Our Story
The Beginning
First and foremost, Seven Hills Stud are dedicated breeders of dressage horses from both typical warmblood and Spanish bloodlines. The Spanish horse is well known for its success and suitability for dressage both because of its ability for collection, but also because of its exceptional temperament and trainability. After initially breeding just Spanish horses, we decided to incorporate more typical dressage lines from both Dutch and German horses and we now have a wonderful combination of both in our breeding herd.
We started our breeding journey in 2015 and we have learnt a lot along the way. One thing which makes us different is our focus on the performance of our mares with focus on “black type” dam lines as far as possible. Having studied bloodlines, attended various breed-specific shows as well as auctions, stud farms and dressage competitions in the UK and overseas, we have decided to only breed from strong performance mare lines. This can be tricky within the PRE, where mares are typically not even ridden!
We have been able to consolidate the best performance dam lines within both our Spanish and warmblood mares, after some years of work. The mare is so often forgotten when breeding, and many foals are bred and marketed solely on the merits of the sire. The dam, in our eyes, is the most important element in breeding and this is where our concentration has – and will remain – focused while using both exciting young stallions and proven GP sires.
Each year we breed between 2 – 6 foals specifically for their temperament and potential dressage ability with proven performance on both sides of the pedigree.
All of our colts are for sale, as we only retain the very best fillies for future breeding and sport. Occasionally we will run on a colt and keep him entire if we believe he shows future potential until he finds his new home, but ultimately our focus remains on the quality of the mares and fillies within our programme.
We seek out both young, exciting stallions to use as well as proven, commercial and successful dressage sires to compliment our mares. We are always interested to hear from riders and competitive homes who may be interested in securing their future ride.
Aside from being breeders, we are also able to help source dressage horses from both within the UK and in Spain, for those particularly looking for a PRE. Our main source in Spain is Yeguada Susaeta, the dressage stud farm which have allowed us to purchase all of our foundation stock and who we still work closely with until today.
There are many horror stories of people buying horses from Spain which are not as described or are generally unsuitable; working for years with Yeguada Susaeta has shown to us that there are indeed credible breeders and sellers producing a quality, well cared for horse. If you are looking to buy a Spanish horse, we are more than happy to recommend select breeders and sellers who we can personally vouch for.