Equine conservation genetics specialist

Dr Andy Dell on the all-conquering mare that inspired the genetic programme that has played a major part in reviving the Cleveland Bay and other rare breeds

- Bethan Simons

I was born under the flight path into Heathrow airport, but I was fortunate that at a young age, my family moved to North Devon, the outdoors, and horses. I grew up pony racing, point-to-pointing and hunting with the Stevenstone and Torrington Farmers Hunts. I did that for the best part of 10 days; that’s where the real love of horses started - they got under my skin before I went to university.

I wanted to be a vet, but I didn’t get in. Instead I studied zoology at Swansea, then trained as a teacher. A short while later, I moved up to the Lake District, where I met my partner, Jill. Our common interest was the horses.

In 1991, we bought our home: a smallholding outside Kendall. From there, our interest in horses developed into breeding Cleveland Bays. Jill had been at the old Hunters Improvement Society sales, where they had a special section for Cleveland Bays.

The following year, we returned and bought our foundation mare, Carolinas Nimbus. We paid about 3,600 guineas, which was “crazy money” then, but she was in foal and had a filly foal at foot.

We used to show Nimbus with her foals. At the time, the supreme champion trophy at Lowther Show had been won several times over by The late Queen’s mare Ramblers Lottie. Nimbus disrupted that run for two consecutive years.

However, the third year, we showed her with a coloured part-bred foal at foot and the judge was horrified, so the cup returned to Ramblers Lottie.