Lady Grey IRE 507

If you turn the pages of the Irish stud book until you find Lady Grey, you will find, not completely unexpectedly, that she was grey. She has no recorded pedigree, was born in 1937, 135 cms and owned by Nicholas Feeny of Moycullen. Pat Lyne, in her book Shrouded in Mist, tells that she at some part of her life was owned by an American film director living in Ireland during the 50-ies and 60-ies, so her association with the movie business must have been during the later part of her life. Her daughter Lady Grey II is at least bred in 1952 by Thomas Feeney of Moycullen. Some further digging through the stud book shows that Lady Grey II is the only registred daughter of Lady Grey. The next generation doesn't attract much attention either. One daughter, Grey Lady Rebel, in the USA is without progeny. Another daughter, Lambay Silver, in the UK has a couple of offspring, but no continuing branch of the family. Two gelding sons and a daughter in Ireland have not done much of notice either. No, it is in the Swedish litterature one needs to search to learn more about Lady Grey's mare family, because it is Sweden that has recieved by far the biggest and the most successful part of this family.

Of the seven daughters of Lady Grey II, four were exported to Sweden and three of them found their way into the Swedish stud book. In the first edition of the Swedish stud book, under one of Lady Grey II's daughters, Lady Grey is recorded as by Silver Pearl and out of Silver Sea. I have however not been able to verify this in the Irish stud book and there are no geographic or owner-indications that this may be true. However, as Silver Sea has no other daughters it will make no difference for the family and we need not worry about it.

The first Lady Grey II daughter to come to Sweden was Tiger Blaze. She was imported in 1965, recieved her B premium in 1968 and A premium in 1974. The year after she won a gold in progeny class. Tiger Blaze died in 1983 but was awarded an Elite premium posthumously in 1997.

Tger Blazes first-born son was the approved stallion Tiger Boy. With a strong silver medal he topped his in-hand career with a second place at the 1977 Swedish breed show. Among his progeny are the gold awarded diploma daughter Aniara, the gold awarded son Amigo II and the daughter Tiger Elf who was awarded a gold at the 2006 breed show. But above all there are competing ponies among the progeny of Tiger Boy: Aramis Adventure (show jumping), Lilleman II (eventing), Little Joe (show jumping, dressage, eventing), Monette (eventing), Termik (show jumping), Tiger (show jumping), Tiger Star (show jumping), Tonia (dressage, eventing) and Zamone (dressage) have all been among the top ten Connemaras in their discipline, with double Swedish championship golds in dressage to Tonia as icing on the cake.

In 1970 Tiger Blaze had a daughter, Bolle Sonett. Dimploma mare and gold awarded in the show ring she also recieved an Elite premium in 1988. Among her progeny are no less than five diploma mares (Bolle Duett, Bolle Lansett, Bolle Lunett, Bolle Lusette and So-Nice). Duett, Lusette and So-Nice are also gold awarded in the show ring. Sonett is also the dam of Bolle Lukett and Bolle Lusona who have both competed in dressage and where Lukett was the seventh best dressage pony in 1994. It's easy to find prolific Connemaras descending from Sonett's daughters, or how about Willona, gold awarded at the breed show; Madam Mim, diploma mare; Ragnarps Lady Royce, quality test winner and 4th in the young pony championships 2005; Ragnarps Little Royce, jumping and movements award at the three-year-old test, third at the quality test final and taking part in the young pony championships both 2005 and 2006; Magiva de Hex, diploma mare; Fairlop, youngstock champion at the 2006 breed show and Woolpacks Sweetie Pie, gold awarded and reserve youngstock champion ar the 2003 breed show? An interesting mix of good conformation and good performance.

The next Tiger Blaze daughter, May Wind, has led a bit more anonymous existence, but deserves none the less to be mentioned as she is the dam of the eventing pony Hilding Wilding who was the sixth and seventh best eventing pony respectively in the beginning of the 21st century.

Bolle Dafti was born in 1980 and was the next diploma and Elite-premium daughter of Tiger Blaze. She has perhaps been the most successfful daughter of Tiger Blaze in the the show ring, with several golds awarded, crowned with a Championship title at the 1985 breed show, when the judge considered her to be on par with the reserve champion at Clifden show! Among Daftis descendants are gold awarded Bolle Madenett and Bolle Jasmin, the diploma mares Bolle Laffi, Bolle Madenett and Elphins Daphne, quality test winners Bolle Jasmin, Elphins Daisy and Elphins d'Arby where d'Arby also has a movements awards in the three-year-old tests. At the 2005 young pony finals you could also see Elphins Darwin come third in the dressage for five-year-olds. Bolle Madenett is the dam of the diploma mares Bolle Tarantella and Bolle Acapella, where Acapella also have been gold awarded at the breed show.

