ABOUT US
It was while Mandy Sanderson, owner of Longacres Stud, was training & competing at Show jumping in Germany that she became interested in breeding, showing & competing Hanoverian horses. Mandy wanted to reproduce the high standard and quality achieved by German breeders back in Britain. She brought 4 quality Hanoverian mares back home to the UK, determined to produce superior British-bred performance horses.
From one of these mares she bred the famous stallion Sandroson, who had many wins in-hand, including Champion Foal at The British Hanoverian Society Show. As a 4-year old, he went to Germany to be 100-day tested and achieved some of the highest jumping & rideability marks that year. Back in Britain he won the Landhold Young Dressage Horse of the Year, before being sold as a 5-year old.
That’s when Mandy and partner Alan went on a mission to find an outstanding coloured stallion with exceptional movement & jumping ability, so to produce top quality, coloured performance horses for all equestrian disciplines. All to be registered with top stud books and with 5 generation pedigrees to ensure consistency through the studs bloodlines.
EMIR
Finding him as a 2-year old, by Ed King Hill, himself a renowned talented stallion, competing in both dressage & showjumping to the highest levels, put them well on the way to establishing Longacres Stud and what looks like a meritoriously bright future. During that time Mandy also introduced some exciting new broodmares to the team, all with incredible bloodlines linked to top level equines in all disciplines, putting their already successful stud, well & truly on the Sporthorse breeders’ map. In 2008, after Emir was sold to a Stud in Australia, Mandy and Alan introduced a new boy to the stud:
SAMARA FLY
(aka Eric) by Sambertino, by the World renowned Samber. Samara Fly was to stand as the stud’s Premiere Stallion for the next 10 years, from 2008 to 2018. In that time he sired no less than 150 top quality foals, whilst also competing at the highest levels in dressage. He was THE coloured dressage stallion to watch until his untimely passing from a complication following a routine veterinary procedure. Despite this tragic loss, with so many up-and-coming Samara Fly youngsters, his legacy will live on.
FIRST IMPRESSION
2015 First Impression (aka Finnley) is a coloured stallion by UCS Flawless x Floriscount out of Ugenee. This extremely well-bred stallion has Rubin Royal in his dam’s pedigree + Donnerhall and Florestan in his sire’s bloodline. A handsome boy, he will be carefully produced for both a breeding and competition career. First Impression achieved his grading as a fully-licensed stallion with Anglo European Studbook on 18th April 2018. He is standing at public stud.
STANDING OVATION
2017 Standing Ovation (aka Maurice) by our beloved Samara Fly (Sambertino x Samber) out of Longacres Eureka; a 17hh Black & White graded Polish Warmblood mare who completed to Medium level dressage prior to joining us as a broodmare.
He has been given time to mature. as was his sire and First Impression . We look forward to his competitive career later this year.
Standing Ovation will be nurtured, educated and carefully produced as a competition stallion to follow in his famous sire’s footsteps. With no pressure and time to mature he will no doubt take everything in his stride.
He has some stunning offspring, which can be seen on our foals page. He is standing at public stud.
BROODMARES
As breeders our reputation depends on the quality of the foals we produce from our own and our clients’ mares. That’s why we only breed a handful of foals each year from our own quality mares, focusing on quality not quantity. We aim to breed the very best youngsters by selecting the right mares to compliment our stallions for conformation, type and movement. We use only the best bloodlines to produce youngstock capable of performing as a sports horse in any discipline, even at the highest level in the world of dressage.
Like stallions, mares should have the traits and characteristics that you want to reproduce in the foal e.g. conformation, movement and rideability. If anyone of these are missing from either mare or stallion, do not breed from it. Look at past progeny as a guide to the qualities passed on to offspring by the dam. Research the mare’s family bloodline history for examples of past competition success as an indicator of her potential to produce quality, trainable youngstock. If the grand-dam is not a quality mare, it’s likely the dam’s offspring won’t be either.
When deciding on a mare to breed from, temperament and trainability in a riding horse is paramount, regardless of the intended discipline. Along with bloodlines and conformation, we critically examine these two aspects in both the mare and any existing offspring, looking for a balance between many attributes, combined with the intended use of the foal and the experience of the new owner.
Good conformation of both parents is important to ensure your foal will be physically capable of doing its job whatever the intended discipline. Poor conformation can increase the risk of injury in a youngster intended for high level competition. Flamboyant gaits are not always a sure indication of future talent, but most equestrian professionals look for a good canter and a good walk in a youngster, which is more likely to be the result of a pairing between a stallion and a mare who both exhibit these traits.
We don’t rely on licensing alone to justify using a mare or stallion. For example our late stallion Samara Fly was both fully licensed AES, CHAPS and Zfdp + rigorously performance tested through achieving the highest results and excellence in sport. The same goes for our mares. All our mares have incredible bloodlines linked to top level equines in all disciplines, ensuring our already successful stud remains well on the Sports horse breeders map.