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 22:50:30 +0000

The Honourable Finn Guinness opened the doors to one of the family’s historic homes, Biddesden House in Hampshire, and one of his sisters graciously took early guests on a tour of the house and its treasures, including a life-size tapestry portraying the House’s original owner on horseback. Biddesden Stud’s foundation Arab mares Dafinetta and Starilla were purchased from Lady Wentworth at the Crabbet Stud in 1939. In the hall hang the two original pedigrees, hand-painted, dated and signed by Lady Wentworth. Through continuity of breeding policy, the stud aims to provide reliable breeding stock for other people. Biddesden’s Arabians have been very much sport horses in hunting and jumping pursuits as well as show horses.

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The Arab Horse Society News

Rebecca Guinness — Fri, 31 May 2013 10:38:19 +0000

While in 1999, in Devon, we were boasting about 50 years of Arab breeding, the 60th anniversary of Britain’s second oldest stud passed without a mention. Biddesden has always been modest about its birthdays, but sadly 1999 saw the death of its much loved c0-founder Elisabeth Lady Moyne.

She was 86, but still had all her enthusiasm and love of children, horses and her lovely garden. One of my favourite emories is of a group visit to Biddesden where Finn was commenting on the horses and their pedigrees, while Lady Moyne led them out. “Trot her again mother, fashion!” Finn was saying.

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