History

The young Paul Brightwell and Margaret Sadler's first partnership was that of the purchase and ownership of a small Thoroughbred stallion named Ardmoss, in the mid 1960's. Ardmoss was to go on to be a notable sire, particularly of Brown Buzzard, Hack of the Year at HOYS with Alister Hood, and so our interest in showing and breeding was cemented. Margaret had grown up at Frog Hall, running a popular riding school there but Ardmoss was the real start of the breeding bug.

The Cosford Stud was founded in 1968, using a mare purchased out of pity as a yearling after she had been seen being ridden by local children at a neighbouring farm in the mid 1960's. She was named Koppakween of Cosford. A good moving, quality pony she was obviously a Dartmoor but we were unable to trace her breeding so she was inspected by the DPS and duly registered in the supplementary register. As her breeding was unknown we chose to breed riding ponies from her and she produced some lovely quality offspring which won at county level and Ponies of Britain. Koppakween was also a big winner herself in 12.2hh brood mare classes. Her most notable daughter was Cosford Promise who was BSPS first ridden champion in 1979. Other notable winners bred on these lines were Prudence, Poppy, Jasmin and Jugglar.

After our marriage in 1970 we increased our interest in pony breeding and introduced riding ponies and welsh section A's into our now expanding stud, as our own family grew we decided to concentrate on breeding the lead rein and first ridden pony.

We based our breeding program on Coed Coch bloodlines, mostly via the Bengad welsh section A ponies which offered the quality needed for ridden ponies. The riding ponies have been based on using Bwlch Zephyr / Bwlch Valentino bloodlines often crossed with the Welsh Mountain Pony.

In 1981 the late Thomas Hunnable generously let the stud have the BSPS Championship winning lead rein and first ridden pony mare Cusop Charity. She was the only welsh section A to have won these titles in consecutive years. This mare proved to be a great ambassador to the stud and was responsible for the very successful 'Ch' family at Cosford, namely the BSPS Champion lead rein , Cherub, and the many times champion, Charade, both by Solway Schizanthus (Bwlch Zephyr) and both qualified for Wembley in 1996. Other champion offspring from this line are Charm (Sec A by Bengad Nepeta), Chatter (WPBR by Devon Chippie), Chaucer (Sec A by Bengad Red Pepper), as well as Charmelle, Charmella, Chanterelle and Charmaine. Cusop Charity is grand dam to the 2009 HOYS mini Champion, Cosford Chartreause.

1986 Saw the arrival of another BSPS Championship winning lead rein mare Havil Penant (Solway Schizanthus), she produced the lead reins Pentagon and Pendant (Bengad Red Pepper) as well as the Wembley lead rein Pentangle (Bengad Red Pepper) and first ridden Pennon (Devon Chippie)

In the 1990's the purchase of Bengad Widows Tears was to take the section A's in a new direction. Her first foal for us Cosford Widows Wish was by the Multi Supreme Champion and renowned stockgetter Blackhill Picalo. Wish was to give us much success in hand, winning at both Suffolk and Essex County, Res Supreme at Clwyd winning a WPCS bronze medal, as well as second at the Royal Welsh. As a broodmare herself she has continued to win championships and WPCS medals as well as being a consistant producer of quality foals.

The chance purchase of Knodishall Gwillym in 2002 brought us full circle to our very beginnings, as Paul's first pony was himself a Knodishall pony. A son of the 'legendary' Pendock Legend, Gwillym as an outcross stallion was to prove a great success over our mares and has been an asset to the stud. Shown for fun he has been Champion on many occasions but it is his contribution as a sire that we are most thankful for. Gwillym had already sired some notable ponies including Sunwillow Galong, Sunwillow Irving and Blanche Gwillym who's influence is being seen through a number of welsh pony studs. For us he continues to produce the quality ridden stamp of pony we so like and they are now beginning to make an impact in the ridden show ring.

Looking to the future we have recently purchased the young palamino stallion Thistledown Vierra, by Waxwing Victory and out of Waxwing Valencia. At the other end of the scale our 2 year old 3/4 thoroughbred colt Cosford Criminal Affair has covered our Champion hack mare Fame Academy and we eagerly await his first foal next year.

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