Tiger Blaze's last two progeny, Bolle Lunita and Bolle Lucky-Look have both been gold awarded in the show ring. Bolle Lunita is also a diploma mare and the dam of the gold awarded Lucky Lady. Lucky-Look has been a reliable competition pony over many years with several top ten placings among the eventing Connemaras and a silver in the Swedish eventing championships of 1998.

Tiger Blaze's two years younger half-sister, Apache, came to Sweden and the Värnberg stud as a four-year-old. At six years of age she featured in the magazine Hästen ("the Horse"), illustrating the Connemara - the natural jumper where her photo is captioned "in ideal style", and also in a short story where she philosophises over having to wait for the more highly ranking flock members before being allowed to enter the stables. Her son Jonathan have competed both in show jumping and dressage and from the daughter Cheyenne she has the grand daughter Santana, but she's the last generation I've been able to find. The next daughter of Lady Grey II hasn't left any deeper traces either. Lady of the Lake was imported to Sweden and had a daughter here, but neither of them were entered in the stud book not were used any further for breeding.

Lady of the Lake's one year younger full sister has done much more for the Connemara breeding in Sweden. Lady Grainne was imported to Sweden as a six-year-old and her only Irish-bred offspring came to Sweden the same year. At a local show in Umeå Lady Grainne was awarded a strong silver and at the age of 23 she was fourth in the veteran class at the breed show. In Sweden Lady Grainne had another four foals, one of which, Grainne's Gun, competed in show jumping during the 90-ies and the beginning of this decade.

The most successful of Lady Grainne's foals was without doubt Dame Grainne one of the foundation mares of the Brolötens stud. In 1971 she was found lame and lonely in a field with a foal at foot and a highly uncertain future. But instead of being shot she travelled to Sweden where she and the foal, Ametist, in time became two of the Brolöten stud's best brood mares. They are both Elite mares and Dame Grainne has also been awarded the SCS brood mare award.

Although Brolöten to many is synonymous to performance, one shouldn't forget that Ametist in her days was highly successful in-hand as well with many golds awarded and a supreme championship from the 1980 breed show. As a brood mare she's the dam of the gold awarded Brolötens Alabaster and Brolötens Antimon, where Antimon also was reserve champion at the 1983 breed show. Antimon has also won at quality test like her full sister Brolötens Alamanit. Another full sibling out of Ametist, Brolötens Arsenik was third in his quality test scoring above 8 both for allround and jumping. All of the above, and Brolötens Avanturin, Brolötens Axenit, Brolötens Cinnober and Brolötens Shimmer as well, has since moved on to successful careers as performance ponies in show jumping, dressage or eventing. Antimon was the sixth best eventing Connemara in 1986 and Axenit was third best show jumping Connemara in 1999.

Another daughter of Dame Grainne's who have made a name for herself as a brood mare is Brolötens Aloe. Her daughter Anouk is a diploma mare and gold awarded while the son Ally Mc Coist won his quality test in 2002. Dame Grainne is also a stallion mother through her approved son Brolötens Joop who has twice been gold awarded at the breed show. One of his daughters, Delilah II, won her class at the 2001 breed show with a strong silver, and is of double interest to this family as she has Tiger Blaze as great grandmother.

It is, however, as a mother of performance ponies that Dame Grainne is best known. And how to cover all that her progeny have achieved? You will find no less than three quality test winners: Brolötens Azzaro, Brolötens Boss and Brolötens Fendi, who won both as four and five years old. As adult performance ponies we have Brolötens Alliage (show jumping, eventing), Brolötens Amazone (show jumping, dressage), Brolötens Amazonita (show jumping), Brolötens Amiant (show jumping), Brolötens Aragonit (show jumping), Brolötens Aramis (show jumping, eventing), Brolötens Arpege (show jumping), Brolötens Azzaro (show jumping, dressage, eventing), Brolötens Fendi (show jumping, dressage, eventing), Brolötens Joop (eventing) and Brolötens Sheba (show jumping, dressage), in all 11 of 18 progeny. Most of these have also competed successfully for several years. Amiant has been among the top ten show jumping Connemaras no less than six times (the most successful in 1994) and Arpege was number eight in 2000. In eventing Azzaro and Fendi has been among the top ten Connemaras four and eight times respectively with Azzaro in the lead in 2000 and 2002. Both have also been among the top ten all breeds twice and three times respectively. Furthermore Azzaro has an individual eventing gold and a team dressage bronze from the Swedish championships, Fendi has an individual gold at the Swedish championships and a bronze at the Nordic championships in eventing and Amiant has a team gold from the Nordic show jumping championships. Can you ask much more from a sibling group?

If you search for Lady Grey II in Pat Lyne's book Shrouded in Mist, she unexpectedly shows up on the French pages. The text explains that the French stud book includes a pedigree for the mare Poll, who is without a pedigree in the Irish stud book, and that her dam was Lady Grey. Interestingly the same pedigree is given in the first edition of the Swedish stud book under Polls daughter Poll II. If this is correct we have another successful branch of Lady Grey's family besides Lady Grey II. However, I think this family has no problems providing enough accomplishments as it is even without a Poll branch so I'll save Poll and her descendants for another time...

Back to the mare page

Silver Sea IRE 334 (Ire)
Lady Grey IRE 507 (Ire)
Lady Grey II IRE 1606 (Ire)
Grey Lady Rebel USAM 95 (Ire, USA)
Lambay Silver IRE 2213, GBR 12798 (Ire)
Lambay Rebel Lad IRE G 100 (Ire)
Rinsey Moonlight Rambler GBR 4662, GBR G 175 (UK)
Rinsey May Revel GBR 4776 (UK)
Rinsey Silver Rocket GBR 5123 (UK)
Tiger Blaze IRE 2385, RC 22 (Ire, Swe)
Tiger Boy RC 11 (Swe)
Bolle Sonett RC 171 (Swe)
Sunny Wind RC 358 (Swe)
Butterfly 33-78-2213 (Swe)
Bella Donna 33-85-2757 (Swe)
Corall Dara 33-92-3656 (Swe)
Sunny Boy III 33-87-3048 (Swe)
Bellona Wind RC 761 (Swe)
Willona RC 887 (Swe)
Whirlwind 33-94-3936 (Swe)
Sunny Bellamie RC 988 (Swe)
Lucky 33-96-4651 (Swe)
Netso Kamik 33-75-1018 (Swe)
So-Nice RC 446 (Swe)
Smash 33-82-2170 (Swe)
Hagalyckan So Marvellous 33-94-3846 (Swe)
Bolle Lunett RC 520 (Swe)
Rocky III 33-86-2900 (Swe)
Midas II 33-87-2974 (Swe)
Bolle Lusette RC 583 (Swe)
Siluette 33-88-3129 (Swe)
Bolle Lukett RC 642 (Swe)
Madam Mim 33-91-3651 (Swe)
Bolle Lusona RC 645 (Swe)
Magica De Hex RC 915 (Swe)
Trixi II 33-98-4621 (Swe)
Ragnarps Little Royce 33-00-4694 (Swe)
Ragnarps Lady Royce 33-01-4965 (Swe)
Ragnarps Lovely Royce 33-02-5101 (Swe)
Bolle Luette RC 725 (Swe)
Lolita RC 911 (Swe)
Poetic Joyce 33-97-9060 (Swe)
Bolle Lusón 33-89-3066 (Swe)
Bolle Musett RC 768 (Swe)
Eriksbyns Bastian 33-94-3888 (Swe)
Eriksbyns Colette 33-95-4199 (Swe)
Eriks Gaia 43-99-1045 (Swe)
Mr Pontiac 33-00-4762 (Swe)
Bolle Lansett 33-91-3641 (Swe)
Bolle Menuett 33-92-3801 (Swe)
Bolle Duett RC 1235 (Swe)
Fairlop 33-05-5539 (Swe)
Bolle Cornett RC 1053 (Swe)
The Rascal 33-01-4984 (Swe)
Woolpacks Sweetie Pie 33-03-5247 (Swe)
Bolle Sonat 33-96-4238 (Swe)
Tirona RC 285 (Swe)
Charmie Girl 33-77-1703 (Swe)
May Wind RC 602 (Swe)
Hilding Wilding 33-90-3272 (Swe)
Love Maid (Swe)
Tiger King 33-75-1020 (Swe)
Tiger Wind 33-76-1316 (Swe)
Tiger Kim 33-77-1669 (Swe)
Tiger Mik 33-78-1626 (Swe)
Tiger Curir 33-79-1726 (Swe)
Bolle Dafti RC 483 (Swe)
Bolle Laffi 33-84-2639 (Swe)
Ceasar 33-90-3232 (Swe)
Bolle Lukida 33-87-2945 (Swe)
Bolle Lucinda RC 767 (Swe)
Luke 33-94-3896 (Swe)
Lutricha RC 1093 (Swe)
Triumf 33-03-5186 (Swe)
Bolle Madenett RC 862 (Swe)
Pepsi 33-97-4350 (Swe)
Bolle Acapella RC 1079 (Swe)
Bolle Tarantella 33-02-5111 (Swe)
Bolle Fanfar 33-93-3702 (Swe)
Bolle Jasmine 33-94-4047 (Swe)
Elphins Daphne RC 1007 (Swe)
Elphins Abigail 33-00-4885 (Swe)
Elphins Daisy RC 1057 (Swe)
Elphins Darcy 33-98-4438 (Swe)
Elphins Da Capo 33-99-4584 (Swe)
Elphins D'Arby 33-00-4780 (Swe)
Elphins Darwin 33-01-4896 (Swe)
Bolle Lunita RC 521 (Swe)
Lunic 33-86-2716 (Swe)
Lucky Lady 33-88-3103 (Swe)
Bolle Lucky-Look 33-83-2422 (Swe)
Tulira Rory IRE G 113 (Ire)
Apache IRE 2610, RC 42 (Ire, Swe)
Värnbergs Pluto 33-69-0250 (Swe)
Cheyenne RC 216 (Swe)
Santana 33-75-1006 (Swe)
Jonathan 33-75-3298 (Swe)
Lady of the Lake IRE 2883 (Ire, Swe)
Lady Star 33-77-1783 (Swe)
Lady Grainne IRE 3090, RC 172 (Ire, Swe)
Dame Grainne IRE 4527, RC 121 (Ire, Swe)
Ametist RC 184 (Swe)
Brolötens Agat RC 510 (Swe)
Nelly Dun RC 843 (Swe)
O'Neil 33-94-4082 (Swe)
Okay Bella 33-97-4477 (Swe)
Okay Bolly 33-99-4729 (Swe)
Brolötens Nefrit 33-76-1200 (Swe)
Brolötens Amber 33-78-1574 (Swe)
Brolötens Alabaster 33-79-1949 (Swe)
Brolötens Antimon 33-80-2141 (Swe)
Brolötens Cinnober 33-81-2333 (Swe)
Samba 33-93-4223 (Swe)
Brolötens Arsenik 33-83-2362 (Swe)
Brolötens Axenit RC 624 (Swe)
Étoile 33-90-3455 (Swe)
Eternity 33-96-4337 (Swe)
Brolötens Avanturin 33-88-3105 (Swe)
Brolötens Shimmer RC 936 (Swe)
Brolötens Alamanit RC 824 (Swe)
Brolötens Road Runner 33-96-4140 (Swe)
Brolötens Akvamarin RC 251 (Swe)
Tamino 33-76-1290 (Swe)
Tamburin 33-77-1580 (Swe)
Truls II 33-79-3420 (Swe)
Brolötens Aragonit 33-74-0792 (Swe)
Brolötens Apatit 33-75-0948 (Swe)
Brolötens Amazonita 33-77-1563 (Swe)
Brolötens Amiant 33-79-1951 (Swe)
Brolötens Gagat 33-80-1904 (Swe)
Brolötens Aramis 33-82-2268 (Swe)
Brolötens Amazone 33-83-2549 (Swe)
Brolötens Sheba RC 1151 (Swe)
Ängaskogs Aslan 33-03-5298 (Swe)
Brolötens Azzaro 33-85-2598 (Swe)
Brolötens Armani 33-86-2786 (Swe)
Brolötens Aloe RC 693 (Swe)
Armando 33-91-3348 (Swe)
Ally Mc Coist 33-98-4454 (Swe)
Anouk 33-99-4731 (Swe)
Brolötens Alliage 33-88-2936 (Swe)
Brolötens Fendi 33-89-3090 (Swe)
Brolötens Arpege RC 769 (Swe)
Scarlett O'Hara 33-94-4049 (Swe)
Brolötens Joop RC 82 (Swe)
Brolötens Boss 33-93-3748 (Swe)
Usan Valiant 33-75-1100 (Swe, Fin)
Grainne's Gun 33-82-2176 (Swe)
Lady Dierdrie 33-83-2583 (Swe)
Viceroy 33-85-2618 (Swe)
Good Workman IRE G 389 (Ire)
Lady Grey's Pearl IRE 6242 (Ire)
Poll IRE 1828 ?